| TV REVIEW: Diana, Panorama & "Auntie" |
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| Written by Joanne Leyland | |
| Saturday, 12 November 2005 | |
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Page 3 of 5 What was also missing from this documentary was any sense of what it was actually like to be inside Kensington Palace on the momentous night of the recording. Not one person told us what happened before or after the cameras rolled: What was Diana's mood? Did she and the BBC team discuss possible questions beforehand? How did she behave with Martin Bashir, a man who some (falsely, it has to be said) later suggested was romantically involved with Diana? I was also intrigued to discover, purely via on-screen text, that most of the small group of men who were privy to details of the recording that would shake the monarchy and the BBC left their jobs in 1996. Was this simply a remarkable co-incidence or is it possible even one of these men discovered their job suddenly became 'untenable' thanks to pressure from above? So many fascinating questions, so few answers. 
Diana ultimately caused untold damage within the Palace and the House of Windsor, damage which sadly emanated through to her relationship with her own son (William refused to speak to his mother in the days after the broadcast) but few of us have fully appreciated just how much excess shrapnel is, today, still embedded in the walls of Broadcasting House. For have no doubt, Diana wasn't only wielding an axe at the heart of the monarchy, she wielded it too at the highest levels of "Auntie" (the affectionate name for the BBC). Maybe the Princess knew exactly what she was doing as who was Governor General of the BBC at this time? None other than Sir Marmaduke Hussey, the loyal and royalist husband of Lady Susan Hussey who in turn just happened to be a lady-in-waiting and close friend of H.M The Queen. Former members of the Panorama production team admitted they felt - knew even - that they could not confide in Hussey because his instinctive reaction would have been to warn and protect the Royal Family rather than the institution he headed. A damning indictment indeed for a man who was supposed to engender a feeling of trust between himself and his BBC 'family'. |
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