Panorama to carry out probe into its own Diana report

THE BBC’s flagship current affairs show is carrying out an investigation into the events surrounding its own interview with Princess Diana by Martin Bashir.

Panorama is to make a programme examining its journalism, amid a string of claims about the tactics used by Bashir in 1995.

Award-winning journalist John Ware, who was a member of the Panorama team between 1986 and 2012, has been brought in to make the programme, which will look into the behaviour of his former colleagues.

The move could prove embarrassing for the BBC, which recently asked an eminent retired judge to lead an independent investigation into ‘the circumstances around the 1995 Panorama interview with Diana, Princess of Wales’. This is expected to take about six months from when it was launched last month.

Ware’s investigation is likely to be screened next year. He is said to be prepared to leave ‘no stone unturned’ in his programme. Ware, 72, is expected to look into the tactics Bashir, pictured, used to secure the interview, including the alleged use of false bank statements to gain an introduction to Diana through her brother Earl Spencer.

An internal investigation into the mocked-up statements, led by Tony Hall, who was until recently BBC director-general, was carried out in the months after the show aired. This effectively cleared Bashir. Ware’s programme is expected to scrutinise that investigation.

The 1995 interview in which Diana said there were ‘three of us in this marriage’ was hailed as the ‘scoop of the century’ and was watched by nearly 23million. Bashir, currently the corporation’s religion editor, has been signed off work after having quadruple heart bypass surgery and suffering with complications from Covid-19 earlier in the year.