{"id":20255,"date":"2022-08-14T09:00:16","date_gmt":"2022-08-14T07:00:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.radiotimes.com\/?p=1693938"},"modified":"2022-08-14T09:29:08","modified_gmt":"2022-08-14T07:29:08","slug":"the-princess-director-on-why-its-different-to-to-other-diana-docs","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/rss_feed\/the-princess-director-on-why-its-different-to-to-other-diana-docs\/","title":{"rendered":"The Princess director on why it\u2019s different to to other Diana docs"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>

By Minnie Wright\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Sunday, 14 August 2022 at 12:00 am<\/p>

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The new documentary examining the life of Princess Diana, her involvement with the royal family and the media and public\u2019s relationship with the monarchy arrives on Sky Documentaries today (Sunday 14th August).<\/p>\n

The Princess<\/a> director Ed Perkins spoke to RadioTimes.com<\/a> about producing an exploration of Diana\u2019s life against a backdrop of an abundance of such projects, from documentaries to dramas and movies.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think Diana\u2019s story is probably one of the most told and retold stories in the last few decades,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd there [have] been endless documentaries and drama films and podcasts and books out there.<\/p>\n

Perkins, who also directed documentary Tell Me Who I Am, explained his emphasis on making a film which offered a fresh perspective.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe felt it was really important to only make another documentary if we thought we had something new to say or a new perspective to offer up,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy sense was that a lot of the documentaries that have been made about Diana were consciously kind of interior \u2013 they were trying to get inside Diana\u2019s head, often successfully, but they\u2019re trying to kind of work out how she was feeling, trying to understand her psyche or what made her tick or what was motivating certain decisions.<\/p>\n

\"""\"<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>
Diana, Princess of Wales surrounded by police and security as she arrives for a visit to Harlem Hospital\u2019s pediatric AIDS unit in Harlem. New York City, USA. Feb 1989<\/span><\/figcaption> HBO<\/i><\/span><\/div>\n

\u201cAll of that is interesting but inevitably does involve a degree of speculation because, of course, we can\u2019t be sure how she was feeling,\u201d he continued. \u201cAnd so I felt that, for our film, the more interesting thing about Diana\u2019s story was not necessarily what it said about her, but actually what it says about all of us.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd so the thing that really formally makes our film different is that traditionally documentaries like this will be made by interviewing people that new Diana or experts, and they will be telling us from a position of hindsight what happened 25 years ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t have anything any headshot interviews in our film at all,\u201d the director said. \u201cOur entire film is built just out of archive from the time itself. And my hope is that that archive-only approach sort of allows us to take you back in time \u2013 almost like a time machine or a time capsule.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt takes you back into the 1980s or 1990s and doesn\u2019t let you escape and hopefully also forces us to turn the camera back onto all of us.<\/p>

\u201cSo yes, the film is about Diana, but actually what I\u2019m interested in is exploring us and our reaction to the story and I want the film to ask some complex but important questions about, yes, our relationship to Diana, but actually more broadly our relationship to monarchy, and our relationship to celebrity and celebrity culture, which obviously continues to evolve today.<\/p>\n

Perkins said the most important thing for him was the documentary\u2019s ultimate question: \u201cWhat was our role in this story? What was our complicity, for want of a better word, in this tragic tale?\u201d<\/p>\n

Additional reporting by Grace Henry.<\/em><\/p>\n

The Princess arrives on Sky Documentaries on Sunday 14th August \u2013\u00a0sign up for Sky TV here<\/a>. <\/strong>Read more of our\u00a0Documentaries<\/a>\u00a0coverage or visit our\u00a0TV Guide<\/a>\u00a0to see what else is on.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The latest issue of Radio Times magazine is on sale now \u2013\u00a0subscribe now<\/a>\u00a0and get the next 12 issues for only \u00a31. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to the\u00a0Radio Times podcast<\/a>\u00a0with Jane Garvey.<\/strong><\/p><\/body><\/html>\n

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