Today marks Princess Diana’s 65th birthday.
The book under review here details how she was entrapped into giving a BBC television interview with Martin Bashir, the very definition of a scoundrel. How he betrayed Diana is astounding; the fact he has been allowed to live is even more astounding.
This excellent piece of journalistic investigation is by Andy Webb, who worked as a BBC reporter for 15 years. He broke the story of how Diana was deceived into giving that infamous interview. The dominoes fell quickly: first, the interview in 1995, which prompted her divorce from Prince Charles in 1996, which led to her death in 1997.
In the interest of full disclosure, I attended her wedding in 1981, and later got to shake hands and have a chat with HRH. No, I cannot reveal what we discussed.
Those last two years of her life are appropriately likened by Webb to “a twisting Shakespeare plot, written as a soap opera. It is Shakespearean but it is horribly true, a story which will be picked over by historians and retold for centuries.”
A note first on two items of terminology: the Panorama interview, and the Dyson report. These two items dominate the book. The TV interview appeared as part of the regular Panorama programme on BBC (akin to 60 Minutes on CBS), and it aired on 20 November 1995. The Dyson Report, published in May 2021 by former Supreme Court Justice Lord Dyson, was an independent inquiry into how Martin Bashir secured his 1995 Panorama interview with Princess Diana. As Webb describes, it was a shambles. Even though it cost more than a million dollars, it “does not tell us how Bashir hoaxed Diana.” This book finally tells the world how he did it.
None of the bigwigs at the BBC come out of this scandal looking innocent, but Lord Birt, who was the head of the BBC in 1997, said this about Bashir. “Unless you understand that this was a serial liar on an industrial scale you simply cannot understand the story…in 100 years of BBC journalism can we think of anybody else who behaved in that kind of way?” Many Americans in 2026 are aware of what happens when someone in authority lies on an industrial scale, so think of that when you read here about Bashir.
As the author has stated, there are many plot twists in this sad tale. Trying to trace them in a book review is quite impossible, so I will confine myself to some general remarks on this excellent book.
First, on Dyson. He “failed in the most important task he had: to serve the public interest.” A document that Webb prints on page 103 “is the most valuable, most crucial piece of evidence we have of Bashir’s thoroughgoing duplicity, his wicked intent. This document was not even mentioned by Dyson.” Luckily, this smoking gun document was saved by Earl Spencer, Diana’s brother. Bashir furnished Diana, in person, with several forged bank documents that ‘proved’ her friend Tiggy Legge-Bourke had an abortion paid for by Diana’s husband!
Webb also encountered an 8-page memorandum, dated 22 April 1996, which provides a synopsis of the cover-up. It mentioned crucial incriminatory documents which have conveniently disappeared. The refusal of the BBC to explain what happened to them, combined with Dyson’s lack of curiosity about them, is beyond suspicious. What is certain is that Tony Hall, the Director-General of the BBC, covered up what he knew in April 1996. If he had not, then Earl Spencer “would have been alerted to Bashir’s duplicity. In turn Diana would almost certainly have received a briefing on the hoax which had been perpetrated. It is that realization which today members of Diana’s family find maddening and utterly heartbreaking.” If you want to read Bashit for Bashir, be my guest.
Amazingly, Webb tells us, “the full array of evidence gathered by Dyson remains a secret, immune from disclosure even under the Freedom of Information Act.” I hope that Prince William, when he comes King, will demand the release of these documents. He is quite familiar with this entire swamp. As our future King has publicly stated, “These failings, identified by investigative journalists, not only let my mother down and my family down; they let the public down too.”
So, despite it all, Bashir still lives. If you look for justice in this world, you will be sadly disappointed. An important book: buy it and weep.
Dianarama: The Betrayal of Princess Diana, is by Pegasus Books. It lists for $35.
Image of Princess Diana in 1997, Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons. This image was originally posted to Flickr by John Mathew Smith & www.celebrity-photos.com at https://flickr.com/photos/36277035@N06/5113074392 (archive). It was reviewed on 20 December 2019 by FlickreviewR 2 and was confirmed to be licensed under the terms of the cc-by-sa-2.0.