By Sammie Jones
The BBC today screened a moving documentary about the late princes Diana Diana, 7 days, chronicling the events which took place during the first week following the princess’s death in 1997.
The documentary took the nation back to that dreadful August in 1997 when the late princess’s death was announced, extending to her funeral. Footage of people leaving flowers at Buckingham Palace and Kensington Palace would have taking those old enough to remember the death back to that day of national mourning. Those of us to young to remember it vividly were given a strong air of the nation’s mood.
It also featured interviews with her sons who were 15 and 12 at the time. It also features interviews with their uncle Earl Spencer, and former prime minister , Tony Blair. Only a fortnight ago, Channel 4 featured a documentary revealing secret tapes of an interview by Princess Diana, in which the late princess expresses the pains emerging from her marriag break down. That documentary was later followed by a private recording of Diana’s phone call to the late singer, George Michael, in which she expresses her views that the Royal family were not a loving family.
On the month of the 20th anniversary of the Princess’s death, several inches of columns have been written about her death , the Royal family, and the alleged cause of her death. Last week, it also emerged that a psychic who claimed to have contacted Diana’s spirit conducted an interview with her from the other realm.
Contacts with spirits by psychics are disregarded by most of Western society, but thorough research suggests that there are psychics who actually make contact with spirits supposedly belonging to those who have passed. What is far from certain is that the feedback they get is always reliable or genuine, because that realm is complex and many times murky.
In the interview screened by the BBC, Prince Harry expresses anger and disappointment that ”the same people who chased her( his mother) through the tunnel, were the same people taking photographs of her whilst she was dying.
“William and I know that, we’ve been told that numerous times by people that know that was the case”, he says.
“She’d had a… quite a severe head injury, but she was still very much alive on the back seat, and those people that… that caused the accident, instead of helping, were taking photographs of her dying on the back seat. And then those photographs made… made their way back to news desk in this country,” he says.
Harry’s comments clearly rules out any personal opinion that Princess Diana was killed, as suggested by conspiracy theories , although it is difficult to imagine he would publicly express such thoughts even if he believed them. His comments show his pain and disgust for the photographers , whom he expected to show more smpathy and humanity for the princess in her dying moments. According to the Prince’s comments, photographers were more interested in making money for the story than they were in saving Princess Diana’s life.
REGRET
In the documentary, Harry confesses to regretting his last conversation with his mother.
Diana had caled a few hours before her untimely death, but a young Harry was in a rush to play.
Speaking in Diana, 7 Days, Harry, 32, said: “It was tea time for us, and I was a typical young kid playing with my toys.
“I was told my mother was on the phone, and I was like, ‘Ugh I really want to play’.”
In the documentary, Harry confesses to regretting his last conversation with his mother.
He said: “If I’d known that would be the last time, that conversation would’ve been very different.
“I have to live with that the rest of my life, knowing I was that 12 year old who wanted to get off the phone and play around with toys.”
Harry expressed disbelief in hearing the news, stating: “There was no sudden outpour of grief, of course there wasn’t. I don’t think anybody in that position at that age would be able to understand the concept of what it actually means going forward . Prince William spoke about being ”dizzy and disorientated”
DUTY
William reflects on his mother’s funeral and the duty and responsibility his mother had raised himand his younger brther, William.
“Both our parents had brought us up to understand that as best we can that there is this element of duty and the responsibility tt you have to do things that you don’t want to do.
“But I have to say, when it becomes that personal as walking behind your mother’s funeral cortège, it goes to another level of duty.
But I just kept thinking about what she would want and that she’d be proud of Harry and I being able to go through it and effectively she was there with us.”
He added: “I felt like she was almost walking along beside us to get us through.”
SUPPORT FOR PRINCE CHARLES
Prince Harry has expressed support for his father Charles, whom he says was supportive of them following their mother’s death.
Harry, who at the time of his mother’s death was holidaying at Balmoral with his brother, father, the Queen and Duke of Edinburgh, said: “One of the hardest things for a parent to have to do is to tell your kids that the other parent is dead”
“How you deal with that I don’t know but, you know, he was there for us”. All well said, but the Princes have made no comments about their father’s role in wrecking his marriage to their mother. It is a sensitive issue they can’t talk about, especially if they have been privy to Prince Charles’s own version about the doomed marriage. Charles was grieving too, according Prince Harry.
“He was the one out of two left and he tried to do his best and to make sure we were protected and looked after.
“But, you know, he was going through the same grieving process as well.” The brothers told of how the Queen made efforts to keep the tabloids away from them, and Tony Blair told of how sad the Queen was at the death and how conscious she was about the imapct Princess Diana’s death will have on Prince William and Prince Harry. He also spoke about her level of consciousness about public public opinion.
Former prime minister, Tony Blair said: “Today now 2017, you know we see Prince William, Prince Harry as people, people feel a close connection with. They speak like normal people, they act like normal people, you know, people don’t find them hard to relate to.
“It’s really important to wind back 20 years and realise, I mean, she was the first member of the Royal Family that people really felt behaved and acted like a normal human being.”
POWERFUL
Those words are powerful, implying that the Royals before then were not perceived as acting like normal human beings. The Royals had prior to Diana been perceived as having a robotic and superficial way about them. Princess Diana changed all that and revolutionised the Royal family, setting a high standard of public conduct reflected many years after until this day. Prince Williams and Harry have conducted themselves in ways that present them as being in touch with the people. The two brothers have done their mother proud in the very down to earth way they present themselves. William has been very much in touch with humanity, offering useful advice on mental health- a a generally tabood topic in modern day society. Her majesty the Queen herself was highly appreciated for her presence in the vicinity of the Greenfell fire that killed scores of victims , to offer her strong felt condolensces to angry survivors of the fire.
Princess Diana’s death left a huge void that is almost irreplacable. Hearing the pain of her children, especially Harry, whose cut his last phone call with his mother short, is so heartbreaking. Twety years later, the feeling is still raw, showing how much Harry and Williams must have endured over the years. The huge press attention since princess Diana’s death, and the recent documentary and leaked private telephone conversation with George Michael must all have taken their private toll on the two prince brothers. What viewers heard on Sunday night must have been a tip of the iceberg.