The world has reacted with scorn to Prince Andrew's trainwreck interview with the BBC, during which the Queen's son awkwardly denied claims that he had sex with one of late billionaire Jeffrey Epstein's sex slaves.

After years of being dogged by headlines about his close ties with the convicted paedophile, the royal agreed to sit down with Newsnight presenter Emily Maitlis to finally answer questions about their relationship and deny accusations that he had sex with then 17-year-old Virginia Roberts-Giuffre.

There were plenty of baffling moments during the 49-minute special, but a standout was the Duke of York claiming that he had "no recollection of ever meeting" Ms Giuffre, explaining that on the night in question he had taken daughter Beatrice to a party at a Surrey outpost of restaurant chain Pizza Express.

He also said that Ms Giuffre's claims that he had sweated heavily during their alleged time together were incorrect because he has "a peculiar medical condition which is that I don't sweat … it was almost impossible for me to sweat".

Prince Andrew was also condemned by many for failing to show any remorse over his friendship with Epstein or sympathy for the many victims, with British commentator Piers Morgan describing it as simply "excruciating".

But Royal Central editor Charlie Proctor probably summed it up best, tweeting: "I expected a train wreck. That was a plane crashing into an oil tanker, causing a tsunami, triggering a nuclear explosion level bad."

Yes - far from repairing his image, the interview appears to have become another PR disaster for the royal.

Here's how some of the UK's biggest publications reacted to the TV special:

Meanwhile, the reaction on social media was positively scathing.