REVEALED: Palace’s explosive letter to BBC 4 days before Bashir’s interview with Diana
THE BBC is refusing to release a potentially explosive letter it received from Buckingham Palace just days before it broadcast Martin Bashir’s bombshell Panorama interview with Princess Diana.
The Mail on Sunday can reveal that the document, which has remained hidden in BBC archives for three decades, was sent to the then-director general John Birt four days before the 1995 broadcast. It was written at a time of extraordinary tension between the Palace and the BBC.
Just days earlier, Diana had confessed to royal aides that she had granted Bashir an exclusive interview about the breakdown of her marriage to Prince Charles.
The existence of the letter – which is understood to have come from the Queen’s office – was confirmed in 10,000 pages of heavily redacted documents finally released by the BBC last week.
It followed a long-running freedom of information battle between the corporation and investigative journalist Andy Webb over emails between BBC bosses when the
‘It makes one think they have something to hide’
astonishing scale of Bashir’s deceit became known in 2020. Last night, historians and campaigners called on the corporation to end its ‘coverup’ and release the Palace letter and all other documents in full.
The MoS can reveal the document was sent to Lord Birt on November 16, 1995. It’s known that Lord Birt, at the insistence of the Princess, had decided not to tell BBC chairman Marmaduke Hussey about the interview for fear that Hussey would tell his wife who was a senior ladyin-waiting to the Queen.
The newly released files refer to ‘Letter from Palace to DG – withheld in full’ and the date, but not the document itself. The timing is intriguing. The Queen was known to have been furious about the Panorama interview.
After it was broadcast in 1995, the monarch removed the BBC’s exclusive rights to the production of her annual Christmas broadcast, which was seen as an act of revenge.
The Panorama episode was watched by more than 20million viewers. Soon afterwards, the Queen wrote to Charles and Diana urging them to divorce. In 1996, the MoS first revealed claims that Bashir had faked bank statements just weeks before the interview. BBC bosses, including head of news Tony Hall, conducted a ‘whitewash’ inquiry at the time and cleared Bashir of any wrongdoing.
It took another two decades before the BBC finally ordered an official inquiry by High Court judge Lord Dyson in 2021. This concluded that Bashir had faked bank statements in order to convince the Princess and her family that members of her inner circle were selling details of her private life and that the BBC covered up what it knew about his activities. Prince William issued a strongly worded statement saying he believed the Panorama interview had contributed to the breakdown of his parents’ marriage.
The BBC has been strongly criticised for obstructing freedom of information requests about the scandal. Under FoI rules, public bodies can choose to refuse to release communications with the Royal Family under what is known as a Section 37 exemption.
But freedom of information campaigners and even the Information Commissioner’s Office last night said the BBC was not obliged to cite the exemptions and could release it in full if it wanted.
Maurice Frankel, of the Campaign for Freedom of Information, said: ‘[The BBC] are free to disclose this letter from the Palace should they wish, and I think they should. It’s a matter of real public interest.’
Royal biographer Hugo Vickers added: ‘It could of course be that the letter is perfectly harmless but the BBC’s refusal to release it makes one think they have something to hide.’
A spokesman for the Information Commissioner’s Office said it was up to public bodies to consider each request they receive and whether they should release that information. Buckingham Palace declined to comment. Lord Birt was unavailable for comment.
A BBC spokesman said: ‘We take our responsibilities... under the Freedom of Information Act extremely seriously. This specific exemption covers correspondence with the Royal Household, recognising the need for all parties to have a “safe space” to ensure a free and frank exchange of information.’