Written by Sam Greenhill and Inderdeep Bains
Updated January 31, 2024 22:46, February 1, 2024 01:12
- BBC officials apparently quipped that the interview would cost him his knighthood.
BBC bosses joked they would be sent to “10 years in the Tower” over the Martin Bashir scandal, newly released documents reveal.
In a previously unseen internal message, senior officials appear to have quipped that their shocking 1995 Panorama interview with Princess Diana would cost them their knighthood.
Their “unguarded” exchange was captioned “hussy”. [sic]/Panorama’ and was broadcast after the late Queen’s lady-in-waiting, Susan Hussey, emailed the BBC about the matter. The emails are part of a trove of 10,000 pages of documents released by the company in connection with a program in which Princess Diana famously declared, “There were three of us in this marriage.”
Her interview was so shocking that the BBC’s then chairman, Lord Hussey, kept it secret in case he told his wife, Lady Susan, who the BBC feared would tip off Queen Elizabeth. When the scandal resurfaced in 2020 with emails revealing that Mr Bashir had forged and lied about Princess Diana’s credentials, Lady Susan emailed the BBC’s head of history, Robert Seeter. , asked ITV why the BBC felt it was right to gain Princess Diana’s trust. An interview her late husband recorded for the company about Panorama Stories.
A few days later, Mr Setter exchanged “reply all” emails with two BBC lawyers, Peter de Valle and Elizabeth Grace, with the subject line “Hussie/Panorama.” In it, de Valle writes: “Stretch 10 times in the tower…do they still have racks there?” I hope so. ”
In another article, Mr Sita joked: “Will my knighthood last after this?!” For some reason I don’t think so…” to which Grace replied, “I don’t think so. “Could you please take a deep bow?” Mr. de Val said. “I don’t think any of us will be on the honor list for the foreseeable future…and the Grenadier Guards are still working for her.”
The BBC left several pages of the email transcript blank, making it impossible to understand exactly what the three men were talking about. It claims these pages contain “legally privileged” information. Gaps in the exchange mean the exact context of what they said is not clear. Last night the BBC flatly denied that the unpleasant joke was about Lady Susan.
A spokesperson claimed, “This was an unguarded exchange between colleagues working remotely during the lockdown.”
The company has waged a two-and-a-half year legal battle against journalist Andy Webb’s Freedom of Information request, spending more than £200,000 of license payers’ money to prevent publication of 10,000 pages.
On Tuesday night, he finally gave up and handed over the documents to Mr. Webb, many of which were filled in with the censor’s black ink or simply blank pages. One 2020 email, which was not censored, revealed Mr Bashir blamed his “non-white” status at the BBC and “professional jealousy” for sparking the scandal.
Last night, another email revealed that the BBC had deliberately withheld internal documents that Mr Webb had sought in 2020.
Despite successfully finding the files he had sought, an email from his lawyer Miss Grace to the former BBC executive said: “We are not releasing all internal investigation documents at this time.” It was dark.
“This is the first time I’ve seen an internal email that indicates this is their idea,” Webb told the Mail. And he told GB News: “Right now, as we speak, people at the Information Commissioner’s Office are investigating whether the BBC committed any criminal acts, as I have alleged.” .
The BBC denies claims that it acted illegally by failing to reveal information. A spokesperson said: “Rather than trying to cover up or cover up the issue, the BBC has commissioned an independent inquiry from Lord Dyson to establish the full scope of what happened in 1995.”