From Prince Harry and Meghan Markle stepping down as working royals to the death of Prince Philip, the monarchy has seen plenty of change and upheaval in the past few years. Even as the royal family continues to make headlines, however, its relationship to the British public is being dramatically reshaped as we question what role the monarchy should play in society today.

One major event that highlighted the fault lines that exist between the public and the royal family was undoubtedly the death of Diana, Princess of Wales. This summer marks the 25th anniversary since her tragic passing, which sparked an outpouring of public grief and left a lasting legacy on the modern era of the royal family. Now, one of the defining moments of the 20th century is becoming the subject of a new documentary that looks to bring a fresh perspective on the way the People’s Princess was treated in the public eye.

Helmed by Academy Award-nominated director Ed Perkins, upcoming Sky documentary The Princess looks back upon the life and death of Princess Diana, exploring the period from her engagement to Prince Charles in 1981 to her death in 1997.

Through the sole use of archival footage, the film will “turn the camera back on ourselves” to re-examine the public obsession with Princess Diana, and “illuminate the profound impact she had and how the public’s attitude to the monarchy was, and still is, shaped by these events.”

The documentary will also highlight the relentless commentary surrounding Princess Diana in the media during the 90s by way of real-time news reports, personal videos, audio recordings and paparazzi footage as it explores questions of complicity.

One of the biggest talking points around the new documentary is the inclusion of footage from Diana’s controversial 1995 Panorama interview with Martin Bashir.

Now widely-discredited after an independent investigation last May found that Bashir used “deceitful tactics” to obtain an interview with Princess Diana, which reportedly included the faking of statements to make it look as though her staff were selling stories about her, the news that the segment will remain in Sky’s documentary comes just a week after the BBC’s director-general, Tim Davie, pledged that the broadcaster will “never” again screen the interview.

“Now we know about the shocking way that the interview was obtained I have decided that the BBC will never show the programme again; nor will we license it in whole or part to other broadcasters,” Davie remarked.

“It does of course remain part of the historical record and there may be occasions in the future when it will be justified for the BBC to use short extracts for journalistic purposes, but these will be few and far between and will need to be agreed at Executive Committee level and set in the full context of what we now know about the way the interview was obtained. I would urge others to exercise similar restraint.”

The infamous interview, which remains one of the most watched pieces of television ever made, contained explosive revelations from Princess Diana about her marriage to Prince Charles. She also spoke frankly about her struggles with eating disorders and self-harming, and famously remarked that she believed there was a “campaign” being waged against her by royal staff.

“This feature documentary tells the story of Princess Diana exclusively through archive footage from the time, without commentary from today,” said a spokesman for Sky.

“As such a pivotal – if deeply unfortunate – moment in her life, this interview is featured briefly as a moment of historical record.”

The chilling trailer for The Princess illustrates the excessive media hype Princess Diana endured from the moment she became a part of the royal family.

Over clips of public crowds, paparazzi scrums and constant, blinding camera flashes, the trailer reveals how everyone had an unsolicited opinion about Princess Diana, building tension through vitriolic statements such as “she has a sick mind”, “she likes to be bloody well watched”, and “I think she’s very close to being a monster”.

“When you put a modern person in an ancient institution,” says one reporter over footage of Princess Diana’s hearse, “they will be destroyed.” 

In an interview with IndieWire, Perkins explained that the documentary isn’t looking to simply add noise to the existing cultural canon, which has recently seen the arrival of Kristen Stewart’s Spencer, season four of Netflix’s The Crown and Diana: The Musical.

“I’m very aware that this story has been told very widely before. I think it’s fair to say this is one of the most widely-told stories across the storytelling genres ever,” he began.

“I felt very strongly that the perspective that hadn’t really been explored before wasn’t necessarily trying to get inside Diana’s head. I wanted to try to do something different. The question that really interested me was, what does this story tell us about ourselves? What is our relationship to not just monarch but celebrity? What was our role and perhaps our complicity in this tragic tale?”

“We are trying to allow space in the film for audiences to bring their own hindsights into the story. We really tried with this story to not include the moments that everyone has already seen many, many times over the years.”

The Princess premiered in the UK on 11 June 2022 at Sundance Film Festival London before a nationwide theatrical release from 30 June. 

Sky has now confirmed The Princess will air on 14 August. 

In the US, the film will premiere on Saturday 13 August at 8pm ET to coincide with the 25th anniversary of Diana’s death on 31 August. It will be available to stream on HBO Max on the same day. 

Images: Getty