Crunch time for Prince Andrew

As another TV drama piles on the pressure, will the battle for Royal Lodge finally come to a head?

The Duke of York attending church alongside the royal family on Easter Sunday

Hi everyone, it’s Emily here with my weekly newsletter.

It’s getting to that time of year when we all need a good TV series to curl up and watch in the evening and right on queue, another royal drama has landed.

Prime Video’s A Very Royal Scandal is the second this year to focus on Prince Andrew’s disastrous friendship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and the fallout from the Prince’s now infamous Newsnight interview on the subject.

Having ploughed through the preview, it's a compelling watch, which I’ll say more about in a moment.

But another rendering of the embarrassing saga is surely the last thing the royal family needs right now, as they begin to regain a sense of normality after a hugely challenging 2024 so far.

It’s also likely to further compound ongoing friction between the King and his brother the Duke of York.

When the Netflix version of the story, Scoop, came out back in April, my colleague Ainhoa wrote that when it came to King Charles and Prince Andrew, blood was proving to be thicker than water.

Andrew appeared to be coming back in from the cold, within the royal family at least, having joined their public to walk to and from Sandringham church on Christmas Day and to and from St George’s Chapel at Windsor for Easter.

But in the intervening months, has that blood bond thinned somewhat?