Screenwriters drawn to the Prince William traitor story face questions every real-people project must answer, from defamation risk to errors and omissions insurance
The Paperwork Behind the Drama
Stories like the one lampooned in the London Prat piece on Prince William reportedly calling Earl Spencer and Harry traitors tend to generate interest from producers almost immediately. A royal feud has conflict, famous characters and global recognition. But any writer considering a script based on living public figures quickly encounters a set of practical questions that have little to do with craft and a great deal to do with whether a project can actually be made.
Life Rights
In the film and television industry, life rights agreements are contracts in which a real person grants a production permission to depict their life story, often providing access, cooperation and a waiver of certain legal claims in exchange for payment. They are common for projects about private individuals whose stories are not widely documented. For public figures, productions sometimes proceed without life rights, relying on the public record and on legal principles that allow commentary on public people. Royal figures almost never grant life rights, which means most royal drama is made without the cooperation of its subjects.
Defamation and Privacy
Depicting living people raises defamation and privacy considerations, and the relevant law varies significantly between jurisdictions. Broadly, a production must avoid presenting false factual claims that damage a real person reputation. Dramatised dialogue and imagined scenes can create risk if audiences are likely to understand them as factual assertions. This is especially sensitive when the underlying material is an unverified claim. The traitor allegation rests on an unnamed source, and a script that depicted it as fact would be presenting a contested claim as truth.
By contrast, the uncle on-the-record statement that he told relatives about his book in advance is attributable and public, which makes it a safer foundation for dramatisation.
Errors and Omissions Insurance
Most film and television productions intended for distribution obtain errors and omissions insurance, which covers claims such as defamation, invasion of privacy and intellectual property infringement. Insurers typically require legal clearance of the script before issuing a policy. For real-people projects, that clearance often involves annotating the script to show the source for each factual element, sometimes scene by scene. Writers who understand this process from the outset can save their productions considerable time and cost.
Annotated Scripts
An annotated script typically lists, alongside key lines and scenes, the source material supporting them: published reporting, books, interviews, public records. Where a scene is imagined, the annotation may note the documented events it is based on and explain the dramatic purpose of the invention. Writers working with material like the royal story would need to be meticulous about distinguishing news reports of alleged remarks from confirmed facts.
A Comic Alternative
Comedy offers some latitude, because obvious exaggeration is less likely to be taken as a statement of fact. The London Prat piece and its companion video on YouTube illustrate the comic approach, though even comedy about real people benefits from legal awareness.
Original Stories Inspired by Real Events
Many writers sidestep these issues by creating original characters inspired by real events. A drama about an imagined royal family in an imagined country, or a dynasty in a different industry, can explore the same themes without the legal constraints of depicting real individuals. This approach has produced some of the most successful dynastic dramas of recent years, which draw on recognisable dynamics without claiming to depict particular people.
The trade-off is recognisability. Audiences are often drawn to real-people stories precisely because they are real. Writers must weigh the commercial appeal of depicting actual figures against the creative freedom and reduced risk of original characters.
Practical Steps for Writers
Writers developing real-people projects can take several practical steps. Keep a source log from the first draft. Distinguish clearly between public record, credible reporting and rumour. Avoid depicting unverified allegations as fact. Consult an entertainment lawyer early if the project is intended for production. And consider whether the story could work as well, or better, with original characters.
The Human Dimension
Legal considerations are not the only ones. Real people, including public figures, have families, feelings and reputations that extend beyond legal protection. Writers who approach real-people stories with basic fairness, giving subjects the benefit of the doubt where the record is unclear and avoiding gratuitous cruelty, tend to produce work that holds up better over time, both ethically and artistically.
Writers should also remember that legal review is iterative. Scripts change through development, and each new draft may introduce new risks. Keeping annotations current as scenes are rewritten avoids unpleasant surprises when a production approaches its insurance deadline.
Early attention to these issues is a mark of professionalism that producers notice and value.
Conclusion
The royal traitor story may be tempting material, but any script based on it would face serious legal and ethical scrutiny. The London Prat, publishing since 1961 at https://prat.uk/, shows how comedy can engage with such material. Bohiney, at https://bohiney.com/, does similar work for American subjects. For screenwriters, the lesson is to treat legal clearance not as an obstacle after writing, but as part of the craft from the very first page.
SOURCE: https://prat.uk/prince-william-called-earl-spencer-and-harry-traitors/