Martin Bashir’s now discredited 1995 Panorama interview with Diana, Princess of Wales is described by one character in Jonathan Maitland’s new play as a watercooler moment. This crisp, questioning and perhaps too light drama argues that it was much more than that by interrogating journalistic practice and drawing (not entirely convincing) associations with today’s fake news.
We follow the making of the documentary through to Bashir’s fall 25 years later when his deceit was exposed in Lord Dyson’s report, as well as the BBC’s defence of his methods in the interim.
In Michael Fentiman’s production, an empty stage serves as Kensington Palace and BBC newsrooms. Diana’s former butler, Paul Burrell (Matthew Flynn), who serves as narrator, very much looks the part. Yolanda Kettle’s Diana is all coy, downturned glances and head tilts, with comical 1990s helmet hair. She is more victim than strategist here, steered by her lady in waiting, Luciana (Naomi Frederick, emanating inscrutable haughtiness). But there is a jarringly satirical note to Diana’s portrayal as the script seems to delight in sending her up: she talks about liking M&S microwave meals, describes John Major as sexy and offers her services for securing the Good Friday peace agreement.
Tibu Fortes’s Bashir is more compelling, initially resembling a faceless accountant but growing chillingly self-righteous. He positions himself as an outsider to get close to Diana and, when he is caught out, compares his journalistic methods to those of the Watergate reporters.
The humour also jars in its clever-clever irony, especially in the barely concealed parallels between Meghan Markle and Diana’s outsider status. A potential Oprah interview is mentioned and Diana muses: “Sometimes I wonder if I should just go and live in America.”
We zoom to the present day in the second act, the ghost of Diana returning for a reckoning with the unrepentant Bashir. His interview serves as a prism through which to examine modern news culture, the media’s purpose and the rise of fake news, with the suggestion that there is a causal link between this interview and the corruption that has followed since.
Trump’s voice can be heard in the swill of background broadcasts but the play bites off more than it can chew. We end with Diana’s regret that she has been “silenced” along with the interview, which the BBC has said it will never broadcast again. That seems rather a stretch, given that it is such a momentous moment in TV history that also changed the culture of the royal family for ever. As Burrell says: “Overnight the unsayable became sayable.”
• At Park theatre, London, until 25 October
