DEBORAH ROSS: Devastating. Riveting. And I know who I believed…

The Prince And The Epstein Scandal – Panorama

Monday, BBC1

Rating:

The Sinner

Saturday, BBC4

Rating:

This week I sat down with my TV listings, as per, to decide what I wanted to review, and my little heart sank. There wasn’t much. His Dark Materials limps on, although The War Of The Worlds has called it a day, thankfully. There was another celebrity (Mark Rylance, I think) doing a Who Do You Think You Are? type of programme but I’ve had my fill of those shows. Had finished Gold Digger, which may or may not have had a decent twist at the end – don’t want to give too much away – that either was or wasn’t satisfying. (It wasn’t! Sorry. There is only so much I can keep to myself.) 

It feels as if everything is in suspension until the return of Gavin & Stacey on Christmas Day, which is what I am personally living for, rather than, say, the Christmas special of Call The Midwife, even though I know it will snow delightfully and Lessons. Will. Be. Learned. But. 

Virginia Giuffre on Panorama. What did we learn from Virginia Giuffre? We learned how Epstein recruited underage girls for sex and how he was aided by Ghislaine Maxwell

Virginia Giuffre on Panorama. What did we learn from Virginia Giuffre? We learned how Epstein recruited underage girls for sex and how he was aided by Ghislaine Maxwell

In the meantime. It’s either Andrew Neil eviscerating some politician or other, or Andrew Marr engaged in a ‘mine’s bigger than yours’ type of exchange with Boris Johnson, or it’s those interminable election debates that I’m convinced no one actually watches, because why would you? They are not instructive policy-wise and are about as entertaining as pairing socks followed by an afternoon watching paint dry, even if paint drying can be quite interesting as the paint does change colour the less wet it becomes. So such debates are less entertaining then watching paint dry, I should have said. My error. 

In short, if it’s not one Andrew, it’s another, which brings us to Prince Andrew, the one-man car crash. First, there was Emily Maitlis’s devastatingly forensic interview with him for Newsnight, which gave rise to the phrase that has already gone into use in our house as the catch-all excuse for everything. Like who used up all the milk – ‘It wasn’t me! I was in Pizza Express, Woking!’ 

And then, this week, we had The Prince And The Epstein Scandal – Panorama, during which the silent girl in that photo – the one with Prince Andrew’s hand around her waist – had her say, and it was just as devastating. And riveting. What did we learn from Virginia Giuffre, née Roberts? We learned how Epstein recruited underage girls for sex and how he was aided by Ghislaine Maxwell. (Where is Ghislaine?) Taxis were sent to their schools to bring them to Epstein’s home, which is a detail I’ll never be able to get out of my head. ‘I went from being abused by Epstein,’ Virginia said, ‘to being passed around like a platter of fruit.’ 

She alleged she was forcibly brought to London in 2001, when she was only 17, which is underage in her home state of Florida. She first went to Maxwell’s  London mews house ‘where Andrew and Ghislaine were badmouthing Fergie’ – Fergie has been supportive but maybe she is regretting that now? – and then, she alleged, it was off to Tramp nightclub, where Andrew proved ‘a hideous dancer’ and did not appear to be suffering from an inability to sweat. ‘His sweat was like it was raining basically everywhere.’ After Tramp, on the way back, ‘Ghislaine tells me I have to do for Andrew what I do for Jeffrey and that just made me sick. I didn’t expect it from royalty.’ She added, ‘It didn’t last  long, the whole procedure. It was disgusting.’ 

 There’s a new catch-all excuse in our house: ‘It wasn’t me. I was in Pizza Express, Woking!’

Prince Andrew has said that sex with her ‘categorically’ did not happen and that he can’t recall meeting her, but the Panorama team did unearth an email from him to Maxwell, saying: ‘Let me know when we can talk. I have some specific questions to ask you about Virginia Roberts.’ This took us right to the dark heart of money and power, and when she said, ‘He knows what happened. I know what happened. Only one of us is telling the truth and it’s me,’ I knew who I believed. 

Actually, the one series I have stuck with is The Sinner, the eight-part thriller that concludes this Saturday, and the main reason? Bill Pullman. And his portrayal of detective Harry Ambrose. Ambrose is haunted. Ambrose is troubled. What TV detective isn’t, you may well ask. But Pullman’s performance is so beautifully understated it draws you in and, also, I have to say, I find him quite hot. 

Bill Pullman and Natalie Paul in The Sinner. Pullman’s performance is so beautifully understated it draws you in and, also, I have to say, I find him quite hot

Bill Pullman and Natalie Paul in The Sinner. Pullman’s performance is so beautifully understated it draws you in and, also, I have to say, I find him quite hot

This time out – there has been a previous season – Ambrose returns to his home town to deal with a horrific double murder, and we know who did it. It was Julian – Elisha Henig, acting his little socks off – who is only 11 years old. But why did he do it? The case leads Ambrose to investigate a local commune and brings him into contact with the leading member, Vera Walker (a terrific Carrie Coon), whom we never quite know whether to trust or not. This is wonderfully twisty and turny and I hope the ending ties everything up nicely, but if it doesn’t? I won’t say a word. Until I do.

 

 

 

 

Read more at DailyMail.co.uk