Investigation has to be robust or monarchy will tune out for good
The Duke of Cambridge’s “tentative” welcoming of a judge-led inquiry into the row over Martin Bashir’s interview with his mother is unlikely to inspire confidence at the BBC.
“Tentative” suggests a degree of scepticism as to whether the broadcaster will finally get to the bottom of claims that Diana, Princess of Wales was tricked into speaking so candidly with Panorama in 1995.
What the Duke appeared to be welcoming was the independent nature of the inquiry, which is to be headed by Lord Dyson, a former Master of the Rolls, rather than the BBC’S decision to take action.
He is understood to have spent the past fortnight in contact with the BBC to ensure it hired a senior judge “to establish the truth”.
For if it hadn’t been for pressure from a Channel 4 documentary, his uncle Earl Spencer and the newspapers that exposed Mr Bashir’s alleged nefarious tactics, the BBC would have probably continued hailing the interview as the journalistic triumph of the 20th century.
Serious concerns were raised within a month of the sensational programme being broadcast 25 years ago.
Martin Wiessler, a freelance graphic designer, told senior news executives that Mr Bashir had asked him to forge bank statements, allegedly to help to secure the interview.
Yet a “review” by Lord Hall of Birkenhead, former director-general and then the BBC’S director of news and current affairs, found “there had been no question of Mr Bashir trying to mislead or do anything improper”.
After Lord Hall concluded Mr Bashir “was an honest man”, he went on to have a hugely lucrative media career and returned to the
BBC as religious affairs editor in 2016, seemingly without anyone else being interviewed for the role.
More worrying for “Auntie”, this sorry saga threatens to further drive a wedge in a relationship between the Royal family and BBC that never quite recovered from the “Queengate” affair.
In 2007, the BBC was forced to apologise to the Queen after admitting it “misrepresented” her by implying she stormed out of a photo shoot with Annie Leibovitz, the American photographer.
The episode left a sour taste in the mouths of palace aides and disappointed Her Majesty. So it was hardly surprising that when the Duke got engaged to Kate Middleton in 2010, they chose to give the interview to ITV’S Tom Bradby, a personal friend, rather than the national broadcaster.
Relations between the two institutions were not improved by criticisms of the BBC’S “dumbed down” coverage of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee in 2012, which received more than 2,000 complaints.
Although the BBC landed Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s engagement interview in 2017, it missed out on another scoop when Mr Bradby was given a chat with the couple on their African tour in October last year, in which Meghan complained of her treatment at the hands of the Royal family.
Most of the noteworthy documentaries about the royals in recent years have featured on ITV, including William’s widely-acclaimed A Planet for Us All, aired in September, and The Princess Royal at 70, which was well received in July. When Ant and Dec Met Prince Charles was also broadcast by ITV in 2015 to positive reviews.
The appointment of Lord Dyson is a step in the right direction in Tim Davie, the director-general’s quest “to get to the truth about these events”. For anything less than a robust investigation risks the monarchy tuning out the BBC for good.