| TV REVIEW: Diana, Panorama & "Auntie" |
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| Written by Joanne Leyland | |
| Saturday, 12 November 2005 | |
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Page 4 of 5 It has to be said that, despite their best efforts, the producers of this documentary didn't manage to tell even half of the story as where was the other main player, the interviewer-turned-global-journalistic-superstar (well, in his mind at least, I believe) Martin Bashir? Of course, we never will hear what Diana later felt about her decision to lay bare her innermost thoughts on prime-time television. According to several friends who have since spoken out, though, the Princess regretted the interview until her dying day. 'The Princess & Panorama' did offer us one fascinating insight into Diana's mindset the morning after the broadcast. David Griffin, who worked as Princess Margaret's personal chauffeur for 24 years, met Diana in the courtyard at Kensington Palace. It was an awkward encounter, to say the least. According to 'Griffin' (as Diana referred to him) the Princess made a beeline for him and, following the niceties, asked him outright "what do you think?". 
"You know, the programme?" Griffin, a man who was surely accustomed to stubborn Princesses thanks to his years working for the Queen's sister, refused to bow down to Diana's blatant search for plaudits, instead pushing the Princess further by asking: "What programme?". "You know!" said Diana, now exasperated. Griffin asked her whether she really did want his honest opinion. "Yes", she said, "I really, really do". And so he offered it (big mistake!). "Quite honestly, I think you've shot yourself in the foot because in your silence was your strength. And you'll find now a lot of your friends and people you know will all run for cover, and some will even turn against you." "Do you really think so?" was Diana's naive response.  "Well only time will tell" replied the royal servant, at which point Diana turned on her heels to get into her car...but not without having the last word. "Well I didn't start it!" the Princess snapped in what was a clear reference to Charles's equally misguided 1994 interview with Jonathan Dimbleby. As so often happened when people told Diana something she didn't wish to hear, David Griffin was, in former Private Secretary Patrick Jephson's words, "sent to Coventry", snubbed by the Princess for a number of days. |
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