 Martin Beshear's 1995 interview with Princess Diana was hailed as the scoop of the century. And even people who were too young to remember watching the original show, I include myself in in that category, most of you will likely have come across this particular clip. Do you think Mrs Parker Bowles was a factor in the breakdown of your marriage? Well, there were three of us in this marriage, so it was a bit crowded. Probably one of the most famous lines ever aired on the BBC. However, that interview once hailed as the BBC at its best is 25 years on creating quite a crisis for the public broadcaster. That's because in a new official report, the judge Lord Dyson has found that Martin Beshear, who conducted the interview, had used deception to secure the interview with Princess Diana. The deception included showing Earl Spencer, that's Princess Diana's brother, forged bank statements which purported to show payments were being made by newspapers to former members of his staff. He also forged documents which suggested Diana's staff were selling stories about her to the press. So these were to say, look, you can trust me, I'm giving you inside information. And also what that did was increase the idea among Earl Spencer and most likely we think Diana as well, that people in her staff were colluded with the press against her so to essentially make her suspicious of other people and trust him. They were a fabrication. Now Lord Dyson in the report found this was against the BBC's own policy of treating contributors fairly. He was also pretty damning about a BBC investigation at the time, which exonerated Martin Beshear. That was after similar allegations were made against him in 1996. So when newspapers had reported about these forged documents, they found that actually he hadn't done anything significantly wrong. Prince William has responded to the report. Let's take a look. I'd like to thank Lord Dyson and his team for the report. It is welcomed that the BBC accepts Lord Dyson's findings in full, which are extremely concerning. That BBC employees lied and used fake documents to obtain the interview with my mother. Made lurid and false claims about the royal family, which played on her fears and fueled paranoia. Displayed woeful incompetence when investigating complaints and concerns about the programme and were evasive in their reporting to the media and covered up what they knew from their internal investigation. It is my view that the deceitful way the interview was obtained substantially influenced what my mother said. The interview was a major contribution to making my parents' relationship worse and has since hurt countless others. It brings indescribable sadness to know that the BBC's failures contributed significantly to her fear, paranoia and isolation that I remember from those final years with her. But what saddens me most is that if the BBC had properly investigated the complaints and concerns first raised in 1995, my mother would have known that she had been deceived. She was failed not just by a rogue reporter, but by leaders at the BBC who looked the other way rather than asking the tough questions. Now those were pretty strong words by Prince William, the future king, although if we've still got a monarchy by them we'll talk about that later in this show. Suggestions that Bashir's dishonesty led to Diana's paranoia, I think when that clip or what most stood out, he's saying this contributed to in part the breakdown of my parents' marriage. I'm not sure quite if the timings work out there, but anyway, that's his perspective on what happened. Ash, should we care that Martin Bashir lied to get an interview with Princess Diana and that for 25 years the BBC failed to properly investigate it? Well look, you can care or not care as much as you like with this one, but I do think it's politically significant because of the problems it presents for the BBC. Because Martin Bashir was investigated three times before the Lord Dyson report happened and lots of doubt was cast on the methods by which he obtained the interview relatively quickly after that panorama first aired. So it was looked into three times, the investigation was helmed by Lord Hall who at the time was the director of news and he then became director general and there was also a cover-up operation which involved being evasive with the press, sort of misleading them, saying that all these rumours were just the work of jealous colleagues in the industry and all those things we now know to be untrue. And what this hints at is what we know to be a systemic problem within the BBC which is that when it looks at its stars coming under attack for their integrity the BBC would rather protect those stars than necessarily hold them accountable and this has got unfortunate resonances although it's of course a lot less severe, the damage that was done a lot less bad, but it does have unfortunate resonances with that look the other way policy that surrounded Jimmy Savile. So that is a problem for the BBC. What else is a problem for the BBC is that it lets tabloids off the hook for some of the more egregious and aggressive ways in which they pursued Princess Diana and which they pursue celebrities and anyone in the public eye overall. So you've got this you know quite unfortunate element of the story which is that what Martin Bashir did which is have these fraudulent documents made so that he could show them to Diana's brother Charles Spencer and sort of get this kind of you know weigh in and earn her trust is that that was quite a tabloid technique. So it wouldn't necessarily be unusual for a reporter who works at one of the red tops to operate in that way except now you've got this moment of opportunism from those tabloids the same ones which absolutely hounded Diana particularly in the later years of her life being able to say oh look it wasn't us we would never do something like that it's that naughty naughty BBC and by the way that's why you should get rid of my license fee right it's quite it's quite useful and a politically convenient narrative to you know bang the drum on at this time and then you've got the third thing which is what does this present for the royal family well it's something of a lifeline because they've not had a great year when it comes to the presentation of their family life on the one hand you do have a season of the crown which focused with laser you know with laser like focus on the marriage of Charles and Diana the fact that he was having an affair all that time her isolation her eating disorder her struggles with mental health and that breakdown of the marriage and that is of course one of the most watched television shows in the world so you had a renewed focus on Charles who was of course a future king and that relationship with Camilla and how it first started so that wasn't great for them you then also have Megxit the break of Megan and Harry from the royal family here in Britain in order to join a much more diverse but no less elite form of aristocracy in the United States you know the Oprah's and the Ellen's and the Obama's and all of that but what's really interesting to me is that on the same day you have Prince William putting out this statement where he's saying that BBC interview was responsible for the breakdown of my parents marriage it contributed to the paranoia and the fear of my mother in her later years you've got Harry on this new Apple TV series called the me you don't see essentially undertaking a broadcast therapy session in which he talks about the aggressiveness of the paparazzi the fact that his father failed to protect him sufficiently from the intrusions of the media and also in very candid ways about his mother's death and the parallels that he sees between the circumstances in which his mother died and the way in which his wife was treated not only by the British tabloids but also by the institution of the royal family itself so being able to sort of turn around from that and go no no no it's that BBC is very useful for an embattled royal family which is having to work quite hard to maintain its myth of being Britain's first family the epitome of all that is moral good and self-sacrificing in this country so this is a story which has come at the bad time for a BBC and a good time for everyone else yeah everyone else in the story I suppose is the key part of that for me something that strengthens the royal family and weakens the BBC and strengthens the tabloids I mean that's kind of a depressing picture isn't it