‘Dynamite’ Diana tapes to be shown
BRITAIN: Controversial taped confessions made by Princess Diana are to be broadcast for the first time, after her sons’ decision to open up about her was deemed to have set a precedent.
Peter Settelen, the princess’s voice coach, has sold the rights to the ‘‘dynamite’’ tapes, much of which has never been broadcast, to Channel 4.
The tapes were never intended for public broadcast, and since Diana’s death they have been the subject of court battles. The Spencer family insisted that the footage belonged to them, but the tapes were returned to Settelen in 2004 after a lengthy legal dispute.
Although the camcorder recordings were ostensibly made to improve her public speaking skills, Diana used them to bare her soul at a time when her marriage was in crisis, talking openly about her relationship with Prince Charles, their sex life and his affair with Camilla Parker Bowles, now the Duchess of Cornwall.
In them, the princess describes her wedding day as ‘‘the worst day of her life’’, and talks about the constant battle to live up to her ‘‘fairy princess’’ public image.
She also suggests that one of the royal protection officers - presumed to be Barry Mannakee, reportedly a former lover - had been ‘‘bumped off’’ in a road accident.
The tapes were found in 2001 during a police raid at the home of Paul Burrell, the former royal butler. Their content was regarded as so sensitive that the prosecution agreed not to use them in Burrell’s Old Bailey trial, which collapsed in 2002.
Excerpts of the footage, shot in 1992 and 1993, were sold to United States television network NBC and broadcast in the US as part of a documentary in 2004. But the screening caused such a backlash that the tapes have never been seen in Britain.
The new documentary includes footage that has never before been shown in public.
The rights were obtained by Channel 4 amid claims that Prince William and Prince Harry’s decision to talk openly about their mother made it more acceptable. ‘‘Because the princes are talking about it, it was considered more OK to release it,’’ a source told The Daily Telegraph.
The rights to broadcast a few minutes of the intimate footage were bought by the BBC in 2007 for a reputed £30,000, and they formed the basis of a documentary, called Diana, In Her Own Words. But the project was shelved, amid claims that it would be considered in bad taste.
Freelance producer and director Kevin Sim, who oversaw the BBC film, was commissioned by Channel 4 to make the new film, also called Diana: In Her Own Words. Sim has previously described the tapes as ‘‘dynamite’’ and claimed that the BBC axed its documentary because it was worried about upsetting the monarchy. – Telegraph Group