Why The Royal Family Was Never The Same After Diana ｜ Full Documentary

The summer of 1997 was the height of cool Britannia, as the country was swept by a new age of confidence and prosperity. It was a vision of Britain that Diana, Princess of Wales, had helped to create. She has turned us into a nation that expresses how we feel. Shaking up British fashion. What Diana wore, everybody wanted to wear. They're calling it dye mania, even the now obligatory lookalike competition. Revitalising crumbling industries. She was gold dust, you know, people were fascinated by this woman. Selling Britain to the world. I love her, next to my wife, I'd marry her. And rocking the House of Windsor to its very foundations. She had said to me, you know, I'm not going to go on this tour because it's dishonest. But how did this gawky Sloane ranger? She was a very shy little girl with a very strange little haircut. Usher in a new age that would change the way Britain saw itself and almost destroy the family she married into. I think it's a disgrace on the whole royal family. In a way, she shook them up because they had to confront their inaccuracies. Changing the relationship between the monarchy and their subjects forever. She burned like a comet, for better or for worse, through the House of Windsor. 1983, the most unusual royal tour in modern history is about to change the way the world sees the British monarchy. And now for all of our students on air today. Good morning, girls and boys. Right from the start, Princess Diana received an unprecedented level of Aussie adulation. Does Prince William have a favourite toy? Um, Jamie, he loves his koala bear he's got. Well, Diana changed the royal book of bringing up children because she had a hands-on approach. She was always in the royal nursery. She was there at feeding time. She was there at bath time. She was there at bedtime. Royal mums hadn't been there in the past like that. Children were always handed over to nanny and nanny brought up the children. She wanted to change her nappies. She wanted to be there and feed her children and read them bedtime stories. Everything revolved around William and Harry. Down Under, the young royal mum would prove to be a massive hit for both Queen and country. Diamania was born in Australia in 1983. The sheer fascination and the pop star-type welcome that Diana was getting wherever she went. Police restrained people as best they could but some individuals tried to break through. For some, the heat and the pressure were too great. There was fainting and there was collapse. Diamania heralded a totally new chapter for the British monarchy and a bonanza for the royal press corps. They had a sense that they were dealing with an absolute pro. She knew what they wanted. She knew the picture. That was the picture they'd all been waiting for. She knew before they did. We got one great picture after another. She was just a photographer's dream and when she smiled down your camera, wow, it went like that, you know, you knew you had a great picture. Around that time, you had these new celebrity magazines springing up. You know, they were putting Diana on the front. They didn't do that without thinking people wanted to buy it. In these six weeks, the Princess of Wales has probably become the world's most photographed woman. She was the hot story. She was the one that would sell papers. You could guarantee it and magazines. So she was vital to the industry. If she looked good, she'd be the first to go and buy the magazines to see the pictures. And I found that kind of refreshing because up to then, the royals were indifferent. She's entered into the spirit of the game and I think quite enjoyed knowing that we were fascinated by her but really knew so little about her at that stage. She was a golden goose who laid daily eggs for what used to be called Fleet Street. Diana's rising star in the mid-80s would help save a newspaper industry that was plunging into crisis. In the words of Rupert Murdoch, all the national newspaper production departments are overmanned by from 50 to 300 percent. Rupert Murdoch was going to war with a British industry stuck in the past and Diana was about to become the secret weapon in this revolution. 150 typesetters have given way to just 50. You were so unionised and Mr Murdoch decided that he was going to change the way newspapers are produced. Fleet Street's profits are paper thin, worn down by fierce competition for circulation and advertising and the burden of 19th century technology. This was a terrific revolution and it meant that newspapers could become immensely much more profitable. So the competition for news and particularly royal news about Diana was that much more fierce. I mean she was she was gold dust because every time you put a picture of Diana on the front there's no doubt the sale went up because you know people were fascinated by this woman. I can remember within the Mirror, for example, they knew that Diana helped to sell the newspaper. She really really had a sense of what a good picture was. She studied her coverage in quite a detailed way. The princess, dressed in sneakers and a tracksuit for the first time in public, had asked to drive an armoured personnel carrier. Her importance to the to the media was not just that she sold newspapers but that she created a whole new relationship between royalty and subjects. If you look at the way we organised overseas tours, it's a picture book and all the messages were right there in front of you and that worked extremely well. By 1985, Britain was riding the Thatcher boom years. The Charles and Diana Roadshow was tasked with capitalising on this newfound national confidence by selling Britain to America. The moment they saw her, the crowds began to cheer. Prince Charles had been here before but this was her first visit, bringing 5,000 people to Andrews Air Force Base to see her. She fulfilled our dream. She grew up and married the prince. So that's what every little American girl thinks about. Diana pulled huge crowds wherever she went. She was a sensation in America. It was brilliant for Britain. Her appearance in Washington was very similar to Beatlemania. Such was her drawing power. This five-day British invasion would change the way Americans saw the monarchy. Diana was about to transform brand UK. She was a natural with people, whether it was with the First Lady of the United States or a woman living in a homeless shelter. It was a real gift and it was one of the many talents she had that made her such an exceptional royal performer. This was a gala dinner as only the White House can provide. Immaculate marine guards on parade, the first couple standing outside on a cold night eagerly greeting their British guests. There was a big party at the White House and people who couldn't get an invitation had to leave town because it was such a disgrace to them that they couldn't get an invitation to see her. The presidential dinner would prove to be a huge test and a turning point for Diana. It was an evening of high glamour, the largely show business guest list chosen by Mrs Reagan. American royalty lined up for a dance-off with their British counterparts. Clint Eastwood was asked about his dancing prowess. Or might John Travolta step forward? She did. Now, Travolta had been a huge star in the 1970s, but his star had somewhat waned by the 1980s. And then suddenly there he was dancing with Princess Diana at the White House and he became famous all over again. He spun her around the floor and watched by Prince Charles, President Reagan and all the VIPs and she looked every inch a glamorous princess. I remember a great-son reporter I was working with at the time jumped in the lift with Travolta and got a quote, you know, she's a great little mover. I think you enjoyed it, didn't you, darling? It'd be an idiot if she didn't enjoy dancing with John Travolta, wouldn't she? And why did the prince think there was so much media fascination with their every move? It's nothing to do with me, it's my wife here. Diana's repeated trips to the States through the 80s and 90s made her Britain's greatest export. I love her. Next to my wife? I'd marry her. Would you like to see the princess if you could? Oh yes, I would. Why? Well, I'd give her a big kiss if I could get close. The one thing that I think people thought about Princess Diana is that she was a very modern reflection of where she came from. In Virginia, 6,000 turned out to see the Prince and Princess tour a store and view a display of British goods. I think it also did give Britain something by way of image boosting. You know, we've got an awful lot going for us in terms of punching way above our weight. Princess Diana had transformed Britain's image abroad and in the process created a revolution in royal press coverage. But what would be her next mission? She suddenly became aware of the power that she had with these amazing clothes. And more importantly, how long would her honeymoon with the press last for? Diana thought she could control the media. It was a dangerous game she was playing. 1981, Lady Diana Spencer attends her first posh function as Prince Charles's fiancee at Goldsmith's Hall in the City of London. It was in black taffeta. It was off the shoulder. Her choice of frog raises eyebrows. And by normal royal standards, it was fairly revealing. She was wearing this very, very dangerously low cut dress. It was probably a bit small for her. It was strapless. And it was probably just a fraction low in the front for a royal personage. But that dress was the first hint of a new era for a British fashion industry mired in recession. Diana would become their icon to take on Paris and New York. It was the first time that we had seen Diana as anything other than a rather prim, conservatively dressed young girl. And that was the beginning, in some way, of Diana realising that she had something that people wanted. For her new royal family, times would be changing. It indicated that she was not the tame little mouse that they had thought she was going to be. By the time Diana appeared on the scene, the monarchy was in its staid middle age. The Queen was respected, even revered, but she wasn't a glamorous person. Charles was certainly not glamorous. No doubt that Diana was an entirely different royal. It was much more Hollywood than royalty. She was caught up in this whirlwind of glamour and adulation that was coming from all around the world. She stood for the royal family, and suddenly the royal family was the envy of the world. But when Diana first emerged into the public eye, there was no hint she would become an international icon who would go on to change the face of British fashion. She was a very shy little girl with a very strange little haircut. She was a nanny. She sort of looked at the ground. How well are you coping with all the press attention? Well, as you can see, you can tell. Are you bearing up with it quite well, though? Because it must be quite a strain with all of us after you. Well, it is, naturally. Diana was very young, and she was very unworldly. She had had a very, very sheltered life. And I think she was very shy. Diana epitomised the Sloane Ranger. Posh young girls who hung around the King's Road and Fulham. They had scarves possibly knotted around their necks. They had ruffles at their cuffs. They were just a breed, and you could spot them a mile off. And Diana really was one of them. Many of Diana's Sloane-inspired early outfits were considered more fancy dress than fashion. I think it took a while for Diana to find her way with clothes. We had the pie crust fur collars. We had the sort of blazer-y jackets. We had the three-quarter length skirts. Dresses slightly below the knees and flat shoes on and just their little handbag. You know, not necessarily stylish. When you look back on it, a lot of what Diana wore was quite frumpy and old-fashioned. Didn't really do her any favours. In the first years of her marriage, Diana may have been out of her fashion depth, but she quickly reached out to experts. If you didn't know where to go, you'd obviously go to a top fashion magazine to get advice. She got enormous amount of help from Vogue magazine. One of the assistant editors there was a friend of her elder sister, Jane, and she helped Diana enormously. Diana was able to go and, in the privacy of their offices, try on things, try all the accessories, and the fashion gurus there would kit her out and help her. And they also helped her with her makeup and her hair. Hugely important for Diana. It was a great start for her. She was a good learner. She didn't look like a little nanny in the country anymore. She became a true princess who looked gorgeous. The dye look would make an immediate impact on the British high street. Now, we've seen here that you've actually put together a collection of what you might call lady-dye style clothes. I think it's what she's wearing that's been so popular. These sort of kilts, the slipovers, the v-neck sweaters, the little neckties, I think, and the flat shoes, of course, which she wears very well. She's got the height. What Diana wore, everybody wanted to wear. Initially, she had her hair in a bob, and everybody suddenly put their hair into bobs. She wore three strands of pearls around her neck. Suddenly, those were on every high street. They're calling it dye mania, with shops decorated in British fashion, t-shirts for sale, even the now obligatory lookalike competition. I think Diana was the first in the royal family who was copied, I mean, globally, within minutes, probably, of stepping out. All the cameras would be on what she was wearing, and probably the next day, there would be replicas of her frock, and everything would sell out. Creating Diana may not have been an overnight sensation, but it helped save a British fashion industry stuck in the doldrums since the 70s. Business had not been this good since the swinging 60s. As well as the influence of spontaneous street fashion, designers acknowledge their debt to the Princess of Wales, and romantic ball dresses are the highlight of the show finale. It's big money in fashion, and she was the icon for many, many years that they all wanted to have on their front pages, wearing their frocks. After the new lines are launched this week, they're expecting orders to flood in, boosting profits and job prospects to the boom levels of the 60s. She suddenly became aware of the power that she had with these amazing clothes. She realized she was telling a story about herself. She was telling a story about British fashion. She was telling a story about the royal family, and I think she rather enjoyed that. The royal family became box office. She certainly dusted star quality all over them, whether they liked it or not. Because people sat up and took notice of the Princess of Wales wherever she went, and so there was this beautiful British princess flying the flag for the UK wherever she went. And everyone around the world really wanted to know what she was wearing. They're obsessed with her fashion. They wanted details and little insights into her young children. All of that was a big boost, not only to the monarchy around the world, but also to UK PLC around the world. Over the years, Diana's homegrown, sophisticated style would evolve into a new, cool Royal Britannia, an iconic legacy that has been passed down to the next generation of Windsor wives. By the late 1980s, circulation wars within the British newspaper industry were about to stir up a catastrophic end to Diana's media honeymoon. Newshounds began to smell a whiff of disenchantment, a whiff of marital breakup in the air, so that the pack of royal journalists became that much more rabid. And Diana started taking a personal interest in the stories she was generating. She read everything that was written about her. She was elated if the press was saying nice things. She was utterly dejected if they criticised in any way. I've been a lifelong Republican and I used to write quite a lot about Diana and I wasn't very flattering. As a Mirror columnist, it was part of Alastair Campbell's job to question the role of the monarchy. One of the first conversations I had with her, she'd said, why did you used to write those terrible things about me? And I said, well, you read them. And that said to me two things. One, she really takes this media stuff seriously. But two, I think she genuinely wanted to know. Behind the scenes, Diana had opened a Pandora's box, breaking royal protocol by brokering secret deals with chosen journalists. Diana thought she could control the media. She befriended one or two journalists and she fed them stories. And it worked very well because the newspaper was delighted to have these inside stories from Kensington Palace. I think I probably wrote some sympathetic articles to the position that she found herself in and it came about largely because of that. Diana regularly fed scoops to Richard Kaye of the Daily Mail, often as a reply to negative stories that had already been broken by other papers. I was a royal correspondent and I was a friend of Diana's. So it'd be naive of me to say that she didn't know what she was doing when she and I became friends. So yes, she did use the media, but I would say that the media equally used her. She would arrange certain photo calls and she would plant stories in the press. So it was difficult to see how she could have her cake and eat it. The more she opened herself up to the media, the more the media demanded of her and felt that they had a justification. If they gave her good publicity, who was she to say that they shouldn't give her bad publicity? It was a dangerous game she was playing. She was supping with the devil, but she needed a longer spoon than she had. The media is very powerful and they took her down ultimately. With ample proof of infidelity on both sides of Diana's marriage, Fleet Street smelt blood and totally turned on their princess. There were the transcripts of the Squidgygate tape with Diana talking to a boyfriend late at night. The telephone conversation allegedly involving the Princess of Wales is reported to have been taped on New Year's Eve, six days after these pictures were taken at Sandringham in 1989. The tape exposed a level of dirt and revelation that shocked Britain, but it was about to get even worse. And then Charles, the Camillagate tapes, him having a long rambling late night telephone call. Revelations that she and Charles liked talking dirty did nothing to improve the brand. The embarrassment for them, I think just, you know, it's beyond belief. Diana and Charles' dysfunctional marriage damaged the way the nation saw a once sacred monarchy. It also came at a time when a new breed of ruthless celebrity photographer would rip up the royal rulebook. I hadn't heard of the paparazzi, particularly when I started out in this job, but she was hunted in a way that no other member of the royal family had ever been hunted. I remember one of them saying, there was no point having a picture of a Diana looking glamorous and smiling and beautiful because there were hundreds and hundreds of those pictures. We needed a picture of her looking miserable, hiding behind a carrier bag in tears. They were the pictures that made huge sums of money for them. She had to run in a doorway, didn't they, to get away from the photographers and was crying. And another time they tried to get in the lift with her. The paparazzi hounded her. I mean, she couldn't leave Kensington Palace without being followed, everything she did, wherever she went, there were scores of people on her tail. I mean, she used to even go to a gym every morning. She used to wear the same sweatshirt every morning, just hoping that they'd be bored by the same picture, but it wasn't to be, you know. There was a huge market worldwide by this time for her pictures. She tried not to interact with them. I mean, she took legal action against one of them and served a court of order on him, preventing him from coming within a certain distance of her. For Martin Stenning, the lens has suddenly been turned round, on the receiving end after the Princess of Wales accused him of stalking her, reducing her to tears and forcing her to become a prisoner in her own home. In 1996, British paparazzo Martin Stenning was banned from coming within 300 yards of the princess. In her thousand-word affidavit, the princess says she was persistently harassed and pestered by Mr Stenning. Stenning had trailed Diana on his motorbike every time she left Kensington Palace. This is a new standard for her. She wants to get rid of the royal photographers that follow her and I'm being set a president. If she can get away with it with me, she's going to get away with it with all of them. The newspapers needed Diana to boost their sales. Diana became like a drug to them. She was an addiction. Like every addiction, you need more and more and more until ultimately you implode. And that is exactly what happened with Diana and the newspapers. Look, if you talk to Harry and William about this, they think there was a point at which the press were treating her like an animal. You know, a fox being hunted by dogs. And it really didn't matter what they did to get to where she was and to what she was doing and to get the best picture. The war between Diana and press intrusion is still being fought today. In particular, with the withdrawal of Prince Harry from public duty. This is a problem that all royals have. They want good publicity when it suits them. They want privacy also when it suits them. And she wanted both in spades. And inevitably, she couldn't get it. In the end, there were absolutely no winners. Diana died. The newspapers had to rethink their whole way of working. Diana's battles with the press brought about a revolution in the British media. But her greatest fight would be behind the scenes. The princess's civil war with the House of Windsor would bring it to its knees and change it forever. Princess Diana transformed the British press as both a savvy player and a victim of the media game. But her greatest gamble was yet to come. Diana would risk everything to save herself from the royals and ultimately the royals from themselves. Diana trounced the royal family when it came to the court of public opinion. In 1996, a newly independent Diana embarked upon a solo trip to Australia. There's no flags. There's no royal rubbish. There's no mention of the queen. It's all Diana and it's beautiful. Gorgeous, gorgeous. Exactly what you dream about. Beautiful. Diana may have broken free from the House of Windsor, but the journey had been long and painful. It started when her marriage went into meltdown in 1992. She was a very emotional lady. A very emotional girl, which the royal family weren't used to. You know, someone, oh my God, you know, she's crying. She's crying. What do I do about that? But she was never going to hide her emotions. Diana had decided that she could no longer hide her unhappiness from the nation. She felt a deep sense of despair and depression and yet in public, she was having to put on a happy, smiley face. She felt that she was sacrificing herself on the altar of monarchy. The royal tour to India in February 92 would see her weaponise her true feelings towards Prince Charles and ultimately the Queen. The ruthless press pack were quick to pounce on the princess's body language. This kiss that's famously marked as the kiss that missed and clearly a very unhappy, saddened Diana to be even involved in such an embrace with her husband, I think sent out a very clear message. Then at the Taj Mahal, a monument to love, Diana surprised the cameras once again with a very clear message that she was very much alone. The little exchange she had with one of the press pack, one of them called out a question, what did you think of that, ma'am? And she said, very healing experience. The press guy said, what do you mean by that? And she said, work it out. And that was the message of the Taj Mahal. The palace's private business was being aired in an unprecedented way. But then Diana raised the stakes with a move few saw coming. That summer, sizzling details of the pain behind palace gates enhanced with glossy portraits produced the most sensational hardback of the decade. Diana, her true story looks certain to be on the way to the top of the bestsellers list. Today, the operation to get the books to the shelves began in earnest. The location has been a closely guarded secret. There are now just 24 hours to go before the book which claims to expose serious rips in her marriage goes on sale. Andrew Morton's book proved to be Diana's stealth attack on the monarchy. Only after her death did he reveal that she had actually been his main source. The book was done in total secrecy. It was in order to give her wiggle room so that when the book came out, she could deny any involvement. Diana knew that the book would be a huge gamble and a direct challenge to the House of Windsor. People were astonished by her treatment inside the palace and also her unhappiness. Revelations about the princess's bulimia and self-harming exposed a vulnerability that Buckingham Palace was ill-equipped to deal with. Five months later, Charles and Diana were ordered to sweep the dust under the carpet. The royal flight came to Seoul today through the rays of the setting sun for a colourful Korean welcome. It appears this trip has been specially designed to show the prince and princess of Wales in public together. Palace officials hope it will end speculation about their marriage. All Diana had to do was maintain a dignified public front of royal unity. She had said to me, Patrick, you know, I'm not going to go on this tour because it's dishonest. It's presenting a picture to the world that is not true. Diana went, but against her wishes. We were an unhappy organisation. We were keeping a lot of secrets. We were conscious that at the heart of what we were doing was this deceit. And that had a corrosive effect on day-to-day relations. Once again, Diana let her true emotions be known. The photographic images that came out of that tour of both the prince and the princess sat in the rear of the limousine with their heads in completely, totally opposite directions. And so this was the glums tour. And I think that that phrase aptly sums up their relationship at that particular time. And, you know, there comes a point, there comes a breaking point. India was part of that breaking point and certainly Korea was, when they could no longer, either of them, pretend that nothing was wrong with this relationship. It had been incredibly vindictive. They'd played out their differences through the national press and it had been the War of the Waleses. And it was unpleasant to witness. It was quite unpleasant to report on. Diana's cold shoulder shocked the Queen. Within days, she addressed Britain's elite in the City of London. 1992 is not a year on which I shall look back with undiluted pleasure. It has turned out to be an anus horribilis. It was impossible not to acknowledge the upheaval within the House of Windsor. No institution, city, monarchy, whatever, should expect to be free from the scrutiny of those who give it their loyalty and support. This sort of questioning can also act and it should do so as an effective engine for change. Two weeks later, this change would indeed be confirmed to the British public. It is announced from Buckingham Palace that with regret, the Prince and Princess of Wales have decided to separate. This is the first time in modern political history that the Palace has had to announce the separation of the heir to the throne. But both the Prince and Princess of Wales went ahead with their engagements today as if to show that they have continuing, albeit separate, roles to play. The majority of people were on her side. I think she's been pulled into something that she had no control over. And I don't think really she stands a chance against the royals. She had presented herself as a victim in a loveless marriage, who the royal family had treated badly, who'd been used and abused, and she took the country with her. Diana posed a challenge to the House of Windsor. She was far more touchy-feely. She was far more emotional. She was far more a woman of the people. In a way, she shook them up because they had to confront their inaccuracies, because they were not performing, as it were, in the way that the British people loved Diana for. When Princess Diana was in town, it was a huge boost for British interests. I remember in Moscow, the ambassador saying to me, I've been trying to reach some of these senior government officials and influential people for months, but now I can invite them to a garden party with Princess Diana, they're knocking my door down. So over and over again, it wasn't just the humanitarian work, it was the wider diplomatic value that Diana provided for the country. The Princess of Wales announced tonight that she's agreed to a divorce and so gave up any prospect of becoming queen. I don't think one could say Diana was a force for good for the monarchy. I think she very nearly brought it to its knees. The breakdown of that marriage and the interviews that she gave were almost catastrophic. The queen had been through her annus cerebellus and all the princes, all the families seemed to be marriages falling apart, newspapers turning against them, public beginning to think, what the hell are these people for? The dark years of Diana constantly brought up this story of, is the monarchy relevant? Does it matter? Is it comporting itself properly? We asked questions, we wanted the monarchy to be more accountable and all these questions hadn't been asked, I don't think, properly for a very long time. Diana's high-risk strategy ultimately paid off by creating a blueprint for the kind of monarchy the nation wanted to see. She was becoming a queen of hearts. She loved that. She loved what the press was saying about her and when she was walking through landmines in Angola, everybody was seeing her as this saint, this extraordinary woman who was prepared to put her own life in danger to publicise the horrors of war and what war left behind and I think it totally fulfilled her. Diana's whole concept of being involved with a charity was to raise awareness, to bring them out of the dark and to shine a light on them so that others might see their plight. That was her mission. Out of that, of course, came funding but she had to raise their awareness first. Diana now looked more like the future of the monarchy than the Windsors did but when tragedy cut short her life, her greatest legacy to Britain and the royal family would be in death. Over 16 short years, Princess Diana had revolutionised the way Britain saw the monarchy but would this dramatic change end when tragedy cut short her life? At three o'clock this morning, London time, they announced that Diana, Princess of Wales, was dead. I was just absolutely stunned. As soon as it was officially announced, the anthem was played and the tone became obviously extraordinarily sombre. The phones were going crazy and it was just through the night, just endless conversations with Tony Blair, with the people in Paris, with the press office and then I don't know what time of day it was but I remember the television was on downstairs and these images were playing and I just started crying. This country took leave of its senses. I mean, people were coming from all over the country that lay flowers at Kensington Palace and outside Buckingham Palace and outside up in Manchester and Leeds and it was amazing the love the nation had for that woman. Would you read what you've said on the card? What I've said on the card? It's not just what you've done for us that makes us love you so, it's all the joy of who you are, the friend we've come to know. Diana's life had exposed a nerve within the national character. There's always been a sentimental strain in the British people that's been masked by our stiff upper lip and that strain of sentimentality came to the fore during the funeral week when people were crying, praying, sobbing in public. I don't think the memory of Diana has dimmed at all since her death. I don't think anybody ever looked at Diana as a Hollywood celebrity. She was royalty right to her last day, whether or not she was still a working royal. There was something about her that was beyond celebrity. The people everywhere, not just here in Britain, everywhere, they kept faith with Princess Diana. They liked her, they loved her. They regarded her as one of the people. She was the people's princess. Tony Blair's use of the phrase people's princess defined Diana's status with the nation. I get asked all the time, how did that come about? Who thought of that? And the honest answer is I can't remember. We agreed it was okay to call her the people's princess and then we had a discussion about whether that's going to be taken the wrong way. You know, if she's the people's princess, does that mean that the royals aren't the people's? As the next week wore on, the royal family stuck to protocol and made no formal response to Diana's death. This put the Windsors out of step with the national mood. Up in Balmoral, the Queen was insulated from the mood of the moment. She didn't get it, nor really did Charles. Nobody up there in that strange royal bubble understood the huge explosion of emotion that was taking place throughout the country. The Queen doesn't show her emotions ever, really. Certainly not in public. And she suddenly found she was being expected to be emotional and to pay tribute to Diana, to leave Balmoral where she was looking after her grandsons and come down to London. For the first time in her entire reign, the public were critical of the Queen herself. Very, very, very disgraceful, in fact, their behaviour. Very disgraceful. What do you think, Madam? I think it's disgusting that they have not peered or said a word. Her private secretary spoke to me about it and said that we really feared by midweek there might be a mutiny in London. I don't think the Queen understood quite the strength of feeling down in the capital. As Diana was no longer an official royal, no flag could be flown at Buckingham Palace. I think they must be very, very cold-hearted not to have a flag up. I think it's a disgrace on the whole royal family. After five days of silence, the royal family returned to London to face the nation. The Queen finally broke royal protocol by flying the flag at half-mast over Buckingham Palace. They came up from behind the palace gates and they showed their feelings too. So what I say to you now as your Queen and as a grandmother, I say from my heart. First, I want to pay tribute to Diana myself. She was an exceptional and gifted human being. In good times and bad, she never lost her capacity to smile and laugh nor to inspire others with her warmth and kindness. This was the beginning of change within the royal family. I mean, Diana was really the catalyst of modernising the royal family. Diana's death marked a watershed. The depth of the nation's grief must have impressed the royal family, must have made them realise that they really do make a difference. Diana in death was an even more powerful force for change than she had been in life. The Queen had understood the strength of feeling was when she stood outside the gates of Buckingham Palace and as the coffin went by, the Queen bowed her head, the Queen who bows to almost no one, bowed her head in respect. And it changed us. And it changed the royal family. And they now express emotion in a way that they never used to. When she died, she suddenly overnight became Saint Diana. And there are a lot of people who do still view her that way. And she did have many saintly qualities. She was wonderful with people who were disadvantaged. She went around the world and she sprinkled fairy dust. And she will be remembered for that quite rightly. But she was ultimately a human being. And as all human beings are, she had her flaws. Diana's death had made public displays of emotion acceptable. And it turned the old Windsor formality on its head. Diana broke down, I think, some of the traditional stiffness and stuffiness of the institution of monarchy and indeed the British people themselves. There were lessons that the royal family learned from Diana, her approach to people. It's less formal. Even the Queen recognized that she had things to learn from the way Diana went about doing stuff. I think actually probably every decision that the Queen has made on really big national moments since has probably been informed by the mood at the time of Diana's death. I think she has turned us into a nation that expresses how we feel. What she proved to us was that if you show your feelings, it's sometimes a strength. Diana was a tremendous force of good for the royal family, but for our country too. What an ambassador for Britain. To project her hopes, ideals and dreams around the world and to do so much good in a short lifetime. What an incredible, unique and inspirational human being. Diana's life nearly destroyed the royal family, but against the odds, left the monarchy stronger. I think there's a paradox here. That yes, on the one hand, she shook them up and she was to some extent quite menacing in terms of her possible impact long term on the institution. You look at where they are now, X years without her, they're in a very, very strong place. She burned like a comet, for better or for worse, through the House of Windsor and she still leaves a very bright legacy now. In many ways, she secured the future of the House of Windsor. She reminded us about what a remarkable institution it is. I think the institution would, of course, survive without her and has survived without her, but she did something to it from which it has never really recovered. She changed it. That's what she did.