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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
Entertainment
Susan Knox

The Crown bosses slammed for airing Princess Diana's bombshell Martin Bashir interview

The Crown bosses have been slammed for reenacting Princess Diana’s explosive Panorama interview against the wishes of her son Prince William.

Netflix bosses are set to feature Martin Bashir’s disgraced Panorama interview with Princess Diana despite her son William’s plea for it to be banned from TV.

The new series of the Royal drama is set to air an entire episode focusing on the tragic royal’s controversial tell-all chat with Bashir in 1995.

Eager TV bosses are said to have splashed millions on the episode devoted to Diana’s Panorama interview which has been surrounded by controversy for almost 30 years now.

Series 5 of The Crown opens in 1991, and a key storyline is the crumbling relationship between Charles, played by Dominic West, and Diana, who is being played by actress Elizabeth Debicki.

Netflix, which has cast Prasanna Puwanarajah in the role of Bashir, will show how the reporter persuaded Diana to give the bombshell interview by playing on her paranoia.

The streaming giant’s decision to dramatise Diana’s interview will be a slap in the face to her son Prince William after he hit out at the BBC .

The royal insisted that broadcasting the interview again and again holds ‘no legitimacy’ after a bombshell report found that Bashir used specific tactics to gain his mother’s trust.

Bashir used specific tactics to gain Diana's trust (PA)

Sharing his distain for the interview last year, William hit out at Bashir.

"This Panorama programme holds no legitimacy and should never be aired again," the Royal raged.

“It effectively established a false narrative which, for over a quarter of a century, has been commercialised by the BBC and others.”

Prince William has pleaded with Netflix not to reinact his mother's explosive interview (Press Association)

Criticising the BBC's decision to air Diana's controversial interview, Royal biographer Hugo Vickers said: "The Crown has been consistently dishonest from day one. They pervert the facts, they clash incidents together which did more or less happen to create something which most certainly did not.

"That they focus on the discredited Panorama interview with Diana contrary to the express wishes of Prince William, and when the BBC has promised never to show it again, is indicative of the depths to which they sink."

Elsewhere, Ingrid Seward, editor-in-chief of Majesty Magazine, also hit out at Netflix's decision to air the episode.

Bashir has been heavily criticised for the interview (Daily Mirror)
Prince William has hit out at the BBC for portraying his mother in The Crown (Press Association)

“This would be extremely upsetting and the only protection ­William has is not to watch it," she insisted.

An independent inquiry found that Bashir deceived Diana to get the interview, seen by more than 20 million viewers, and then lied to BBC managers.

The Mirror has reached out to a BBC spokesperson for comment on this story.

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