The TV Column

AETN wades in to sea of Princess Diana specials

It has been almost 20 years since Princess Diana died in a car crash. Amid a plethora of anniversary specials, Diana — Her Story on AETN stands out as the most personal.
It has been almost 20 years since Princess Diana died in a car crash. Amid a plethora of anniversary specials, Diana — Her Story on AETN stands out as the most personal.

It's hard to believe that it has been almost 20 years -- Aug. 31, 1997 -- since the world was shocked by the images of that mangled Mercedes that carried Princess Diana into that Paris tunnel. It seemed the entire world was in mourning.

An especially poignant documentary, Diana -- Her Story, airs at 7 p.m. today on PBS and AETN. It's followed by a related special about her childhood home.

As the news of Diana's crash unfolded, we learned that her "companion," Dodi Fayed, and the driver, Henri Paul, had died at the scene. Only Trevor Rees-Jones, Diana's bodyguard, survived.

Diana died of internal injuries several hours later. She was only 36.

Diana's funeral was held Sept. 6 at Westminster Abbey with 2,000 in attendance. An estimated 32 million people watched in Britain, while 33 million tuned in on eight networks in the United States.

An estimated 2.5 billion people watched worldwide, according to the BBC. That, literally, was about half the world.

The hour-long service was highlighted by Elton John's Diana tribute version of his song "Candle in the Wind." It had many in tears.

Diana was buried in a private ceremony at Althorp, the Spencer family estate in Northamptonshire.

Flash forward two decades and royal watchers have mainly skipped any interest in Prince Charles and switched their attention to the lives of Diana's children, Prince William (and wife Kate) and Prince Harry.

Nonetheless, Diana, the once-painfully shy teacher's assistant and nanny who captivated the world, continues to fascinate us.

HBO, TLC, ABC and National Geographic have all had Diana specials. Smithsonian Channel will have back-to-back documentaries on Sunday beginning at 7 p.m. NBC's turn, Diana, 7 Days, comes at 7 p.m. Sept. 1 and focuses on the week following her death.

What makes the PBS offering so special is that it's Diana reflecting on her own life in videos that are "direct and disarming." They provide an intimate and candid look into her life.

The videos were made in 1992 -- 11 years after she married Charles and four years before their divorce. But, as royal watchers well know, the troubled marriage was all but officially over by 1992.

By then, Charles had resumed his affair with Camilla Parker Bowles and Diana had turned for comfort to Major James Hewitt. Charles and Diana officially separated in December 1992.

PBS tells us, "The film places the story of Diana's life against the backdrop of a Britain in turmoil. The country needed a fairy tale. But as we know now, it didn't quite work out like that."

Diana made the videos because she felt she needed to set out on her own path apart from Charles. She had spent months with speech coach Peter Settelen, "polishing her speaking style, figuring out what her story would be, and determining how she wanted to present herself."

It was the amateur video sessions with Settelen that captured the real Diana.

"It is," PBS notes, "the only known, unmediated footage of Diana. Through this lens, we see her as perhaps only those closest to her did: lively, mischievous, humorous and charming."

In the hour special, Diana's life story is explored, revealing a privileged, but entirely relatable young woman who was determined to do everything in her power to protect her children.

PBS says, "A portrait of the private Diana emerges to complement the public one we already know. This account of Diana's life, with all her successes and weaknesses, marries the public person we think we all know with the private person we have rarely seen."

Those interviewed in the documentary include Anne Allan, who worked with Diana as her dance teacher for nearly a decade; Dr. James Colthurst, who knew Diana before she married Charles, and maintained their friendship up until her death; Ken Wharfe, who spent years as her personal bodyguard; and Patrick Jephson, who for almost a decade looked after Diana's official business and witnessed the problems between her and Charles.

• Secrets of Althorp -- The Spencers, 8 p.m. today on AETN. This is a repeat of a special that first aired in 2013 and serves as a companion to the special above.

Princess Diana is buried on an island in an oval lake at the center of the 14,500-acre Althorp Estate. The estate's centerpiece is the magnificent 90-room manor house where 19 generations of Spencers have lived.

Diana's younger brother, Earl Charles Spencer, is our host on the personal tour of Diana's childhood home (from 1975) 75 miles north of London.

I've seen about half the special and Althorp House makes Downton Abbey look like a rustic summer cottage. Well, almost.

The TV Column appears Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. Email:

mstorey@arkansasonline.com

Style on 08/22/2017

Upcoming Events