A new BBC documentary about the Royal Family has been postponed after lawyers for Prince Charles stepped in. The film, titled Reinventing The Royals, was to air on BBC2 and focused on how the Royal Family handled Princess Diana’s death in 1997.
The film was made without the cooperation of Buckingham Palace and Clarence House and was hosted by Steve Hewlett. It was scheduled to air in two parts, beginning on Sunday, Jan. 4. According to Radio Times, the film was seen by BBC2 senior executives and was already approved. However, BBC News head James Harding decided to postpone the film until later in 2015.
Hewlett, who was the editor of Panorama when Martin Bashir famously interviewed Diana in 1995, gave the Radio Times details on his film. He says has the film includes the first TV interview with Sandy Henney, Charles’ press secretary when Diana died. Henney told Hewlett that even before Diana’s death, Charles was obsessed with his public image and how to fix it.
“(Charles) was getting some pretty virulent criticism - bad father, unloving husband,” Henney says in the film, reports The Telegraph. “I think he was pretty hurt... if you've got a middle-aged balding man and a beautiful princess, it's a no-brainer as to who is going to get the media coverage.”
Hewlett’s film details how Charles hired Mark Bolland of the Press Complaints commission to work as a “spin doctor” for the Royal Family after Diana’s death. Bolland, according to Hewlett, had to focus on making Camilla Parker Bowles, the current Duchess of Cornwall, look good in the eyes of the public.
According to The Guardian, the BBC said that the film was delayed “until later in the new year while a number of issues including the use of archive footage are resolved.”
As for the Royal Family, a spokesperson said only, “Scheduling of television programmes is a matter for the broadcaster.”
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