The unique, irreplaceable DIANA
Bright, funny... and compassionate. A candid new documentary reveals how she changed the Royals
PICK OF THE WEEK DIANA Thursday, ITV, 9pm
She will for ever be cherished as the icon whose life was cruelly snatched away when she was only 36. Now, as the milestone of what would have been the 60th birthday of Princess Diana on July 1 nears, a feature-length documentary rich with archive clips and revealing new interviews looks back over her extraordinary life.
Her cousin Diana Macfarlane recalls of the very young Spencer scion: ‘She was full of life, loved a giggle, wicked sense of humour’, while sharing a photograph of the Royal bride-to-be as a schoolgirl, her expression already with that characteristically demure gaze and her head cocked slightly to the side.
That vivacity is also echoed by Diana’s lifelong friend Dr James Colthurst, who remembers their first meeting when she was 17. ‘Sense of humour was the first impression. She just laughed. A lot.’ He adds: ‘She was a lot brighter than people gave her credit for. And fast.’
Then, suddenly, everything changes when, aged 19, Diana is linked to Prince Charles and subsequently becomes the dazzling centrepiece of a seemingly fairytale Royal Wedding. But the anxiety brought on by the reality of the couple’s troubled marriage is etched into her face in public appearances almost from the start, until she reshaped her role in her own style.
With her bouffant hair and tall, elegant figure clad in sumptuous high fashion, Diana – pictured with Prince William at Kensington Palace in 1983 – stole the show at official functions like no Royal before. Her friend, designer Bruce Oldfield, recalls: ‘Those cameras were flashing for her. When she walked into the room, everyone else might as well go home!’
But we also see how she touched the lives of those at the margins of society, making unannounced visits to the homeless and, most importantly, acting as a pioneering campaigner against the fear surrounding AIDS. Most astonishing of all are the behind-the-scenes glimpses from the closing chapter of her life: taking tea at Kensington Palace with the Pakistani family of her clandestine boyfriend, heart surgeon Hasnat Khan; her neartearful response to the press questions she faced on the famous visit to a minefield in Angola; close-up moments with young dancers in rehearsal at English National Ballet; and that final, fateful journey to Paris.
Also featuring audio recordings of Diana used for the bombshell biography by Andrew Morton, this enthralling portrait compels us to consider anew the legacy of the woman who changed Britain and the Royal Family for ever.
Look out, too, for Kensington Palace: Behind Closed Doors (Thursday, Channel 5, 8pm), a two-part series uncovering the secrets of the home of Diana, and now of Prince William and family.