Watch the trailer for the Netflix documentary Harry and Meghan and the incendiary message is clear. There is one image that jumps out like a cold slap among the saccharine black-and-white shots of the joyous couple — that of Prince William and his wife Catherine in Westminster Abbey, looking frostily at the camera. The one-minute film ends with a shot of Meghan in tears, her husband behind her, head thrown back in what looks like despair. Netflix are not advertising that this story has a happy ending.
We don’t know yet what part the Waleses will play in the six-part series, airing next week, but the brothers’ relationship and what has gone wrong between them is clearly at the heart of this documentary. The photograph, taken in 2019 during a Commonwealth service, has been carefully chosen, and has Meghan and Harry sitting behind the senior royals, further emphasising an air of dissonance and separation.
Camilla is the fifth royal in the picture, and her presence is sending another oblique message about her role in this sorry family drama, one that harks back to Diana and two other revelatory interviews few of us have forgotten. And if, like me, you are ploughing your way through the fifth series of The Crown, we have been given a timely reminder by Netflix of the slow, brutal public collapse of Harry’s parents’ royal marriage (and the BBC’s role within it). Diana, her death, her time within the Palace, her complex relationship with the press and the undoubted hounding of her is the constant backdrop to the Harry and Meghan tale.
There will be howls of fury and derision from those who will view this series as another act of narcissistic vandalism, the couple lunging a stake into the bosom of their own family for financial gain, the timing overshadowing William and Kate’s visit to the US. And there will be a high cost. Harry again repeats his claim that he had to protect his family, while he further severs himself from the broader one.
Put the feelings of the royals aside, however, and the gazillions being made, do we really want the Sussexes to remain quiet? I have sympathy with Meghan’s defiant stance at the end of the clip: “When the stakes are this high, doesn’t it make more sense to hear our story from us?” The media never stop reporting on them and are gaining financially themselves. Some of the claims made by the Sussexes are serious for all of us, including that of institutionalised racism, and what appears to be a repeat pattern of behaviour by the Royal family towards outsiders: ranks closing in, newcomers bereft of serious support, mental health sacrificed for propriety. They do have form. Equally, one hopes Meghan will face up to talk about the claims against her of alleged bullying.
Meghan was rounded upon by some when during the Oprah interview she said a senior royal had questioned the colour of her unborn child’s skin. This week William’s own godmother, Lady Susan Hussey, was forced to resign from the royal household after asking a charity’s black chief executive, 61-year-old Ngozi Fulani, repeatedly where she was from at a reception hosted by the Queen, ending her lifelong service to the royals.
Lady Susan was the wife of Marmaduke Hussey, and we see them portrayed in the current Crown series. Hussey was the chairman of the BBC when Diana was tricked into giving her explosive interview by Martin Bashir. It turned out that she had reason to feel paranoid, carefully fed lies by the duplicitous journalist. At the time it was the BBC, not Diana, that was believed. And what the Sussexes are arguably doing is questioning an institution they see as having failed them, the power of an establishment media, and exposing the racism we know exists in our institutions, our police forces, the London Fire Service, the NHS, and schools.
This is going to be compelling watching. And there’s a serious documentary director at the helm, Liz Graber, a twice Oscar nominee. My thoughts echo that of Fulani, that difficult conversations need to be had. That it is not individuals that should be targeted but establishments so that they can progress. Let’s hope the Sussexes have kept this more noble goal in mind. The Royal family is an establishment that we as taxpayers largely fund. It does need to keep modernising; we are in a new era. No one likes families airing their dirty washing, but this is no ordinary family. And I suspect this documentary under the incisive, expert eye of Graber will have powerful points to make.
Boris Johnson deciding to fight Uxbridge is very telling...
Are we at all surprised that Boris Johnson has committed to fighting his Uxbridge and South Ruislip seat at the 2024 election? No. Today he may be giving a speech at a crypto conference but tarrying with opposition foes and remaining in the public limelight is his calling.
His allies, still wounded by his brutal removal last summer and buoyed by the continued terrible polls for the Tories, mutter that he may even return to frontline politics if the May election results are disastrous for Rishi Sunak.
The thought brings a shiver. I doubt he would risk a third public humiliation. Nor do I believe the gruesome task of being an opposition leader against Keir Starmer would bring him joy, but then again, you never know. Because what governs the happiness of our former PM is knowing we are talking about him. He is hoping his career at the forefront of Westminster is far from over.
... but to stay, he will need to support Rishi
As more than 100,000 ambulance workers vote to strike across nine trusts, our poor NHS has never appeared so forlorn or rundown. The Prime Minister should fear the growing sense that the Government has lost control over the day-to-day services we need and rely on — trains to get to work, doctors’ appointments, a guaranteed bed if we are severely sick, and a vehicle and staff to ferry us there. There’s a growing sense of Britain not working, a rising tide of unrest, and a country floundering.
Labour are right to think they can win Johnson’s seat, the odds are on for a Tory defeat. So the irony is Johnson needs to support Sunak for his own survival.
