How to Watch Princess Diana's Controversial BBC Panorama Interview With Martin Bashir
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Set during the 1990s, season five of The Crown explores a number of low points for the Royal Family, including Princess Diana's infamous 1995 interview with the BBC investigative series Panorama.
This interview was enormously contentious at the time, because it saw Diana speaking candidly about her relationship with her then-estranged husband Prince Charles, the reasons for their separation, and her private struggles with an eating disorder, postpartum depression, and self-harm. It was during this interview that Diana infamously said, "There were three of us in this marriage, so it was a bit crowded," referencing Charles's affair with Camilla Parker-Bowles.
But in the years since it aired, the interview has become controversial in an entirely new way, following revelations about how journalist Martin Bashir obtained access in the first place. A recent inquiry ended last year with the publication of a scathing 127-page report, which concluded that the interview was obtained under false pretenses. Specifically, Diana's brother Earl Spencer was "deceived and induced” by Bashir to arrange a meeting with Diana, and that Bashir had even falsified bank statements as part of this deception.
"By gaining access to Princess Diana in this way, Mr Bashir was able to persuade her to agree to give the interview,” Lord Dyson wrote in the report. Prince William issued a heartbreaking statement in which he expressed "indescribable sadness to know that the BBC’s failures contributed significantly to [Diana's] fear, paranoia and isolation that I remember from those final years with her."
Following the damning report, BBC Director General Tim Davie issued an apology to Diana, Charles, and their children. In the same statement, Davie vowed that the interview would never be broadcast or licensed again.
"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," Davie said. "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.”
Given how prominently the interview features in season 5 of The Crown, many viewers may be wondering how to watch the original footage.
Excerpts from the Panorama interview are featured in the HBO Max documentary The Princess, which makes extraordinary use of archival footage to explore Diana's relationship with the media and the British public.
Other documentaries have also featured extensive clips from the interview, including Channel 5's Diana: The Interview that Shocked the World, which is available to watch via Britbox on Amazon.
The full interview can also be found online, though it's always possible these links may be taken down in the future.
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