How The Making Of Sky’s King Carlos Doc Became A “Nightmare Trip” Involving Anonymous Calls & Phones In Fridges

deadline.com:

EXCLUSIVE: When Emmy-nominated EP Christian Beetz set out to explore the story of disgraced former Spanish King Juan Carlos I, he could never have imagined the “nightmare trip” that followed.

As Sky and NBCUniversal Global Distribution prepare to unveil Juan Carlos: Downfall of the King at Mip TV, Beetz revealed to Deadline that he believed he and his production team were being followed and their conversations listened to during the making of the four-parter last year. “After doing our first round of interviews with journalists we got an anonymous call saying ‘Be careful what you’re doing here’,” he told us. “This was the start of a nightmare trip.” Beetz believes his emails were being read and phone was being tapped, and his team started taking precautions, including placing their phones in the fridge – a move made famous by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden. “When these things are happening you know you are on the right track,” he said. “Someone clearly cared about what we were doing, which was good for us.” Several months ago, the disgraced former King won an appeal to use sovereign immunity as a defense against harassment allegations made by Corinna Zu Sayn-Wittgenstein-Sayn, his former mistress, who filed a suit in 2020.

While Beetz doesn’t disclose any more detail, he paints a picture of a tense period during which he and his team were constantly looking over their shoulder.

This is reflected in the doc, according to Beetz, whose team backed up his version of events. Deadline has reached out to the Spanish government for comment.