Princess Diana's brother demands BBC inquiry over Panorama interview

Princess Diana's brother has called for a BBC inquiry over faked bank statements he says helped secure his sister's historic Panorama interview.

Charles Spencer said "sheer dishonesty" was used to secure the 1995 Martin Bashir interview with the princess.

In a letter to BBC director-general Tim Davie, reported by the Daily Mail, the earl accused the BBC of a "whitewash".

The BBC has apologised for the faked statements, but it says a note from the princess says she did not see them.

"They had played no part in her decision to take part in the interview," the BBC said.

The corporation said it would investigate "substantive new information" but this was "hampered at the moment" by the fact that Bashir was "seriously unwell" and unable to discuss the claims.

Bashir, 57, currently BBC News religion editor, has been unwell with Covid-19 complications, the BBC said last month.

Nearly 23 million people tuned in to watch the Panorama interview, recorded almost 25 years ago, on 20 November 1995.

In the interview the princess famously said that "there were three of us in this marriage", referring to Prince Charles' relationship with Camilla Parker-Bowles. At the time Princess Diana was separated from Prince Charles but not yet divorced.

The letter comes after the Sunday Times reported that the director-general of the BBC apologised to Earl Spencer last week for the use of the fake bank statements 25 years ago but declined to open a further investigation.

In Earl Spencer's response, reported by the Daily Mail, he said Bashir had used the forged bank statements to persuade the princess into doing the interview.

The statements wrongly purported to show that two senior courtiers were being paid by the security services for information on his sister, the newspaper said.

Earl Spencer wrote: "If it were not for me seeing these statements, I would not have introduced Bashir to my sister.

"In turn, he would have remained just one of thousands of journalists hoping that he/she had a tiny chance of getting her to speak to them, with no realistic prospect of doing so."

Earl Spencer accused Bashir of "yellow journalism" - a term for sensationalist and unethical reporting - and said the BBC had not accepted "the full gravity of this situation".

The earl also said he had a letter allegedly written by Bashir in 1995, in which the journalist referred to false rumours about the Prince of Wales having an affair with her children's nanny, Tiggy Legge-Bourke.

'Absolutely will investigate'

In a statement, the BBC said: "The BBC has apologised. We are happy to repeat that apology.

"And while this was a quarter of a century ago, we absolutely will investigate - robustly and fairly - substantive new information."

The statement said Earl Spencer had been asked to share further information with the BBC.

It said: "Unfortunately, we are hampered at the moment by the simple fact that we are unable to discuss any of this with Martin Bashir, as he is seriously unwell. When he is well, we will of course hold an investigation into these new issues."

The BBC added that a "key piece of information" in investigations following the interview was a handwritten statement from the princess.

Her note "said she hadn't seen the mocked-up documents and they had played no part in her decision to take part in the interview".