Diana’s Panorama interview to feature in documentary next month

By Alex Green, PA Acting Deputy Entertainment Editor

Footage from Diana, Princess of Wales’ 1995 Panorama interview with Martin Bashir will air on Sky next month after the BBC said it would never again license it to other broadcasters.

The interview will feature “briefly” in The Princess, a documentary film that will be on Sky and its partner subscription service Now, after also previously showing in cinemas.

Directed by Oscar-nominee Ed Perkins, the feature utilises news footage, interviews and commentators to tell the story of Diana’s life.

Last week, the BBC vowed to never again broadcast the controversial interview or license it “in whole or part” to other broadcasters following revelations about how Bashir secured it.

The Duke of Cambridge has also called for the documentary featuring his mother never to be shown again.

A spokesman for Sky said: “This feature documentary tells the story of Princess Diana exclusively through archive footage from the time, without commentary from today.

“As such a pivotal – if deeply unfortunate – moment in her life, this interview is featured briefly as a moment of historical record.”

A BBC spokesperson said: “There are no live or outstanding licences for any or all of An Interview with HRH The Princess of Wales (Panorama, 20/11/95) granted by any part of BBC Studios.”

It comes after an inquiry led by Lord Dyson found the BBC had covered up Bashir’s “deceitful behaviour” and “fell short of high standards of integrity and transparency.”

The journalist was in “serious breach” of the BBC’s producer guidelines when he faked bank statements and showed them to Earl Spencer, Diana’s brother, to gain access to her, the report said.

BBC director-general Tim Davie said earlier this month: “Now we know about the shocking way that the interview was obtained, I have decided that the BBC will never show the programme again; nor will we license it in whole or part to other broadcasters.

“It does of course remain part of the historical record and there may be occasions in the future when it will be justified for the BBC to use short extracts for journalistic purposes, but these will be few and far between and will need to be agreed at executive committee level and set in the full context of what we now know about the way the interview was obtained.

“I would urge others to exercise similar restraint.”