Among the many controversies that gripped the British Royal Family during the 1990s was one that would only come to light almost two decades later, when Prince Andrew’s friendship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and his partner Ghislaine Maxwell (who was convicted of sex trafficking last December) was eventually exposed in the press.

The scandal, which metastasized after Prince Andrew was sued in a civil court for sexual assault by Virginia Giuffre, one of Epstein’s victims, destroyed his public standing. His mother, Queen Elizabeth II, stripped him of his many patronages and military titles before she died and, despite denying any wrongdoing and ultimately settling with Giuffre, Andrew is still effectively banished from public life.

But for James Murray, who plays Prince Andrew in Season 5 of “The Crown,” there was no apprehension about stepping into the disgraced royal’s buffed shoes. “My thoughts were, ‘Great, fantastic,’” Murray tells Variety.