Diana’s 1995 Panorama interview will be utilised in the upcoming Ed Perkins documentary, The Princess. A week earlier, the BBC had vowed not to re-air or licence the programme in the future. A combination of archival film and interviews, including those from Diana’s Panorama interview with now-discredited BBC reporter Martin Bashir, will be used to tell the story of Diana’s highly publicised life. BBC director-general Tim Davie had previously pledged that the show, in which Diana spoke up about her battles with eating disorders and marriage, would never air or be licenced again. Diana’s employees were allegedly selling information about her to Bashir, according to the study, which concluded that Bashir used “deceitful techniques” to get an interview with her.
An interview with Prince William that was shown by the BBC and denounced by Diana’s son as a “fake narrative” will still be included in Sky’s programme on Princess Diana’s life. In a statement, Davie revealed that the interview had previously been taken illegally. As the Duke of Cambridge described it, the BBC did not ask challenging questions.” Princess Diana would have realised the truth had we done our job correctly. Because we didn’t do enough for her, the Royal Family, and our viewers,” she said.
In a statement, Davie stated: We will not show or licence this programme in any form when we learned of the appalling manner in which the interview was taken,” the BBC’s director general said in a statement. In the future, the BBC may be able to use brief portions for journalistic reasons if they are approved at the Executive Committee level and given the full context of what we now know about how the interview was acquired. Of course, this interview is part of history and may be used on rare occasions. I’d want to encourage other people to show the same restraint.” The Princess trailer used archival material to tell the story of Princess Diana’s life. Documentary makers claim that their upcoming film is an “intensely emotional” look back at Diana’s life, including her marriage to Prince Charles, Duke of Wales, and her tragic 1997 Paris automobile accident that dominated headlines for decades.
HBO will screen the documentary on August 13th, and it will be available to watch online through HBO Max. In addition, the film will be shown on Sky and Now TV on August 14, the 25th anniversary of Princess Diana’s untimely death.