Harry & Meghan's Netflix Docuseries Uses Footage from Princess Diana's Controversial Panorama Interview
Princess Diana's controversial 1995 interview with Martin Bashir on Panorama remains a highly talked-about royal moments—even nearly thirty years later. In Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's new Netflix docuseries, Harry & Meghan, clips from the interview are used to discuss the impact of the press on the royal family.
Prince Harry says, "I think we all know she was deceived into giving the interview, but at the same time, she spoke the truth of her experience."
Yet, Netflix's decision to include clips goes against the BBC and Harry's brother, Prince William. This past summer, BBC apologized for the interview, after a 2021 report found that the interview was obtained under false pretenses.
BBC Director-General Tim Davie said in a statement, "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... I would urge others to exercise similar restraint."
After the report, Bashir apologized to Prince William and Prince Harry, saying he "never wanted to harm Diana and I don’t believe we did" and that he was "deeply sorry" to her sons.
Prince William has since said that the interview should never be aired. "It is my firm view that this Panorama program holds no legitimacy and should never be aired again," Prince William said in a statement released following the report. "It effectively established a false narrative which, for over a quarter of a century, has been commercialized by the BBC and others. This settled narrative now needs to be addressed by the BBC and anyone else who has written or intends to write about these events."
He added, "In an era of fake news, public service broadcasting and a free press have never been more important. These failings, identified by investigative journalists, not only let my mother down, and my family down; they let the public down too."
Prince Harry, too, released a statement at the time, saying, "The ripple effect of a culture of exploitation and unethical practices ultimately took her life. To those who have taken some form of accountability, thank you for owning it. That is the first step towards justice and truth. Yet what deeply concerns me is that practices like these—and even worse—are still widespread today. Then, and now, it’s bigger than one outlet, one network, or one publication."
Harry & Meghan is not Netflix's first foray into discourse around Princess Diana's Panorama interview. Last month, in season five of The Crown, the eighth episode recreated the interview. Actor Prasanna Puwanarajah, who plays Bashir, told Town & Country that he thinks it would've been "strange" if the royal drama didn't include the interview.
"It's so central to that, and it's so central to our understanding of that moment for the family and for Diana. It's one of many central elements in that decade," Puwanarajah said. "And as a piece of dramatization, it's really trying to shed light on not only the interview, but the events leading up to it. The aim of it is to portray and reveal sensitively and with care, and [Crown creator] Peter Morgan's always been a careful dramatist [around] events that actually are a matter for public record now."
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