"Diana, Our Mother: Her Life and Legacy" (2017) - ITV/HBO Documentary


If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
If someone finds out it's going to be online please post when it is available to watch !


LaRae
 
I'm looking forward to watching this tonight
 
I'm watching now; it's been a really good and insightful programme so far. I particularly liked the old clips of Diana and her brother from their childhoods. It was the first time I noticed a resemblance between Prince George and Charles Spencer!

Who is Harry Herbert? He's been quite frequently interviewed on the documentary but I'm not really sure what his relation is to Diana. I should really Google this, but I'm too lazy :D

It was really lovely of Harry to invite the victims of the Bosnian war to meet him and talk about their memories of his mother.
 
Harry Herbert is Porchie's younger son. The older one is the Earl of Carnavron - owns Highclere Castle aka Downton Abbey
 
HArry Herbert and Lady Carolyn Warren are brother and sister. She is married to JOhn Warren, the Queens horse trainer.
 
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Harry Herbert is Porchie's younger son. The older one is the Earl of Carnavron - owns Highclere Castle aka Downton Abbey



Thank you for clearing up my confusion, Skippyboo. I was wondering if he had a connection to the Carnarvons.
 
Excellent article in The Times re William and Harry - lots of quotes not just from tonights programme but from other occasions/

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/...m-prince-harry-and-the-new-openness-ffnxh85d8


Quote from the Times article regarding the TV programme:

The reference point for all involved, said the director Nick Kent, was to have something “the princes could show their children”

So they focused the programme on the memories, as they should.
It was all nice, full of good moments and love. In fact nothing was really new in that documentary. It was smooth, without drama ...
As such, i think it's not the long waited , defintive portrait of Diana. You can"t expect the boys to dig into the complex personnality of their late mother. I guess it's not their role. They deciced to retain the best of her, good for them !
 
So they focused the programme on the memories, as they should.
It was all nice, full of good moments and love. In fact nothing was really new in that documentary. It was smooth, without drama ...
As such, i think it's not the long waited , defintive portrait of Diana. You can"t expect the boys to dig into the complex personnality of their late mother. I guess it's not their role. They deciced to retain the best of her, good for them !

Agree a 100%. So much not mentioned that shows the other side of Diana and some of the awful things she did which must have affected her sons.

William just touched on one aspect when he mentioned being careful about letting the media in - I think that was a reference to how Diana got too close which led to really bad stuff like the Morton book and the Bashir interview.

But it was a tribute and as such it was good to see; none of the usual suspects turned up - enjoyed input from William van Straubanzee, Lady Carolyn Warren and Harry Herbert.
 
:previous: I am interested in the way that adults remember the past. From a woman present in the room with Blair and company when they were discussing the funeral on an open Conference Call, Blair and the powers that be desperately wanted the boys to walk behind the coffin, William was asked and absolutely refused and they didn't know he was going to until he stood with his father, grandfather, Harry and Uncle Charles. Harry was asked and, just as he was desperate to go to Paris with his father to bring Diana home. when asked he said yes. The reality of his mother's death had not registered in any 'real' way.

I think Harry was so traumatised by the reality, the actuality of what was actually going on around him must have terrified him, with an enormous number of people, largely silent as they passed, that the walk was long and unbelievably harrowing and emotional. It is hardly surprising that he announced that no child should be asked to do that as they are unable to understand the dynamics of what is about to happen.
 
Well if the people didn't become hysterical messes, there would not have been a public funeral. The boys would not have had to make that walk behind the coffin. There could have been a private funeral in Norfolk.
 
Diana would have been buried beside other Spencers at the family seat in Northamptonshire. I'm sure that's what the Royal family expected and wanted, as well. However she was mourned all over the world and the British public felt a huge sense of loss and wanted to pay their respects. So a public funeral was arranged. It wasn't the British public, 'hysterical' or otherwise, who insisted on Harry (or William) walking behind his/their mother's coffin.
 
"Diana, Our Mother: Her Life and Legacy" HBO and ITV

Well if the people didn't become hysterical messes, there would not have been a public funeral. The boys would not have had to make that walk behind the coffin. There could have been a private funeral in Norfolk.



Why do you say this ? From what I've read Charles wanted them to walk who ever made the decision it wasn't the people.Diana's life is full if only from getting in the car that night to IF Camila married Charles instead of Andrew.
 
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The hysterics and entitlement of the masses put the Spencer's and RF in a situation that was not good for either family including the grieving kids. If Harry feels it shouldn't have been done to him then hopefully it will never be done again to a child. I do like that William and Harry later walked behind the QMs coffin.
Either way the funeral should have been private. I'm glad to hear this was all just about memories of Diana as a mom and not another Saint Diana piece.
 
Diana was a public figure and her funeral was a public event. Harry may have been a ibt young to walk behind the coffin but he ahd the support of his brother, father, uncle and grandfather. and I think Philip was right to say to Will that if he didn't do it, he would probably regret it later when he was older. I think that it was probably a help to him later that he was able to accompany his mother on her final journey and pay her respect.
 
Well if the people didn't become hysterical messes, there would not have been a public funeral. The boys would not have had to make that walk behind the coffin. There could have been a private funeral in Norfolk.

There was always going to be a public funeral. She may no longer have been the wife of one future King, but she was the mother of another.
 
.....It wasn't the British public, 'hysterical' or otherwise, who insisted on Harry (or William) walking behind his/their mother's coffin.

No it wasn't. The boys should have been asked if they wanted to, not asked to do this.

Harry would probably have taken his cue from William, who with the option given to him could have responded differently. As it is, they feel it was something they were made to do.
 
I saw the program last night. It was well worth watching and not a puddle of self indulgent backward looking woe. It was far more a celebration of a life.

The interviewing styles of the two brothers is so interestingly different. Harry is not so very careful when he speaks and it becomes so much more obvious when juxtaposed with his brother commenting. For many comments, Wills is against a darker backdrop and Harry in a light filled part of the room in KP. I found myself wondering if that was their choice or the producers? Interesting.

There was almost no Catherine - and I did not miss her at all as it is not her story. Ditto Her Majesty and the POW. William poignantly described how he alone can represent his mother to the children.

I was also surprised at how much memory the program dredged up for me. It was so nice to see her again, young and not jaded. Or to remember her toward the end of her life when she picked up the torch for causes that were decidedly unroyal at the time.

And I had forgotten her walk. When she walked it was the most elegant glide. And she would change speed without any change to the glide when she saw someone she wanted to greet. Just remembering that lovely, floating, almost magnetic pull in her stride was well worth the program.
 
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It's about Diana's. Catherine never met her. What would she add to the program?
 
Richard Frediani @FredianiITV
#DianaOurMother gets 6.9 million viewers and 33% share. It's the most watched factual programme on @ITV since February 2009.
 
The hysterics and entitlement of the masses put the Spencer's and RF in a situation that was not good for either family including the grieving kids. If Harry feels it shouldn't have been done to him then hopefully it will never be done again to a child. I do like that William and Harry later walked behind the QMs coffin.
Either way the funeral should have been private. I'm glad to hear this was all just about memories of Diana as a mom and not another Saint Diana piece.

Would you have said that the funeral should have been private if she were still an HRH ? Probably not. Tony Blair was right: Diana was officially no longer a member of the RF and the Queen may have stripped her of her title and rank, but, in the eyes of the public, she was still a senior royal and, as such, a public funeral was appropriate.
 
My grandmother and I just watched the documentary. What a beautiful and touching program William and Harry dedicated to their mother. I loved the private pictures and videos. Also, the commentary from Earl Spencer, Lady Warren and others were great.

Although, I was a shocked not to see Diana's sisters, Jane and Sarah, in the doc. I thought they would want to share their memories too. Maybe it's too hard for them.
 
The film is much better than I've expected. It was shrewd to focus on memories of Prince William and Prince Henry. I thought Prince Henry's recollection about matchy awkward clothes Princes wore as children added informality to the narration.
 
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My grandmother and I just watched the documentary. What a beautiful and touching program William and Harry dedicated to their mother. I loved the private pictures and videos. Also, the commentary from Earl Spencer, Lady Warren and others were great.

Although, I was a shocked not to see Diana's sisters, Jane and Sarah, in the doc. I thought they would want to share their memories too. Maybe it's too hard for them.

I deliberately avoided this program, in fact I dreaded it. I had visions of maudlin and/or bitter commentary by the late princess's family and friends, with the Prince of Wales as a sort of invisible pinata in the background and everyone taking a passive aggressive swing at him. I had visions of videotape of Elton John warbling "Candle In the Wind" at her funeral, which frankly made me cringe then and now.

But reading your post and others has warmed my heart and made me wish I had seen it. It's just the way I want to remember Diana..fun, beautiful, loving her boys and being loved by them. We all know about her many flaws but why does anyone think her sons want to dredge them up now? I feel the same way about my own lost parents.

I made peace with the unhappy memories and dismiss them, and cling to the ones that bring me joy.

Thanks Dman, and everyone else for your comments.?
 
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Richard Frediani @FredianiITV
#DianaOurMother gets 6.9 million viewers and 33% share. It's the most watched factual programme on @ITV since February 2009.

I wonder what the documentary was in February in 2009.

I have just started watching the documentary. I'll see how I feel at the end of it.
 
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