Diana on stage: Photos show The Crown actress Yolanda Kettle as the late Princess portraying her infamous BBC Panorama interview with disgraced journalist Martin Bashir in new play

• The late Princess of Wales is played by Yolanda Kettle, who starred in The Crown 
• READ MORE: Upcoming play about Princess Diana’s infamous BBC Panorama interview with Martin Bashir will use ‘very limited number of quotes

Princess Diana and Martin Bashir have been dramatised once again as the infamous 1995 BBC Panorama interview is portrayed on stage.

Production images of The Interview, which opened at the Park Theatre on 27 November, shows Yolanda Kettle’s Princess Diana sitting across from Tibu Fortes’s Bashir on stage.

The play, which runs until 25 November, is described as giving ‘an insight into the story behind the interview: the woman who gave it, the man who made it happen and the institution that broadcast it’.

In the stage snaps, Yolanda, 34, is wearing what appears to be a replica of the late blazer and skirt ensemble the late Princess wore for the interview with disgraced journalist Martin Bashir. She also has her short, blonde hair styled in a side-swept look reminiscent of Diana’s.

Yolanda previously starred in Netflix’s The Crown as the wife of inventor Jeremy Fry, who was Princess Margaret’s love rival. 

Images have been shared of Yolanda Kettle as Princess Diana in The Interview, which is currently on at the Park Theatre

Former journalist Jonathan Maitland, who was behind The Last Temptation Of Boris Johnson and An Audience With Jimmy Savile, wrote the production.

Michael Fentiman – who worked on a musical version of Olivier-nominated Amelie – serves as director.

Jonathan has also in past said that ‘substantial chunks’ of the interview would not be used for copyright reasons and out of respect for Diana’s eldest son, the Prince of Wales.

The play comes two years after a report by Lord Dyson concluded that the BBC had covered up ‘deceitful behaviour’ by Bashir, who used fake documents to earn the Princess’s trust. 

Stage photos show Kettle’s Princess Diana sitting down to chat with Tibu Fortes’s Martin Bashir, the disgraced Panorama journalist

Yolanda Kettle, who previously starred in Netflix ‘s The Crown as the wife of inventor Jeremy Fry, will play Diana, as Saving Christmas Spirit star Tibu Fortes takes on the role of former BBC journalist Bashir in The Interview at London ‘s Park Theatre

The stage production is yet another dramatisation of Princess Diana’s infamous 1995 interview which has been widely criticised

In 2022, Prince William made an unprecedented but furious statement criticising the BBC and Mr Bashir 

Prince William claimed that the ‘lurid and false claims’ made to encourage Princess Diana to sit down for the interview fuelled the ‘paranoia and isolation’ of her final years

The Interview runs from October 27 to November 25 at the Park Theatre in Finsbury Park, London

The BBC has promised never to show the infamous Panorama interview in full again following revelations about how Bashir secured a sit-down chat with Diana

The team behind the play has revealed there are several parts of the interview that will not be shown on stage due to copyright 

The onstage production of the interview is yet another dramatisation of the event, which is also to be immortalised in The Crown

Princess Diana is played by Yolanda Kettle, who also starred in The Crown

It led to a furious William, 41, demanding a boycott of the 1995 interview, blasting Bashir’s ‘lurid and false claims’ to fuel the ‘paranoia and isolation’ of his mother’s final years. 

‘The things that led to the famous interview and the events that came after it revealed much about our country and its institutions,’ Jonathan said of the historic event.

‘It’s definitely the stuff of drama and I can’t wait to see our superb cast and brilliant director Michael Fentiman bring it all to life.’

It was in the bombshell 1995 interview that Princess Diana revealed there were ‘three people’ in her relationship with Charles – referring to Camilla

The play comes two years after a report by Lord Dyson concluded that the BBC had covered up ‘deceitful behaviour’ by Bashir, who used fake documents to earn the Princess’s trust

Also in the cast is Finding Alice star Matthew Flynn as former royal butler-turned-I’m A Celebrity … Get Me Out Of Here! contestant Paul Burrell, Belgravia star Naomi Frederick as a character called Luciana Dyson and Spotless actor Ciaran Owens as Matt Wiessler.

The Interview runs from October 27 to November 25 at the Park Theatre in Finsbury Park, London.

It comes following recent reports that the BBC has spent £100,000 of licence-payers’ money on a legal battle to keep secret thousands of emails linked to Bashir’s notorious interview with Diana.

BBC chiefs have refused to release the emails that could reveal explosive details about how it handled the scandal as it erupted three years ago.

But documentary maker Andy Webb, who helped expose the cover-up, believes the BBC did not release all of its incriminating evidence. In 2021, he requested all emails between BBC managers and its information office sent from September to November 2000. 

The BBC has fiercely resisted his request for more than two years, hiring a legal team led by barrister Jason Pobjoy of Blackstone Chambers, who represented Boris Johnson during the Partygate allegations.

Actress Yolanda pictured in a scene in The Crown as Camilla Fry, alongside co-star Matthew Goode

Embarrassingly, the Corporation initially claimed its archive contained no further documents – only to then apologise after discovering 3,200 emails. It then, however, refused to make these public, arguing they are either irrelevant or contain ‘legally privileged’ information.

Now, figures obtained by Mr Webb, show how the BBC forked out more than £75,700 up until July in legal fees fighting his request. A day-long hearing was held at the information rights tribunal last month, pushing the Corporation’s likely legal cost beyond £100,000.

The spending comes after the BBC spent £1.4m on the six-month probe by Lord Dyson.

Mr Webb last month lambasted the Corporation for a ‘shocking’ waste of licence-fee payers’ money and questioned why it was still fighting to keep the emails under wraps.

He said: ‘The BBC say that all these emails I’ve asked for are “irrelevant”. Yet they have spent tens of thousands of pounds in public funds to keep them secret.

‘This looks like a shocking waste of licence fee-payers money and of course deepens my suspicion that the BBC is still covering up. If they have nothing to hide, why on earth don’t they release these documents?’

Under a possible compromise struck a few weeks ago, the BBC has agreed to let Mr Webb see a sample of 477 of its emails. The BBC apologised at the tribunal for ‘errors’ in its handling of disclosure relating to the Panorama interview.

Earl Spencer, Diana’s brother, told last month’s hearing that a BBC executive falsely claimed he conspired with Bashir to persuade Diana to take part in the Panorama interview.

A heavily redacted briefing by Lord Hall of Birkenhead – head of news at the time and later director general – to the BBC’s governors in 1996 suggested Earl Spencer gave Bashir bank statements belonging to his former head of security.

Asked last week if it was true that he had conspired with Bashir, Earl Spencer, who is backing Mr Webb’s case, replied: ‘No I did not.’

He also dismissed a suggestion made by a BBC executive that the allegation was already in the public domain before the broadcaster released Lord Hall’s briefing in 2020.

A BBC spokesperson said: ‘We are committed to resolving legal issues without external support, whenever possible, but there are times when we do need to draw on external legal advice and representation – that can happen when legal actions are initiated by others.

‘In relation to the ongoing proceedings regarding the handling of a Freedom of Information Act request, the BBC has accepted that errors have been made and has apologised to Mr Webb and the Tribunal.

‘The BBC has at all times acted in good faith, has taken extensive steps to try to rectify those past errors and is committed to fulfilling its obligations under the Freedom of Information Act.’

Mr Webb has in past also praised The Crown’s depiction of the interview overall but said there were a few aspects where it fell short of accurately portraying the ‘wicked campaign of deceit’.

Writing in The Telegraph Mr Webb said the scenes had been ‘carefully researched’ and showed how ‘horrendous’ the deception was, but fell short in depicting Bashir himself as the ‘lone assassin who duped his bosses as thoroughly as the Princess herself’. 

He also argued that The Crown did not go far enough in portraying Princess Diana’s fragmented state of mind when she sat down for the interview with Panorama – including how she falsely believed family nanny Tiggy Legge-Bourke had aborted Prince Charles’s child. 

However he noted this may have been due to timings when filming series five.

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