Get all your news in one place.
100’s of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading
Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
Jennifer Newton

Prince Harry and Prince William 'kept in dark' over new doc about Princess Diana's death

Princes William and Harry have reportedly been kept in the dark over a new documentary about the death of their mother Princess Diana.

It has been announced that the new Channel 4 show will explore the police investigations that followed the death of Diana and the conspiracy theories that spread in their wake.

The princess was 36 when she was killed following a car crash in Paris on August 31 1997 - almost 25 years ago.

The four-part series called Investigating Diana: Death In Paris will recount the dual inquiries into the incident – the first by the French Brigade Criminelle in 1997, the second by the Metropolitan Police in 2004.

Prince William and Prince Harry at the unveiling of a statue of their late mother Princess Diana (Getty Images)

According to The Telegraph, sources have confirmed that neither William nor Harry was consulted about the documentary or been shown a preview of it. Both princes have been protective of their mother's memory.

The documentary, a co-production between Channel 4 and Discovery Plus, will be told as a "gripping and forensic police procedural" and explore "how powerful individuals, the press and the internet created and fuelled conspiracy theories that overwhelmed facts and called into question the very nature of truth".

It will feature interviews with detectives from both forces, some of them speaking publicly for the first time.

The two princes with their mother Princess Diana in 1995 (Getty Images)

Love the royals? Sign up for the Mirror's daily newsletter to get all the latest news on the Queen, Charles, Kate, Wills, Meghan, Harry and the rest of The Firm. Click here to sign up.

The series will also examine the public's "insatiable demand for answers, which fuelled unprecedented press interest and the proliferation of online chatrooms, where speculation on the 'real cause' of Diana’s death became one of the first viral sensations of the early internet".

It is directed by Will Jessop and Barnaby Pell and made by Sandpaper Films, which was also behind Diana, 7 Days, about the week after the princess’s death.

Prince Charles, Prince William and Prince Harry look at the floral tributes left outside Kensington Palace following the death of Princess Diana (Getty Images)

Henry Singer, executive producer for Sandpaper Films, said: "This was a really important series to make — not only because we hope it will lay to rest the conspiracy theories that continue to obscure the truth of what happened in the Alma tunnel that night — but because the story is a window into the world today, where conspiracy theories no longer reside in the dark corners of the internet but have gone mainstream and are actually pushed by people in positions of real power."

Shaminder Nahal, head of specialist factual and commissioning editor at Channel 4, added: "This utterly compelling series explores in forensic detail what happened in the investigations following the death of Princess Diana – what it was like for the detectives working on a huge global news story that was not just a tragedy for the families involved, but a massive internet phenomenon too.

"In the end, the series asks profound questions about ourselves as a society and the nature of truth."

Meanwhile, another documentary charting Diana’s life, The Princess, will air this month after attracting controversy for including footage from her 1995 Panorama interview with Martin Bashir.

William has previously called for the footage of his mother never to be shown again and the BBC has vowed not to broadcast or license it.

Investigating Diana: Death In Paris starts on August 21 on Channel 4 and All 4.

Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100’s of titles, curated specifically for you.
Already a member? Sign in here
Related Stories
Top stories on inkl right now
One subscription that gives you access to news from hundreds of sites
Already a member? Sign in here
Our Picks
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.