C4 marks Diana Panorama anniversary

Commercially funded UK pubcaster Channel 4 has commissioned a documentary revealing the story behind Diana, Princess of Wales’ explosive 1995 interview on BBC show Panorama.

Princess Diana in 1997 (photo: John Mathew Smith via CC)

Diana: The Truth Behind the Interview is produced by Tin Roof Media-owned Blink Films and will mark the 25th anniversary of the infamous TV interview, which originally aired on November 20, 1995.

Diana’s revelations, shared with journalist Martin Bashir, stunned the world, painting the monarchy as cruel and oppressive and putting its future in jeopardy. Allegations about how and why Diana was persuaded to take part have remained unanswered since.

Diana: The Truth Behind the Interview builds on years of research to explore methods employed by the BBC to persuade Diana to talk. It features claims from insiders that the pubcaster created forged documents, and asks whether these were what persuaded the princess to go public.

Interviewees include Diana’s former private secretary Patrick Jephson, biographer Andrew Morton, and Sir Max Hastings, the former Daily Telegraph editor, who reveals how Diana told him the whole story long before the approaches from Panorama, but he declined to publish it because of fears over the fallout.

The exec producers are Dan Chambers and Tom Adams and the director is Andy Webb. The doc was commissioned for C4 by Fatima Salaria and is being overseen by Shaminder Nahal. Fremantle is the international distributor.

It follows last week’s news that rival terrestrial Channel 5 is also working on a one-off doc marking the anniversary of the interview.