Di cast in the Seventies
PEOPLE are forever asking me, in casual conversation, whether there’s “anything good” coming up on TV. I’m always tempted to reply: “Nope. Nothing. Sorry.” Or, better still: “On TV? How the hell should I know?”
But even though either response would obviously be hilarious, I resist the urge.
Instead, I weigh up what I think that person’s tastes are likely to be, then recommend something accordingly.
If they love thrillers, for example, I’ll suggest something suitably edge-of-your-seaty. If they enjoy a good documentary, then I’ll find them a nice travelogue or a history programme.
If they just want to relax, I’ll pick a comedy I think they’ll like, or maybe a breezy cooking contest.
And obviously if they’re a millennial, I’ll recommend some low-attention-span brain-rot.
But what I’ve learnt to stop doing, rather oddly, is recommend documentary series such as DIANA’S DECADES, starting tonight on ITV (9pm).
It’s weird, because personally I’m a sucker for programmes like this (I can’t be the only one) and yet whenever I recommend them to someone in person, face-to-face, they sneer and go: “Oh, God, haven’t we had more than enough programmes about Princess Diana?”
The correct answer to that question, obviously, is: “No, we haven’t, you twit.We’ll never have enough of them. Ever.” But since people can get a bit funny when you call them twits (especially if they really are twits, because I guess you’ve touched a nerve there), I now deliberately avoid getting myself into that situation.
Instead, I just steer them towards something in Icelandic on Netflix. By the time they’ve discovered it’s dreadful, I’ll be miles away.
What I like about Diana’s Decades, strictly between you and me, is that it puts Diana’s story (which, OK, I’ll accept we’re reasonably familiar with) into a broader context.
We all know the impact she made, but it’s important to understand the type of world on which she was making it – socially, politically, culturally etc – and how it, and she, evolved. Only then does it fully make sense.
Episode one of the three-part documentary focuses on the Seventies. But before it does that, it recalls the night of June 25, 1997 – just weeks before Diana’s death – when 10 of her most famous dresses were auctioned for charity at Christie’s in New York.
Each, you might say, represented a chapter in the story we’re about to reflect on, from the shy Lady Di of the late Seventies to the bold, self-determined women she’d become in her final years.
“The clothes,” remarks designer Bruce Oldfield, “were symbolic of the life she led.”