This documentary was aired on the UK satellite channel True Entertainment at 2.00am on Friday 13th December 2013.
Produced on the back of Andrew Morton's book "Diana: Her True Story" this 1992 TV documentary tries to give the viewer the impression that the breakup of the fairytale marriage was mostly the result of the pressures placed on the couple by everyone, & I mean everyone, and that any hatred, bitterness, or infidelity were unfortunate consequences.
The media, the monarchy, industrialists, past history, traditionalists, the tabloids, everybody, including us, the general public, were in some way to blame for the breakup of the royal marriage. To me, the documentary is a thinly disguised but firm debunking of the negative statements about Charles, as depicted in Morton's book.
Apparently, according to this documentary anyway, Charles' numerous official duties, his own drives and ambitions, and his honest commitment to his position as a royal prince got in the way. Apparently, Diana could not handle royal protocol but could manipulate a gullible public to her own ends. Apparently, Diana became too famous & Charles was picked on. Apparently, she was media savvy, and had no scruples in flaunting herself or the kids to the media limelight. Apparently, Charles liked this but Diana liked that, and so on and so forth throughout the programme. Every so often the documentary stresses the (sincerely) good deeds and actions carried out by our "macho" manly prince who has to have things his way, and then goes on to have a small dig at the princess of hearts.
Insight into Diana and her rationale is provided by Morton himself in the documentary. The rest of the commentators in the programme are on Charles' side. Neither Charles nor Diana appear in the documentary, except via archive footage on matters not directly related to the breakup.
As a piece of c/overt pro- royal/pro-Charles propaganda I don't think I have ever seen such blatant rose-tinting in 4:3 aspect ratio before. This puff piece for the Charles camp (sorry, I mean documentary) genuinely attempted to portray Charles as a forthright driven man who was wrongly demonized because of his outspoken views on (& this was actually stated about half-way through the programme - not by the prince himself I might add -) the followingÂ…
wealthy powerful institutions, the most powerful people in Britain, architects, the automotive industry, the agrochemical industry, oh, and peat producers no less.
It seems that all these influential rich people wanted to silence the future King of England. Why it was even suggested that Charles could have been the subject of an assassination attempt or a smear campaign - hint - hint.
At the time back in 1992 the UK was split between believing Di as a malicious gossip and liar and believing Charles as innocent of any sort of impropriety. It's now 2013 & 21 years later we can all look back on the events of 1992 and on what has happened since.
For what it's worth the documentary is a neat bit of social history. An attempt by the programme producers to show the prince in a good light and to stave-off (some seriously thought at the time) a very grave threat to the institution that was the monarchy of the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth of Nations. In 1992 it was produced as a foil to the bad press that HRH the prince of Wales was receiving.
Today the documentary serves no real factual purpose, but for those old enough to have been around at the time it reminds us how the establishment of the day tried to subvert such bad press against the monarchy. Today the breakup is a footnote in history and time has moved on. Today all it really shows us is how lucky we are when we meet the right person and how things can get all mixed up when a relationship does not work out.
Or was Diana merely breeding stock?
RATING 5 out of 10. roysix-1
Produced on the back of Andrew Morton's book "Diana: Her True Story" this 1992 TV documentary tries to give the viewer the impression that the breakup of the fairytale marriage was mostly the result of the pressures placed on the couple by everyone, & I mean everyone, and that any hatred, bitterness, or infidelity were unfortunate consequences.
The media, the monarchy, industrialists, past history, traditionalists, the tabloids, everybody, including us, the general public, were in some way to blame for the breakup of the royal marriage. To me, the documentary is a thinly disguised but firm debunking of the negative statements about Charles, as depicted in Morton's book.
Apparently, according to this documentary anyway, Charles' numerous official duties, his own drives and ambitions, and his honest commitment to his position as a royal prince got in the way. Apparently, Diana could not handle royal protocol but could manipulate a gullible public to her own ends. Apparently, Diana became too famous & Charles was picked on. Apparently, she was media savvy, and had no scruples in flaunting herself or the kids to the media limelight. Apparently, Charles liked this but Diana liked that, and so on and so forth throughout the programme. Every so often the documentary stresses the (sincerely) good deeds and actions carried out by our "macho" manly prince who has to have things his way, and then goes on to have a small dig at the princess of hearts.
Insight into Diana and her rationale is provided by Morton himself in the documentary. The rest of the commentators in the programme are on Charles' side. Neither Charles nor Diana appear in the documentary, except via archive footage on matters not directly related to the breakup.
As a piece of c/overt pro- royal/pro-Charles propaganda I don't think I have ever seen such blatant rose-tinting in 4:3 aspect ratio before. This puff piece for the Charles camp (sorry, I mean documentary) genuinely attempted to portray Charles as a forthright driven man who was wrongly demonized because of his outspoken views on (& this was actually stated about half-way through the programme - not by the prince himself I might add -) the followingÂ…
wealthy powerful institutions, the most powerful people in Britain, architects, the automotive industry, the agrochemical industry, oh, and peat producers no less.
It seems that all these influential rich people wanted to silence the future King of England. Why it was even suggested that Charles could have been the subject of an assassination attempt or a smear campaign - hint - hint.
At the time back in 1992 the UK was split between believing Di as a malicious gossip and liar and believing Charles as innocent of any sort of impropriety. It's now 2013 & 21 years later we can all look back on the events of 1992 and on what has happened since.
For what it's worth the documentary is a neat bit of social history. An attempt by the programme producers to show the prince in a good light and to stave-off (some seriously thought at the time) a very grave threat to the institution that was the monarchy of the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth of Nations. In 1992 it was produced as a foil to the bad press that HRH the prince of Wales was receiving.
Today the documentary serves no real factual purpose, but for those old enough to have been around at the time it reminds us how the establishment of the day tried to subvert such bad press against the monarchy. Today the breakup is a footnote in history and time has moved on. Today all it really shows us is how lucky we are when we meet the right person and how things can get all mixed up when a relationship does not work out.
Or was Diana merely breeding stock?
RATING 5 out of 10. roysix-1
