BBC ‘misled the public over Martin Bashir to cover up scandal over Panorama interview with Diana’
THE BBC will today be accused of “misleading the public” to cover up the scandal surrounding Martin Bashir’s Panorama interview with Princess Diana.
Bashir showed Diana false bank statements and convinced her Prince Charles was having an affair with royal nanny Tiggy Legge-Bourke to secure a chat with the princess.
The Panorama interview in 1995, watched by a staggering 23 million people, saw Diana declare “there were three of us in this marriage”.
In November 2020, the BBC director general Tim Davie launched an independent inquiry into allegations the corporation used dirty tricks to clinch the landmark interview.
At the time, a BBC spokeswoman revealed Bashir was "seriously unwell" with coronavirus complications and so was unable to be grilled about the deceit.
But today a tribunal hearing will hear allegations that the BBC concealed documents and misled the public over Bashir’s health, reports The Times.
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Emails between BBC bosses show they were in regular contact with Bashir.
Once such email shows Richard Burgess, the BBC director of news content, asking if he had a copy of a note written by Diana following the interview.
It reads: “I’m very mindful of your health, and not putting any additional stress on to you but equally I don’t want us to allow a particular narrative to develop if you have evidence to the contrary.”
He also quizzed Bashir over reports that he was seen in a club despite his alleged ill health.
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But Bashir responded by boasting about his friendship with Diana.
He said: “I do recall the Princess of Wales providing a handwritten statement, on headed notepaper, asserting that she consented to the interview without seeing any ‘documents’ nor was she coerced in any way.
“My recollection is that I gave the letter to Steve Hewlett, then editor of Panorama, and he said that it would be stored in the ‘BBC safe’, which I assumed was in Television Centre.
“Unfortunately, I did not keep a copy – foolishly – and so don’t have it to hand. I do have other correspondence, one letter in particular, in which she talks about how much she appreciated the interview and how it ‘gave her wings’
“We also continued to have a warm friendship after the filming — and indeed my wife, our three young children and myself, all went to Kensington Palace in 1996 for dinner. Our daughter remembers it because Prince Harry — who ate with us — took her to the bathroom and there were balloons around the table because [he] was about to celebrate his birthday.”
Meanwhile, Bashir’s response to claims that he visited a nightclub has been redacted in the emails released by the Beeb under the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act.
The emails have been obtained by Andy Webb - a documentary maker who first exposed the Panorama scandal.
He will appeal against the BBC’s refusal to release more than 2,000 further emails relating to the controversy.
A BBC spokesman said: “The BBC rejects any suggestion it has acted illegally.”
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“The fact there was contact between the BBC and Martin Bashir does not mean that he was, at that time, fit to participate in any detailed discussion of the events of 1995 — he wasn’t.
“This was ultimately undertaken independently by Lord Dyson in his investigation, once Martin’s health had improved.”