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Princes protest documentary on Diana

Hasan Suroor

LONDON: The controversy over Channel 4's plans to show a documentary containing images of the dying moments of Princess Diana escalated on Tuesday after Princes William and Harry made a public protest, saying that it would be a "gross disrespect'' to their mother's memory if the channel went ahead with the film.

In a letter to the Channel's head of history, science and religion, Hamish Mykura, their private secretary Jamie Lowther-Pinkerton asked: "If it were your or my mother dying in that tunnel, would we want the scene broadcast to the nation? Indeed, would the nation so want it?"

Rejecting the Channel's claim that none of the pictures in the film showed Diana's face, the letter said the fact remained that it focused on the "closing moments of her life''.

Mr Lowther-Pinkerton, who had had a preview of the film "Diana: The Witnesses in the Tunnel" to be screened on Wednesday, said: "These photographs, regardless of the fact that they do not actually show the Princess's features, are redolent with the atmosphere and tragedy of the closing moments of her life".

In a statement, the office of Prince Charles said Princes William and Harry were left no choice but to make their feelings known. Channel 4 insisted that the documentary, containing pictures taken by the French paparazzi moments after the car crash in a Paris tunnel that killed Diana and her boyfriend Dodi Fayed, 10 years ago, served a wider public interest.

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