Season 5 of The Crown notably tells how the BBC journalist managed to convince Lady Diana to give her famous interview. So, true or false ?
If The Crown is a fictional series about the British monarchy, it is inspired by real events that marked the reign of Elizabeth II. Season 5 was particularly anticipated for this reason, because between 1992 and 1997, the royal family experienced several snubs, most of them given by Princess Diana herself (played here by Elizabeth Debicki).
In addition to their separation and then their divorce, this period is especially remarkable for the famous interview given in 1995 by the young woman to the BBC. A 54-minute video that caused a scandal as she once again tells the world that her husband has cheated on her many times and that he was not fit to be King, that she suffers from bulimia and how she didn’t feel supported by the rest of the family. Twenty million people were in front of their screens that night.
But what challenges in season 5 of The Crown is how the historic channel was able to convince Diana, or rather one of her journalists, to tell everything in front of the camera. Because Martin Bashir did indeed invent evidence in order to scare the Princess. The latter has approached a graphic designer to make fake bank checks proving that the team close to Diana is monitoring her every move. The goal ? Gain the sympathy of Earl Spencer, his brother, so that he convinces his sister to give an interview to the BBC.
netflix Actor Prasanna Puwanarajah cast as Martin Bashir in The Crown
The problem? Martin Bashir lied to his superiors about how he got access to the Princess. An internal investigation in 1996 revealed the case but the journalist was cleared. Case that was botched according to an investigation by British judge Lord Dyson in 2021 (known as the Dyson Report) which points to years of dysfunction within the English channel, starting with this interview. She reveals in particular that Earl Spencer was never questioned about his meeting with Martin Bashir and whether the doctored checkbooks were shown to him or not.
This account prompted the BBC the following year to issue a public apology for the behavior of its former journalist and to offer £100,000 in damages to Lady Diana’s former chief of staff who suffered from Martin’s lies Bashir.