Princess Diana, and the BBC

The Queen is a remarkable lady

In 2003, Crown Prince Abdullah of Saudi Arabia visited the Queen at Balmoral, her castle in Scotland. After lunch, the queen asked Abdullah if he would like a tour of the grounds. They ushered him into the front passenger seat of a Land Rover and to his utter consternation the Queen climbed into the driver’s seat and drove off.

It wasn’t until 2018 before women could apply for a driving licence in Saudi Arabia. It was reported that Abdullah implored the Queen to stop her running commentary, slow down, and keep her eyes on the road.

Give that woman 50 claps.

I can picture her mischievous smile as she trundled the Crown Prince around her estate. Her audacity highlights how preposterous it is to prevent women from driving. I wouldn’t take my wife to visit Saudi Arabia for that reason — I mean, who’d drive me home from the pub?

The BBC is a remarkable institution

Every quarter I pay £40.92 for my TV licence fee. Say what? Yes, I pay $230 per year to the BBC just because I can’t be bothered going to court to say I don’t watch or listen to anything they produce — and that would be a lie. The BBC produces some fantastic content, and it is nice not to have to fast-forward through adverts.

The BBC is self-proclaimed as the world’s leading public service broadcaster. They profess to be impartial and independent. They create world-class programmes and content that informs, educates, and entertains millions of people in the UK and worldwide.

Without the BBC we wouldn’t have had Sir David Attenborough’s Life on Earth, The Living Planet, or the many other outstanding contributions from his 70+ year career in natural history.

The BBC was hiding a secret

On 20 November 1985, the BBC aired an interview with Princess Diana by the then respected journalist Martin Bashir, in what was a sensational triumph. It has emerged that Bashir resorted to falsehood and forgery to convince Princess Diana to submit to the interview.

The Right Honorable Lord Dyson investigated the matter, and according to his report, Mr Bashir commissioned fake bank statements purported to show payments to a former employee of Earl Spencer, Princess Diana’s brother.

Mr Bashir also produced to Earl Spencer other bank statements which, he said, showed payments into the account of Princess Diana’s Private Secretary and the Prince of Wales’ Private Secretary. It is likely that these statements were created by Mr Bashir and contained information that he fabricated.

By showing Earl Spencer the fake statements and informing him of their contents, Mr Bashir deceived and induced him to arrange a meeting with Princess Diana. By gaining access to Princess Diana in this way, Mr Bashir could persuade her to agree to give the interview. This behaviour was in serious breach of the 1993 edition of the BBC’s Producer Guidelines on straight dealing.

Why it is such a scandal

These days, where we hardly blink at fake news, we hear fake news about fake news. With any other broadcaster, it would be little more than a plop of sugar rippling a teacup — but this is the BBC. We hold the BBC to a higher standard. We expect good governance.

Even Sir Cliff Richard has commented that the BBC executives involved in the cover-up of Bashir’s deceit deserve

“… all that must surely come their way.” — The Times Saturday, May 22, 2021

Prince William vilified the BBC in a statement to the press.

“BBC employees have lied and used fake documents to obtain the interview with my mother. It is extremely concerning. They have made lurid and false claims about the royal family.”

Prince Harry, freed from convention in his new life in the US, took it a step further.

“Our mother lost her life because of this.”

Final thoughts

The Queen is 95 and has all her faculties. She is a remarkable lady for her age, but she lives in a world that smells of fresh paint and cucumber sandwiches. She is as remarkable as your mother or mine.

The Queen made her point about the primitive laws of Saudi Arabia to their crown prince, but what about our antiquated system? We live in a country that confers special status and rights of birth.

In 2017, Forbes reported the wealth of the whole of the royal family at $88 billion. This year Forbes reported the Crown Estate pulled in more than $700 million, with more than $475 million in profits. The royal family receives 25% of the Crown Estate income.

I’m told that there are crazy Americans sending their hard-earned cash to one of the Kardashians to help her become the world’s youngest billionaire. However, unlike me with the royal family, at least they have the choice.

There are calls for our TV licence fee to be scrapped and to let the BBC fund themselves. I disagree. A once-respected journalist made an error of judgement — perhaps a criminal error. BBC executives were wrong to cover it up. It has now been brought out into the open. They will learn from this.

I might not have much of a choice about paying my licence fee but if it means receiving advert-free quality content, presented honestly and with impartiality, I’m happy to fork out the money.