ROYALS AND BBC IN BASHIR ‘GUILT MONEY’ TALKS
Broadcaster’s £1.15m profit from ‘deceitful’ Diana interview set to be paid to charity chosen by Princes
THE BBC hopes to make amends for the Mar
tin Bashir scandal by paying about £1.5 million ‘guilt money’ to a charity chosen by the Royal Family, The Mail on Sunday can reveal.
The unprecedented donation includes £1.15 million – the amount the Corporation made from selling the global rights to Bashir’s explosive Princess Diana interview – plus reparations.
An inquiry by Lord Dyson in May found Bashir had lied to obtain the 1995 interview, using deceitful methods later covered up by a ‘ woefully ineffective’ internal investigation by Tony Hall, who later became BBC director-general.
While the exact terms of the reparations arrangement have yet to be finalised, and there is no date
set for the money to paid, it is understood it will come from BBC Studios, the Corporation’s trading arm – a commercial operation not funded by the licence fee.
Royal sources say Prince Charles and his sons William and Harry will be involved in deciding how it should be used.
Last night Diana’s close friend Rosa Monckton said: ‘This is an admirable decision, though obviously it cannot undo the damage that has been done or erase the BBC’s guilt.’
Although the scandal was uncovered by this newspaper 25 years ago, it took the BBC unti l earl i er t hi s year to acknowledge Bashir’s wrongdoing, having previously exonerated him.
Following publication of Lord Dyson’s report, William condemned the Corporation for deceiving his mother, ruining her life and helping to hasten her divorce.
He said the BBC’s failures had contributed to Diana’s ‘fear, paranoia and isolation’ in her final years, and that the interview made a ‘major contribution to making my parents’ relationship worse’.
It is understood that the donation idea was first suggested by Diana’s brother, Earl Spencer, who said some of the money made by the BBC should go to Diana’s charities.
The decision to donate all of it comes against a background of ongoing discussions, initiated by William, between the broadcaster and Palace courtiers.
William is said to believe there is further evidence to uncover, and expressed interest in continuing private conversations with the BBC ‘ to see what comes out’.
However, the current director-general, Tim Davie, is now likely to view the reparations as a way of drawing a line under the affair.
He has already sent letters of unconditional apology to the
Queen, Charles, William, Harry and Earl Spencer.
His letters reportedly included the humiliating confessions that ‘ Martin Bashir employed lies and fake documents to gain access to the princess’ and that he ‘made a series oflurid and untrue claims’. Mr Davie also apologised to Matt Wiessler, the whistleblower who revealed Bashir’s deceit, and who is now set to receive between £750,00 and £1 million compensation.
The award-winning graphic artist came forward a quarter of a century ago to expose the Panorama reporter for instructing him to produce phoney bank statements said to be instrumental in securing the
Diana interview. Mr Wiessler believed they were faithful reproductions of genuine documents, but when he later revealed what Bashir had done he was blacklisted by the BBC.
He was finally vindicated by Lord Dyson’s inquiry.
Two months ago it was reported that Mr Davie had agreed not to air the 1995 interview in full again but said the use of shorter clips in context should be open to further discussion.
It was claimed the refusal to give a broader pledge never to show excerpts angered the Palace – courtiers demanded a commitment from the BBC to put stronger limits on its use.
Prince Charles was said to be furious about ‘ lurid lies’ in the interview, including the claim that he was not suited to be monarch.
He is believed to be deeply concerned that this clip is never replayed because of the impact it could have on public perception of his enthusiasm about inheriting the throne.
Bashir was rehired by the BBC as religion editor in 2016 but abruptly stepped down on May 14, citing poor health.
The BBC and Kensington Palace declined to respond.
TOMORROW, England will see another great release from Covid restrictions. As Sajid Javid, the Health Secretary, explains in The Mail on Sunday today, we have earned this through much self-restraint and by our co-operation with one of the most successful vaccine programmes in the world.
Rules on self-isolation will be relaxed, hugely reducing the disruption to life and work that has been caused by the ‘pingdemic’ of recent weeks.
It is a long way from the complete liberation from restrictions, at home and abroad, that millions dream of. But such a return to normal will not be sudden or swift, and Ministers remain understandably cautious. So we might as well celebrate each solid step on the way and begin to think about the post-pandemic future.
As we do so, we find ourselves a divided country, perhaps more so than at any time in living memory. There is the division between those who wish to work from home and those who long to be back at their workplaces. There is a division between those who long to be back at schools and universities, and those who fear such a return.
There are divisions between those who have been gravely ill, the bereaved and those whose close family have suffered, and those who have escaped the disease more or less untouched; between those who have shielded themselves and those who have gone out into shops, trains and workplaces. There is a great gulf between the old and the young.
There is a clear, unbridgeable difference between those who have grown more comfortably off during the lockdown and its aftermath, and those who have lost work or fear they will do so. The difference between the North of England and the South East has probably never been so great. The parents who can send their children to private schools or to the better state schools are sharply better off than the rest. And devolution has created an avalanche of change, between England and Scotland, and England and Wales, which would have been shocking to everyone in the United Kingdom of 40 years ago.
Boris Johnson has much to do, in short, to bring the country together – to level up, but not at the expense of levelling others down, to rebuild or reinvigorate old links that have rusted or weakened, to reconcile and to refresh.
Soon this strange holiday season of staycations, quarantines, amber zones, frantic homeward dashes and incessant nasal swabs will be over and Britain will be girding itself for the autumn with some hope and some apprehension. It will be a time for liberation and leadership. Let us all take full advantage of it.