When Michael Sheen was looking for a way to portray the Duke of York, he came across a photo of Prince Andrew as a hero returning from the Falklands War, with a rose between his teeth.

Grinning, smug, the apple of his mother’s eye, a slightly ridiculous royal Romeo, this was the actor’s premise for the role of the prince in his interview with BBC Two’s Newsnight programme – and he imagined the enormity of his fall.

Sheen’s remarkable performance dominates this riveting three-part Amazon film, A Very Royal Scandal, in which he captures an angry prince who doesn’t believe he’s going down.

“I’m the son of the monarch. If I want to go on TV and defend myself, I will,” he bellows, adding a few rounds of profanity in a manner few royals have been depicted doing before.

It’s a resolute story that paints Netflix’s The Crown as a rather timid costume drama.

Has a king ever been depicted as cursing so much? Or has life in the palace ever been so poisonous?

Sheen is known for his characterization. His version of Prince Andrew is an explosive mix of vanity, vulnerability and a self-destructive lack of self-awareness, as his gilded royal life crumbles after the disastrous interview.

He is a cursing, arrogant and subsequently needy figure, unaware of how much he is being exposed by his TV interrogator, Emily Maitlis, played by Ruth Wilson.

The interview itself is often described as a “car crash,” but in this version the prince’s reputation seems more like that of a run-over animal.

Inevitably there will be comparisons with the recent Netflix movie Scoopabout the same interview from 2019.

Rufus Sewell said his interpretation of the prince owed something to David Brent, the befuddled manager of the BBC Two sitcom The Office.

In this Amazon Prime Video version, Sheen’s Prince Andrew is a more complex figure: selfish, emotionally numb, ambitious, loyal to his own immediate family, distrustful of palace officials, and desperate for approval.

It is a performance in which Richard III meets Alan Partridge.

When the prince hears that sex offender Jeffrey Epstein has died in prison, he asks himself: “Is this good or bad for me?”

And there is ongoing tension between him and his brother, the then Prince of Wales.

“He calls me a mummy’s boy, he is a mummy’s boy,” Prince Andrew shouts, accompanied by a slew of swearing, after an angry phone call.

It is absolutely not flattering to the monarchy.

Prince Andrew has been portrayed as rude to his servants, and palace officials have fretted about the royals’ lack of empathy: “They’ve never been late for a train because the train waits for them.”

Although the re-enacted Newsnight interview is the centrepiece of the film, perhaps the most pivotal moment is a scene in the first episode, in which the prince meets Epstein in New York.

It’s another painful interview, with a cash-strapped Prince Andrew in dire need of money and a hard-nosed, exploitative Epstein, played by John Hopkins, driving him into financial trouble.

Sheen shows that the prince is uncomfortable with so much evil.

This terrible association with Epstein is made clear throughout the film, as Prince Andrew professes his innocence and is surrounded by questions and accusations until he hides from lawyers who are ordered to hand him court documents.

This is a much more layered and ultimately compelling account of events than the Netflix film.

It shows the impact on those around Prince Andrew, including his ex-wife, the Duchess of York, and their daughters, Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie.

Their loyalty to him is portrayed as that of a real family, not that of the royal family.

Prince Andrew’s private secretary Amanda Thirsk, played beautifully by Joanna Scanlan, still defends him, even after losing her job following the Newsnight interview.

And their relationship, a mix of co-dependency and scapegoating, is reminiscent of Alan Partridge and his assistant Lynn.

The prince’s downfall comes after his disastrous TV interview.

And this film features some of the most famous moments, such as his comments about not being able to sweat and his visit to a Pizza Express in Woking, Surrey, which were almost cut during editing.

But despite the awards and accolades she receives, Maitlis is seen as someone with her own doubts.

She questions what happened to Epstein’s victims and points to the lack of resolution in the legal proceedings.

The core of this drama is ambiguity.

The civil case in the US between Prince Andrew and Virginia Giuffre ended in an out-of-court settlement, with the prince strongly denying all allegations of wrongdoing.

But neither side got a trial.

And the film shows how Prince Andrew wants to do the Newsnight interview because he thinks it means his claim that the photo of him and Mrs Giuffre was faked can be checked.

The other big unknown for the viewer is how much is fact and how much is fiction.

Did Prince Andrew really call his private secretary “Fatty” and race her around the garden?

Did Elizabeth II’s private secretary, the polite Sir Edward Young, really say things like, “We’re going to shovel more shit than Dyno-Rod.”

The film comes with the disclaimer: “This drama is based on real events and characters. Some scenes have been fictionalized and adapted for dramatic purposes.”

It is not a documentary and the narrative style and pace of a drama means that the order of events changes.

In the film, Prince Andrew is told that Covid-19 should be used as an excuse to save face and avoid attending the late Queen’s platinum jubilee.

In reality, Covid was indeed given as an explanation for his missing an anniversary service.

But a month earlier, the palace had openly announced at a press conference that the prince would not appear on the balcony of Buckingham Palace because he was no longer active as a royal.

The suggestion of secrecy works as drama, but in reality his exclusion was much more brazen.

But such powerful dramas have a way of overwriting history. And Sheen’s performance could forever change the way Prince Andrew is remembered.

A Very Royal Scandal, Prime Video, will air in three episodes from September 19