The recent Netflix release of the final season of The Crown has revived interest in the life of Diana, Princess of Wales, and so it seems a good idea to release The Interview in digital format for a wider audience to see.
When Diana sat down with Panorama‘s Martin Bashir in 1995, it was an inflammatory watch and must-see television. It allowed her to put her side of the story of her rocky marriage to Prince Charles, but also hastened their divorce and her exile from the British Royal Family.
Jonathan Maitland’s play takes its theme and plot from his close research on the topic, and uses butler Paul Burrell as the ‘chorus’ commenting on scenes as they progress, alongside faceless BBC chiefs and titans.
Most of the filmed version of the play is presented desaturated of colour, a clever choice which removes any awkwardness of peeking into the personal side of Bashir’s journalistic courting of the Princess.
Yolanda Kettle sports the 90s hair, the half-smile, and the head tilt we all immediately recognise as shorthand for Diana. She is presented here as both victim and agitator when it comes to presenting her side of the story.
Tibu Fortes’s Bashir is duplicitous, unctuous, and malicious, and yet you still feel for him when his carefully built tower of cards collapses under accusations of fraud to obtain the interview.
As for Burrell, who may not be a reliable narrator himself, having sought fame by his connections since the death of his employer, Matthew Flynn captures the contradiction of a man who seeks service but also recognises the power behind it.
Some changes have been made from the stage production, notably where Bashir and his editor ‘watch’ the playback of the interview. Kettle sat in the audience for this, but here she sits in an empty row of chairs, emphasising her isolation.
Maitland’s play may feel more documentary than drama at times, but does a good job in recalling a major TV moment (“tea trolley moment”, as Burrell notes) both before it happened and 25 years later.
We don’t see the exchange itself. It’s getting harder to find since the BBC ruled never to repeat or license it again, but we all know what was said about three in the marriage, bulimia, isolation.
With Awkward Productions’s Diana: the Untold and Untrue Story and Lambert Jackson’s concert production of Diana the Musical also being staged recently, interest in the former Princess of Wales looks unlikely to recede any time soon.
The Interview is pacy, interesting, and beautifully directed by Michael Fentiman and produced by Original Theatre. I’m pleased it is now available for those who missed the run at Park Theatre earlier in the year.
The Interview is now available from Original Theatre until December 2025.
***.5