BBC pulls Panorama investigation into Princess Diana interview

The BBC has pulled the broadcast on Monday of a Panorama investigation into its Princess Diana interview following the death of the Duke of Edinburgh.

The Panorama investigation into how Martin Bashir secured his interview with Princess Diana had been due to air Monday evening in a half-hour prime time slot.

But a decision was taken on Friday following Prince Philip’s death to postpone the screening.

A new slot will now be found in the schedules for a programme that is expected to be highly critical of Mr Bashir, the BBC’s current religious affairs editor.

A source said: “There is no way the BBC could run the investigation into the Diana interview on Monday. It was due out then but a decision was made within minutes of the Duke’s death to postpone the broadcast. There’s no new date yet but it will now wait until after the Duke’s funeral and will run at some point after that.”

The Panorama investigation is an intriguing one because it is the programme effectively investigating itself. Mr Bashir carried out the interview with Princess Diana – dubbed in some quarters the scoop of the century – for Panorama, the programme he was working for at the time of the broadcast in 1995.

In the interview, Princess Diana complained there were “three people” in her marriage in reference to the Prince of Wales’s infidelity with Camilla Parker-Bowles.

But Mr Bashir’s methods for securing the interview have now come under intense scrutiny as has an allegation that the corporation covered up a subsequent internal inquiry of its own. Mr Bashir is accused of using underhand methods, including deceit and lies, to achieve his scoop.

The Panorama programme, when it is eventually broadcast, is expected to be highly critical of Mr Bashir who has admitted to faking a bank statement which was then shown to Earl Spencer, Princess Diana's brother. The faked statement is said to have been instrumental in persuading Earl Spencer to introduce Mr Bashir to his sister.

The fallout from the interview sped up the divorce of Princess Diana from Prince Charles and it would be inconceivable for the Panorama programme to be broadcast just 72 hours after the Duke’s death and a few days prior to his funeral.

The BBC is already facing complaints from some viewers over its coverage of the Duke’s death after the broadcaster on Friday cut peak time favourites from the schedules, including the final of MasterChef on BBC1, and replaced them with programmes about the Duke on both BBC1 and BBC2.

Under normal BBC procedure a special form was posted on the corporation’s website to collect all complaints in one place although that was removed on Sunday after numbers of complainants dwindled. A senior BBC source has defended the BBC’s scheduling, explaining it has a duty to cover “historic events” rather than “chase ratings”.

The Panorama investigation into Mr Bashir – now delayed – is being conducted by John Ware, an award-winning journalist and a former stalwart reporter on Panorama for 25 years. Now a freelancer, Mr Ware is understood to have found damning new evidence that is likely to further undermine the BBC’s confidence in Mr Bashir.

It is unlikely Mr Bashir, who has been signed off sick after undergoing a quadruple heart bypass, will ever appear on BBC screens again. His fate is resting on a separate, internal BBC inquiry conducted by Lord Dyson, the former Master of the Rolls.

A BBC spokesperson said the Panorama episode was not being broadcast on Monday but insisted it had never been publicly scheduled. A source said it had never been billed and therefore could not have been pulled.

Mr Bashir has declined to speak publicly since the furore over the interview resurfaced last year, citing his ill health. But he is understood to have vigorously defended his methods in evidence given to Lord Dyson's inquiry.