Sky defies Duke to broadcast discredited Diana interview
‘It is my firm view that this “Panorama” programme holds no legitimacy and should never be aired again’
THE infamous Panorama interview in which the Princess of Wales expressed her belief there was a “campaign being waged against her” by royal courtiers is to be aired again, in defiance of the Duke of Cambridge’s wishes.
Clips from the 1995 interview will be included in The Princess, a documentary to be broadcast by Sky and Now TV next month.
They show the late princess describing her marriage, how the monarchy should change, and how she believed there was a witch hunt against her for her refusal “go quietly”.
It has since emerged that the interview was obtained unethically, with fabricated claims and faked “evidence” used by Martin Bashir and his team to secure the world exclusive confessional.
The Duke has asked that the discredited footage be banned from the airwaves. “It is my firm view that this Panorama programme holds no legitimacy and should never be aired again,” he said in May 2021. “It effectively established a false narrative which, for over a quarter of a century, has been commercialised by the BBC and others.”
It will come just weeks after Tim Davie, the BBC’S director-general apologised again for the toxic interview, vowing the corporation would not show the episode in full again.
He urged other broadcasters to “exercise similar restraint”.
The BBC yesterday insisted it had not granted any live or outstanding licences for “any or all” of the interview to be aired. The Princess, created using archive footage of Diana’s life, will be screened on Sky Documentary and Now TV from Aug 14.
It will not provide any context to the Bashir interview, interspersing clips with contemporary news bulletins and footage of members of the public watching it in the pub and reacting afterwards.
A Sky spokesman said filmmakers believe it tells the story of the late princess in an “unmediated way”.
“The interview will remain in the documentary,” he said.
“As the film aims to tell Diana’s story through archive material as it occurred, it is not influenced by the context of what we know now, about this, or any other event.”