HBO’s The Princess was a very well-done documentary, made entirely from archival footage of Princess Diana and the royal family, plus commentary at the time. They showed clips of Prince Charles’s famous Jonathan Dimbleby interview (which happened first) and then clips of Diana’s Panorama interview. The Panorama interview, as we well know, is now considered “off limits” and the BBC has promised never to air it again following the Dyson investigation. The investigation showed that Martin Bashir used significant deceit to land the interview. To Prince William, that means the interview itself was fruit of the poisonous tree and Diana’s narrative should never be seen or heard ever again. So… how did The Princess get to use that footage? Other documentaries are using it too. It’s interesting, because you would think that those documentary filmmakers would have to license the footage in some way. The Mail columnist Ephraim Hardcastle had a fascinating little blurb about it:
BBC director-general Tim Davie, pledging to banish Diana’s Panorama interview to the equivalent of Room 101, seems to have left the door ajar. Sunday night’s Diana biography, The Princess, on Sky Documentaries, included footage of the Bashir encounter.
Ahead of the 25th anniversary of her death, Foxtel in Australia transmits Diana: The Ultimate Truth. A segment focuses on the notorious interview.
The BBC insists it will not let any part of the Panorama interview be screened.
Prince William, who warned that it ‘holds no legitimacy and should never be aired again’, can only powerlessly throw his toys out of the pram.
[From The Daily Mail]
“Prince William, who warned that it ‘holds no legitimacy and should never be aired again’, can only powerlessly throw his toys out of the pram.” Well, well! Looks like William’s tantrum about Diana’s interview hasn’t gone over so well in the British media. Even Andrew Morton blasted William, and now here’s a Mail columnist insinuating that William is a childish loser with no authority. Fascinating. As for The Princess and the filmmaker’s reasoning for using the Panorama clips, there was this interesting piece in People Magazine:
The filmmakers behind the latest documentary capturing the life and tragic death of Princess Diana are defending themselves. The Princess, which premiered on HBO on Aug. 13, includes a clip of Diana from her infamous BBC Panorama interview in 1995. The sit-down has since been discredited after it was found that deceitful methods were used to secure the interview with Diana. Following the inquest in 2021, Diana’s son Prince William stated his “firm view” that broadcasters and the media should never allow it to be shown again.
A spokesperson for The Princess tells PEOPLE, “This feature documentary tells the story of Princess Diana exclusively through archive footage from the time, without commentary from today. This interview is shown briefly, in context, as a moment of historical record.”
[From People]
This piece was written by Simon Perry, People’s Chief Foreign Correspondent. He knows better than to write “The sit-down has since been discredited…” The interview was not “discredited.” Nothing Diana said during the interview was demonstrably false. The Dyson investigation didn’t even prove that Diana was coerced to say anything in particular during the interview. All the investigation found was that Bashir lied to her to GET the interview. Anyway, I absolutely think it’s interesting that after William’s big tantrum about the interview, he got a promise from the BBC to never air it again… and yet all of these documentaries were somehow able to use the footage. And The Crown will dramatize it.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid, Instar.
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