ON TV
MONDAY Diana, Our Mother: Her Life and Legacy (HBO, 10 ET/PT)
This special, from ITV in Britain, features rare interviews with Prince William and Prince Harry, who speak candidly about their mother and how she impacted their lives. “She understood that there was real life outside of palace walls,” Williams says in the documentary.
Over the weekend, in advance of the documentary airing in the U.S. and in Britain, William and Harry released three pictures of their mother from her personal photo album to help promote the film. The brothers recall memories from their childhood as they look through a family album assembled by their late mother.
JULY 31
Princess Diana: Tragedy or Treason? (TLC, 8 ET/PT)
Biographer Andrew Morton is just one of the figures interviewed in this three-hour special that looks at the theories sur- rounding the Paris crash. Actor and conspiracy theorist Richard Belzer discusses the speculation about what happened.
AUG. 9-10
The Story of Diana (ABC, 9 ET/PT)
ABC and People magazine team for this two-night special featuring what’s billed as an exclusive U.S. interview with Earl Spencer, Diana’s brother Charles. He will share stories about his older sister with home-movie footage. Virgin Group CEO Richard Branson is among friends of Diana appearing in the special.
AUG. 27
Diana and the Paparazzi (Smithsonian, 8 ET/PT); Diana: The Day We Said Goodbye (Smithsonian, 9 ET/PT)
At 8, viewers get a look through the lens at the princess and her attempts to manage the mob of photographers who followed her everywhere, contrasted with her desire to draw interest to the humanitarian causes that she felt were important. Includes interviews with paparazzi who were present at her fatal crash.
At 9, another special puts the spotlight on the funeral for the princess. Narrated by Kate Winslet, Diana: The Day We Said
Goodbye includes the voices of guardsmen, reporters, pallbearers and others who share their experiences on that day, when London shut down, millions filled the streets and the U.K. mourned at Westminster Abbey.
NEXT YEAR
Just in case viewers want more about Diana, 2018 will see the return of FX’s Feud, featuring her toxic divorce drama from Prince Charles. The second installment of Ryan Murphy’s anthology series, Charles and Diana will focus on the breakdown of Diana’s marriage to the Prince of Wales and how their supposedly fairytale relationship came to an end.
A SAMPLING OF DIANA BOOKS
REMEMBERING DIANA: A LIFE IN
This sumptuous PHOTOGRAPHS: book of more than 100 images, due Aug. 1, comes from National Geographic with a forward by Tina Brown, her friend, biographer and the former editor of
Vanity Fair and The New Yorker.
by DIANA: I’M GOING TO BE ME, Phil Dampier. This mini-book from Casemate Publishers in the U.K. is a quote book. Released on what would have been her 56th birthday on July 1, it’s touted as the first comprehensive collection of Diana’s most memorable words, such as: “The trouble with being a Princess is that it is so hard to have a pee.”
by PatSHADOWS OF A PRINCESS rick Jephson. This 2000 bestseller is being reissued by HarperCollins July 25 with a new introduction. Jephson was Diana’s private secretary during her years of deepest personal crisis. His description is said to be the most authoritative and balanced account of the royal life of a famously tragic royal.
DIANA: HER TRUE STORY IN HER
by Andrew Morton. OWN WORDS The 1992 book that blew the lid off the long-simmering story of the breakdown of the marriage of Charles and Diana. Simon & Schuster has released a revised version with new material that Morton recorded with Diana.
DIANA: THE PEOPLE’S PRINCESS: A CELEBRATION OF HER LIFE AND
by Nicholas LEGACY 20 YEARS ON, Owen. First published in 1997, this updated edition from U.K. publisher Carlton Shing G is a tribute biography that includes new material about Diana’s legacy as a mother, as her sons continue her humanitarian work.
DIANA: A CLOSELY GUARDED
by Ken Wharfe and Robert SECRET Jobson. Another reissue, from U.K. publisher John Blake. Wharfe, Diana’s royal bodyguard, and Jobson, a longtime British royals correspondent, teamed up on this first memoir by a royal protection officer, who became Diana’s friend and confidant during seven years as her bodyguard.
PRINCE CHARLES: THE PASSIONS AND PARADOXES OF AN
by Sally Bedell IMPROBABLE LIFE, Smith. Smith is the acclaimed royal biographer whose books on the queen and on Diana ( Diana in
Search of Herself) were bestsellers. In her new Charles bio (published in April), Smith manages to suss out new details of their marital discord: Among them, she reports, during their many blazing arguments, when Charles knelt down at night to say his prayers, Diana would keep the fight going by hitting him on the head and continuing to shout.