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Martin Bashir Interview
Assessing an interview
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Martin Bashir Interview

Assessing an interview for cleanness
Context: BBC1 Panorama interview with the Princess of Wales, broadcast in November 1995
A. BASHIR: Your Royal Highness, how prepared were you for the pressures that came with marrying into the Royal Family?
DIANA: At the age of 19, you always think you're prepared for everything, and you think you have the knowledge of what's coming ahead. But although I was daunted at the prospect at the time, I felt I had the support of my husband-to-be.
B. BASHIR: What were the expectations that you had for married life?
DIANA: I think like any marriage, specially when you've had divorced parents like myself, you'd want to try even harder to make it work and you don't want to fall back into a pattern that you've seen happen in your own family. ……
DIANA: The most daunting aspect was the media attention …… But then here was a situation which hadn't ever happened before in history, in the sense that the media were everywhere, and here was a fairy story that everybody wanted to work. And so it was, it was isolating, but it was also a situation where you couldn't indulge in feeling sorry for yourself: you had to either sink or swim. And you had to learn that very fast.
C. BASHIR: And what did you do?
DIANA: I swam. …… It practically finished me off there and then, and I suddenly realised - I went back to our hotel room and realised the impact that, you know, I had to sort myself out. …… and by the end, when we flew back from New Zealand, I was a different person. I realised the sense of duty, the level of intensity of interest, and the demanding role I now found myself in.
D. BASHIR: Were you overwhelmed by the pressure from people initially?
DIANA: Yes, I was very daunted because as far as I was concerned I was a fat, chubby, 20-year-old, 21-year-old, and I couldn't understand the level of interest. ……
DIANA: We'd be going round Australia, for instance, and all you could hear was, oh, she's on the other side. Now, if you're a man, like my husband a proud man, you mind about that if you hear it every day for four weeks. And you feel low about it, instead of feeling happy and sharing it.
E. BASHIR: When you say `she's on the other side', what do you mean?
DIANA: Well, they weren't on the right side to wave at me or to touch me. ……
DIANA: Yes - which I felt very uncomfortable with, and I felt it was unfair, because I wanted to share.
F. BASHIR: But were you flattered by the media attention particularly?
DIANA: No, not particularly, because with the media attention came a lot of jealousy, a great deal of complicated situations arose because of that.

Pdf which includes James’s ratings of the above questions:
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NToC Activity-Assessing an interview for cleanness -Lady Di .pdf
76.9 kB
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