Coronation Street actor who betrayed Princess
THE videos of Diana featured in the controversial Channel 4 documentary were recorded at Kensington Palace by voice coach and former Coronation Street actor Peter Settelen in 1992-3.
Filmed on a camcorder, they present Diana in a far more relaxed light than in her infamous Panorama interview in 1995 and were designed to help improve her speaking voice.
But the ‘Settelen Sessions’ also show the Princess speaking in the most intimate detail about her life and doomed marriage to Prince Charles.
It is understood that seven of the 12 tapes that Mr Settelen recorded were seized by police officers in 2001 during a raid on the home of Diana’s former butler Paul Burrell. He was accused of stealing items belonging to the Princess but the 2002 case collapsed.
The following year, Mr Settelen launched a civil suit to have the video tapes returned to him. He faced a counter action by the Spencer family, as executors of Diana’s will, to recover them.
The sides settled out of court and the tapes passed to Mr Settelen. When Mr Settelen, 65, sold them to US network NBC, he was asked if he was exploiting Diana. He replied: ‘I don’t necessarily agree… it’s better that the public see what she says, not embellished by other people.’
In 2007, the BBC bought the rights to the tapes but did not broadcast them, out of sensitivity to the Monarchy. The Corporation is said to have paid £30,000 for the recordings to make a documentary called Diana: In Her Own Words, intended to mark the tenth anniversary of her death. It was to be produced by Kevin Sim – who has now made the Channel 4 film.