BBC executives joked that the Martin Bashir scandal would see them sent for a ‘ten-year stretch in the Tower’, newly released documents reveal.
In previously unseen internal messages, senior figures appeared to quip that the bombshell 1995 Panorama interview with Diana, Princess of Wales, would also cost them knighthoods.
Their ‘unguarded’ exchanges bore the subject heading ‘Hussy [sic]/Panorama’ and came after the late Queen’s lady-in-waiting Lady Susan Hussey had emailed the BBC over the affair. The emails are part of a trove of 10,000 pages of documents released by the corporation relating to the programme in which Diana famously declared ‘there were three of us in this marriage’.
Her interview was so explosive, the BBC’s then-chairman Lord Hussey was kept in the dark in case he told his wife, Lady Susan, who the BBC feared might tip off Queen Elizabeth. In 2020, as the scandal reared its head again, with the Mail revealing Bashir forged and lied his way into Diana’s trust, Lady Susan emailed the BBC’s head of history Robert Seatter asking why the BBC felt it was right to have given ITV footage of an interview her late husband had recorded for the corporation about the Panorama saga.
+4
BBC executives joked that the Martin Bashir scandal would see them sent for a ‘ten-year stretch in the Tower’, newly released documents reveal. Pictured: Princess Diana’s Panorama interview with Martin Bashir
+4
In previously unseen internal messages, senior figures appeared to quip that the bombshell 1995 Panorama interview with Diana, Princess of Wales, would also cost them knighthoods
+4
Their ‘unguarded’ exchanges bore the subject heading ‘Hussy [sic]/Panorama’ and came after the late Queen’s lady-in-waiting Lady Susan Hussey had emailed the BBC over the affair
TRENDING
Father who built 6ft fence to keep son safe ordered to tear it down
8.4k viewing now
Ten mistakes that show Meghan has the ‘worst judgement in the world’
21.6k viewing now
Huge cliff collapses and sends rocks flying onto beach below on coast
1.2k viewing now
A few days later Mr Seatter engaged in a ‘reply-all’ email exchange with two BBC lawyers, Peter De Val and Elizabeth Grace, with the subject ‘Hussy/Panorama’ (sic). In one, Mr De Val wrote: ‘Get you a 10-stretch in The Tower… do they still have the Rack there? I expect so.’
In another, Mr Seatter joked: ‘Is my knighthood to follow after this?! I somehow think not…’, to which Ms Grace answered: ‘Can you do a deep curtsy?’ and Mr De Val replied: ‘I don’t think any of us will be appearing in the honours list for a while… And the Grenadier Guards do still work for Her.’
READ MORE: ‘He is a disgrace to the BBC’: Journalist trying to uncover the truth behind Martin Bashir’s infamous Panorama Diana interview blasts his ‘pitiful’ claims he’s being criticised because he’s ‘non-white’ on the Mail’s YouTube talk show The Reaction
It is not possible to understand exactly what the trio were talking about, because the BBC has blanked-out several pages from the email trail. It argues these pages contain ‘legally privileged’ information. The gap in the correspondence means the precise context of their remarks has not been revealed. Last night the BBC categorically denied the distasteful jokes were about Lady Susan.
A spokesman insisted: ‘They were unguarded exchanges between colleagues working remotely during lockdown.’
The corporation has spent more than £200,000 of licence-payers’ money trying to prevent the 10,000 pages being made public, fighting a two-and-a-half year legal battle against journalist Andy Webb’s freedom-of-information requests.
It finally gave up on Tuesday night, handing the documents to Mr Webb – but many were swathed in censor’s black ink or were just blank pages. One of the emails that was not censored, from 2020, revealed Mr Bashir blamed his ‘non-white’ status at the BBC and ‘professional jealousy’ for the scandal erupting.
Last night another email showed that the BBC deliberately held back internal documents which Mr Webb had asked for in 2020.
Despite successfully finding the files he had asked for, an email from lawyer Miss Grace to a former BBC executive said ‘we are not releasing all of the internal investigations documents at this present time’.
+4
A handwritten note to the rogue reporter from Tony Hall (pictured), who went on to become BBC director-general, congratulated Bashir on ‘the interview of the decade’
Mr Webb told the Mail: ‘This is the first time we’ve seen an internal email indicating this was their thinking.’ And he told GB News: ‘Now, as we speak, people at the Information Commissioner’s Office are looking to see whether the BBC has, as I alleged, committed a criminal offence.’
The BBC rejects allegations it acted unlawfully by not revealing information. A spokesman said: ‘Far from attempting to conceal or cover up matters, the BBC commissioned Lord Dyson to conduct an independent investigation so that he could gain a full picture of what happened in 1995.’
News
EPHRAIM HARDCASTLE: Photographer Terence Donovan threatened to blackmail Diana’s secret biographer Andrew Morton unless he paid him £70,000 for a picture of the Princess
Society photographer Terence Donovan threatened to blackmail Diana’s then-secret biographer Andrew Morton unless he paid him £70,000 for the iconic tiara picture of the Princess used in…
The Crown will deal a fresh blow to William and Harry with overblown dramatisation of last phone call with Princess Diana – despite brothers insisting it was a ‘short and rushed’ chat
The final series of Netflix‘s royal drama The Crown will depict the last time Prince William and Prince Harry spoke to their mother – but it will not be a true reflection…
The ‘landmark’ Panorama interview with Diana enthralled the nation on this day in 1995 and won plaudits for the BBC. Yet it was a masterpiece only of cruelty and deceit which shamed those involved
It has been almost three decades since Diana sat down to give a television interview often discussed as a broadcasting landmark – and a moment in royal…
EMILY PRESCOTT: What a difference a Di makes! Two Christmas cards from Princess Diana to her godson Prince Philippos of Greece sell for £900 at Oxfordshire auction
Your average Christmas card might cost a few pounds, but if you happen to own one signed by Princess Diana then you’re sitting on a goldmine. Two cards she sent to…
Kim Kardashian finally wears Princess Diana cross she bought for $200K at auction – but in a much more revealing outfit
Kim Kardashian was one of the many stars to shine at the 2024 LACMA Art + Film Gala on Saturday in Los Angeles. On this night the always fashionable…
Rare Photographs Of Diana, Princess Of Wales
These are the kinds of moments that will make you smile and feel good. Diana is pictured here on a skiing trip to Austria with her kids,…
End of content
No more pages to load