Tories want Diana documentary shelved

 BBC

A Channel 4 documentary featuring graphic images of the car crash that killed Princess Diana should be cancelled, the Conservatives have said.

Shadow culture secretary Hugo Swire urged the channel’s bosses to shelve the show Diana: The Witnesses In The Tunnel, due to be screened on 6 June.

It includes pictures taken by French photographers following the collision in Paris in 1997.

Channel 4 told the Observer it did not believe the images were intrusive.

The Observer reported that the film features a picture of the Princess of Wales being treated with oxygen by a French doctor along with images of the inside of the car.

Interviews with photographers who were at the scene and other witnesses are also included, the paper said.

Mr Swire said Channel 4 needed to remember that the princess was a mother as well as a public figure.

“This kind of coverage must be deeply distressing to Princes William and Harry,” he said.

“We would expect more from a public service broadcaster than showing sensationalist material in this way.”

He added: “The best thing Channel 4 can do for the British public and Diana’s family is simply not to broadcast this programme.”

‘Not intrusive’

A spokesman for Channel 4 told the Observer there was a “genuine public interest” in the events surrounding the collision.

He added: “We don’t think the pictures are intrusive and we have thought very carefully about the sensitivities of the families involved.

“Appropriate action has been taken to avoid unwanted intrusion into the privacy of the families.”

Earlier this month Channel 4 came under fire from media regulator Ofcom which ruled that the channel’s Celebrity Big Brother breached its code of conduct over the race row which dogged the series in January.

Crash inquiry

Diana, 36, and 42-year-old Dodi Al Fayed were killed when their Mercedes crashed in the Pont de l’Alma tunnel in Paris as they were being driven away from pursuing paparazzi after leaving the Ritz Hotel.

A three-year inquiry conducted by former Metropolitan Police chief Lord Stevens concluded that Princess Diana had died in a tragic accident.

The inquiry report said chauffeur Henri Paul, who also died, was speeding and over the legal drink-drive limit.

In 2004 Princess Diana’s brother, Lord Spencer, said he was “shocked and sickened” by the broadcast of photographs of his dying sister by US network CBS in a programme on the accident.

Inquests into the deaths of Princess Diana and Dodi Al Fayed are due to begin in October.

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