All language subtitles for Diana.7.Days.That.Shook.the.World.2017.1080p.WEBRip.x265-RARBG2_English

On Saturday the 6th of September, 1997,

at twelve noon precisely,

Britain fell silent.

Together the country
was remembering the life

of Diana, Princess of Wales,

following one
of the most astonishing weeks

in modern British history.

The death of Diana
was one of the greatest stories

of the second half of the 20th century.

It was a story that galvanized the world.

In just a few days,
the nation was brought

to the edge of a collective
nervous breakdown.

As grief turned into anger,

the royal family became the target.

They're the most cold people
on this earth.

It's the first time I'd felt, ooh,

I wonder if this is
what a civil war feels like.

I wonder if this is how it is
before it kicks off.

Now, key players speak
about that week for the very first time...

Diana's closest confidants who were
with her after her death.

I noticed that the hair
of the princess was moving.

And just for that...
massive minuscule of a second,

was she alive?

And members
of Tony Blair's inner circle.

I can remember Prince Philip's voice,

and he was talking about these boys,

you know, have lost their ma.

I mean, it was an extraordinary moment.

We reveal the story behind the
biggest royal crisis in half a century.

I actually think
that they've been totally unfair

to someone who, after all,
has given her life to our country.

-Don't cry.
-I'm not going to cry.

And how, faced with disaster,

the Queen fought back.

The Queen knew,
if she lost the affection of the public,

then their days really were numbered.

Diana always had a mobile phone
in her handbag.

So I rang her phone,
and it rang and rang and rang.

And I thought,
that's very strange because...

she always answers her phone.

I had a call from
the CNN headquarters in Atlanta.

Deep voice at the other end said,

"Can you tell me
about the crash in Paris?"

And I said, "What crash?"

Just after midnight on Sunday,
31st of August, 1997,

Princess Diana and her boyfriend,
Dodi Al-Fayed,

were involved
in a catastrophic car accident in Paris.

Early reports confirmed
that Dodi and the driver

had been killed instantly.

Diana was rushed to hospital

where she was taken
into emergency surgery.

News of the accident
began to reach Diana's staff

at her home in Kensington Palace.

I was in bed, the phone went, and I was
gonna have a good night's sleep

because I was picking
Her Royal Highness up that morning.

It was one of my colleagues.

He said, "Just sit on the edge
of the bed and be prepared."

On holiday
at her Scottish estate in Balmoral,

Queen Elizabeth was woken
by her private secretary.

She came out of the bedroom,
I remember somebody telling me,

and she was sort of clutching
a hot-water bottle.

You know, it's cold there,
even in the summer.

And the Queen's first reaction was,
someone had greased the brakes.

At the Pitié-Salpêtrière
Hospital in Paris,

Diana was given cardiac massage
for two hours,

as doctors tried desperately
to save her life.

But her injuries were too severe.

At 3 a.m. British Standard Time,

Diana, Princess of Wales,
was pronounced dead.

She was 36 years old.

Tonight's accident
is a terrible tragedy.

The death of the Princess of Wales
fills us all

with deep shock and with deep grief.

Prince Charles was with
his sons, William and Harry, at Balmoral.

The British ambassador in Paris
informed him before anyone else

of Diana's death.

When Prince Charles learned of her death,
he was absolutely distraught.

I mean, he fell apart,
completely fell apart.

He knew instantly that

this was going to be a terrible thing.

That this was going to be--
he will be blamed,

that they would be blamed
for the death of Diana.

At the same time,
Diana's sisters broke the news

to their mother, Frances Shand Kydd.

Diana had been due to return home
to London that day.

Everybody was just...
horror-struck, really.

Just...

a minute before,
I'd got a car to go and meet her.

You know, and that night she'd rung,
and she's gone now.

I experienced a whole...

um...

extraordinary cocktail of emotions,
and 20 years later, I still feel them.

It wasn't just those close
to Diana who were left stunned.

News spread rapidly across Britain.

I have a news flash,

and I'm sorry to have to be the one
to tell you this.

But Diana, the Princess of Wales,
has died.

There's very little I can say
at the moment.

I ran downstairs and I put on the telly
and I started watching it,

and my husband came in
and my kids came in,

and I was...
you know, you were mesmerized by it.

You... It was a totally shocking event.

On what would normally
have been a quiet Sunday morning,

the National Grid registered
a record power surge

as tens of thousands of kettles
and televisions were switched on

at the same time.

You know, typical British reaction is,
you make a cup of tea to console yourself

and then sit in front of the television.

Just the most awful news.

And that the shock for all of us,

every single person in this country,
will be immense.

Diana's death was our JFK.

It was our moment of real shock

at a cataclysmic, unexpected tragedy.

In an attempt
to calm people's emotions,

broadcasters played the national anthem
every hour.

It's still dark here
at Buckingham Palace.

A single light is burning
in one of the upstairs windows.

When the royal family will return here,
we don't know.

When we will get a statement from them,
we're not able to say.

At the moment, Buckingham Palace
remains dark and silent.

But the palace couldn't stay
quiet for long.

The impact of Diana's death would be
bigger than anyone could have predicted.

Faced with a tidal wave
of national grief,

the Queen was about to encounter
the biggest challenge of her lifetime.

Everything kicked off,

and it became
a very, very strange week to be alive.

At their estate
in the Scottish countryside,

the royal family was reeling
from the shock of Princess Diana's death.

They released a brief statement saying,

"The Queen and the Prince of Wales
are deeply shocked and distressed

by this terrible news."

Right from the get-go,
the Queen's view was,

the boys are the priority,

and the decision
the Queen and Charles took was that

they wouldn't wake William and Harry
to tell them that night.

They would wait until they woke up
in the morning and tell them then.

But that was about all
they agreed upon.

Soon it became clear
that Charles and the Queen

had entirely different views
about how to deal with Diana's death.

Charles took the decision

that he was going
to go to Paris to bring back Diana's body,

and in many ways, that was
a very surprising and brave move,

because he was a divorced husband,
he was an ex-husband.

He had no legitimate right
to be there, if you like,

beyond being the father of her sons.

Charles wanted to take
the royal flight to Paris,

but the Queen wouldn't agree to it.

There was a lot of tension
between Charles and the Queen

because the Queen's attitude was,
this was his ex-wife who'd just died,

that she was the kind of
warring ex-wife, actually, of their son.

Diana was no longer
a Royal Highness.

Following her divorce the previous year,

the Queen had stripped her
of her HRH title.

But Charles knew that his ex-wife
was adored by the public.

From the very beginning, he understood

that if the royal family
reacted in the wrong way,

people would blame them for her death.

Charles is said to have--
"What would you have,

that she came back
in the back of a Harrods' van?"

Finally, Charles won the argument.

You know, there really was a moment

when it looked like he was going to have
to fly commercial to Paris

and get a taxi at the airport,
which would have been incredible.

The irony is, Charles fought for Diana

more than he'd ever fought for her
in her lifetime, he really did.

The time had come to wake
William and Harry

and tell them the tragic news.

Harry begged to come to Paris
with his father,

but Charles decided not to put
his son through the ordeal.

Diana's brother, Charles Spencer,
was at his home in South Africa.

He was the first family member
to make a televised statement.

This is not a time for recriminations,
but for sadness.

However, I would say

that I always believed
the press would kill her in the end.

It would appear that every proprietor
and editor of every publication

that has paid for intrusive
and exploitative photographs of her,

encouraging greedy
and ruthless individuals

to risk everything
in pursuit of Diana's image,

has blood on his hands today.

Here he is. Here he is.

Here he is.

Tony Blair was
at his home constituency in County Durham.

He had only been prime minister
for four months,

and this was his first major crisis.

I went on the phone to Tony.
He was up in Sedgefield.

And he absolutely clocked it
straightaway.

There was a phrase
he used to use sometimes,

"My God, this is enormous doings."

You know, this is really big stuff here.

And we've got to just, you know,
be absolutely wise

and sensible and focused.

I feel like...

everyone else in this country today...
utterly devastated.

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.

And that's how she will... stay,
how she will remain...

in our hearts and in our memories,
forever.

In describing her
as "the people's princess,"

he was actually spot-on.

People watching that, you know,
hastily delivered eulogy

would be going,
"Yeah, she was, that's what she was."

Diana had a unique ability
to relate to ordinary people,

to cut across dividing lines
of race and class.

Of course you can.

She did have a radar
for whoever was in the room

who seemed to be left out or lonely
or in need.

And she would zero
straight over to that person.

Particularly amongst women,

here was someone
that they empathized with enormously,

that had her problems with bulimia,

that had her unresolved love life,

that had her difficult childhood,

and that somehow,
she was coming on through it,

and really being strong.

Diana's modern human approach
made her extraordinarily popular.

But it was in stark contrast
to the formal way

that the Queen and Prince Charles
did business,

and they found it difficult to compete.

Whatever she did was popular.

There was almost a sense of jealousy.

You know, "Why am I not like that?"

I saw it, I witnessed this
thousands and thousands of times.

Following her messy divorce,

Diana was seen as a great danger
to the royal family.

Charles and the Queen cut her adrift.

Now, they had little idea how to deal
with the consequences of her death.

Faced with tragedy, the family decided
to do as they had always done.

It was a Sunday morning,
so they would go to church.

The Queen Mother
and Duke of York in the leading car,

followed by Prince Charles,

Princes William and Harry
sitting either side of him.

The Queen dressed in black,
with the Duke of Edinburgh, followed.

The first thing we saw of the boys

was when they were going
to the church for Sunday service,

and people saying, "Well, how could they?
These boys have just lost their mother.

And they're going to church?"

At the royal family's request,

there was no mention of Diana
at the day's service.

A lot of people found it extraordinary

that, at that time,
no mention was made of her passing.

That, I think, did ring a bell
all over the country.

Many people believed that
the royal family was treating Diana

just as they had done when she was alive,
with cold detachment.

But the Queen was convinced
that any reference to Diana

would be heartbreaking
for William and Harry.

So great was her desire
to protect her grandchildren

that she ordered all TVs
and radios in Balmoral

to be moved or hidden.

Prince Harry actually asked his father,
"Is it true that Mummy's dead?"

Because none of them...

the children couldn't understand why
everything was as normal

except that a couple of hours before,
they'd been told their mother had died.

Five hundred miles away,
in London,

there were signs that something
extraordinary was beginning to happen.

I think the first bunch of flowers
were laid against the railings

of Buckingham Palace
round about five o'clock in the morning.

And people were surprised.
I was surprised.

Diana!

Within hours, the trickle
of mourners had become a steady stream.

In Paris, two of Diana's members of staff

arrived at the Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital,

where the princess had died
just ten hours earlier.

In life, they had been among
her closest confidants.

In death, it now fell to them
to look after her.

I was a mess.

Colin guided me through the airport
and onto the plane.

I don't even remember
the airplane journey.

Paul was very, very upset.
I was upset inside.

There was lots of things to do.

There's no way I was going to break down
or anything there.

I was going to try and arrange things,
see what was going on.

French police had cleared out
the emergency wards

and were insisting that Diana's body
be kept under their protection,

in a private room,
on the first floor of the hospital.

I honestly thought,
entering that room, looking at her,

"She's not really dead.
This is just a joke.

It's just a very silly joke.

So now you can wake up."

I then was getting worried about the room,

which was very, very hot.

And we looked up,
above the princess's bed,

and people were actually on roofs

trying to take photographs,
not knowing where the room was,

so quickly we called in some blankets

and I was standing on a chair
and we did put blankets up at the windows,

which, of course, made the room
twice as hot.

Diana's body had to be looked after
in the heat of the Paris summer,

so Colin Tebbutt placed fans
around the room to keep her cool.

I noticed that the hair
of the princess was moving.

Which was the fans
that I'd put in the room,

and, having been on top of everything
until that time,

I had to turn away and have
just 30 seconds to myself,

um, on a personal, emotional moment.

Because, I don't know, I thought,
good God,

you know, you look
at somebody's hair move,

and just for that massive
minuscule of a second,

was she alive?
Which was a silly thing to think.

Having flown to Paris
on the royal flight,

Prince Charles rushed to the hospital,

accompanied by Diana's two sisters,
Jane and Sarah.

He was met by the president of France,
Jacques Chirac.

The Prince of Wales arrived
completely out of it.

He was devastated.

This was a woman whom he loved,
in his way... many years ago.

We were standing outside the door,
the prince came up to me

and thanked me for coming.

The prince asked if there are
any members of the clergy there,

and Paul went and got the two vicars.

And then the prince, the two sisters,

and the vicars went into the room.

And the door was shut.

Prince Charles later said that
it was the worst experience of his life.

Prayers were held over Diana's body

before the princess was taken
from the hospital.

In a break with royal protocol,

Charles agreed that her coffin should be
draped with the royal standard.

I was quite delighted to see

that the royal standard
was placed over the coffin.

I thought that was very fitting
and a very, very nice thing to happen.

This was a sign that, in death,

Charles wanted to treat his ex-wife
as a princess.

Sixteen hours after Diana's death,

the royal flight touched down
at RAF Northolt, West London.

The Princess of Wales was home.

In front of the world's media,
Diana's body was taken from the plane.

The saddest duty that has
ever been performed at RAF Northolt.

I had told the photographers

that there were to be
no motorized cameras,

just single-shot, and you really
could have heard a pin drop.

Not a word was said amongst us.

It's hard to put into words

how a bunch of really
hard-nosed journalists,

photojournalists
who had been with this lady

and covered some pretty
hairy events around the world,

and there we were
in total shock, if you like,

thinking that there she is.

It's something you don't forget.
You can't forget it.

Diana's coffin had to be taken
to central London.

On the 15-mile journey,

her escort was confronted
by something astonishing.

The hearse left RAF Northolt,

and I got in my car
and sort of followed it down,

and I was absolutely flabbergasted
at how cars had stopped

on the westbound carriageway of the M40,

and people got out and stood alongside
the central reservation barrier.

People, people, people.

Absolutely frighteningly amazing.

But this was only a hint
of what was to come.

As the public came to terms
with Diana's death,

Britain would find itself in the midst
of a collective nervous breakdown.

Twenty-four hours
after Princess Diana's death,

Britain was in turmoil.

In central London, 6,000 people an hour
were now streaming

to the royal palaces
to pay their respects.

We came out the back of
Downing Street and we walked up the Mall,

and it was palpable immediately.

You know, you could smell it,
you could see it, you could hear it.

I mean, there were hundreds of people
carrying the flowers,

so we were completely gobsmacked.

Diana's body had been taken
to lie in state

at St. James's Palace.

When books of condolence
were set up at the palace,

it rapidly became a magnet

to the thousands who wanted
to pay their respects.

Grief is often followed by anger,

and beneath the tears,
a simmering resentment

was already building.

The public believed that Diana
had been killed by the paparazzi,

so they were blaming the press.

-You helped to kill her.
-I helped to kill her?

Not you, not you, but your profession.

My profession.
You've never bought a newspaper?

I don't buy them
when they're sordid.

Don't you think that
what you're doing is wrong?

We've lost a lovely person for nothing.
You're horrible.

Hope you really feel proud of yourselves.

I went down
to see what was happening.

There had been reports
of people being jostled

and journalists asking questions
and people saying,

"It's all your bloody fault,"
and, you know,

"How dare you come down here?
And what do you think you're doing?"

So there was quite a lot of that around,
and I felt the mood was quite ugly.

-Shouldn't blame journalism...
-If there was no money

in the photographs, they wouldn't
have been after her in the tunnel.

I was on my own,

and somebody comes up, digs me in the back
and she started swearing

and saying, you know,
"You killed her," you know.

And I, I just...

I said, I... I couldn't speak.

So I kept walking and she kept walking,
screaming, shouting.

And then this girl shouted out,
"You're all to blame.

You're as bad," you know...

You felt, just get out of here
as quick as you can.

In life, Diana had had
a close relationship with the press.

She loved the camera
and the camera loved her.

She was a very clever woman,
and she used the press extremely well.

She would say, you know,
"Come and photograph me here."

She would give information
to certain journalists,

not give it to others.

She did what, you know, we now associate
as fairly classic political spin.

Diana became the most photographed
woman in the world.

But following years
of extreme press attention,

she grew to hate
certain sections of the media.

The real issue she had
was with photographers.

She told me that one or two
of them called her a whore.

Uh... a tart.

They would say things
to deliberately provoke her,

because they knew if they got
a crying picture,

or an angry picture, then they might
have more success in selling it.

Now, the public believed
that this aggressive press attention

had led directly to her death.

Meanwhile,
behind a growing wall of flowers,

isolated from the grieving public,

the palace was in crisis.

Stunned by the levels of public grief,
the Spencers and the royal family

had decided that
Diana would have to have a royal funeral.

But there was no plan in place.

The royal household
is ready for most deaths,

but not of young people.

They were ready for Queen Elizabeth,
the Queen Mother to die.

But the royal household wasn't expecting
Diana, Princess of Wales, to die.

There was no rule book to go to.

There was no precedent.
There was no tradition.

There was nothing that...

fitted the royal game plan.

Diana's funeral would have
to be organized from scratch

in just five days.

To tackle the mammoth task,

the palace assembled a team of experts.

That morning, they met for the first time
in Buckingham Palace.

That was my first time ever
in Buckingham Palace, actually.

And we went into this enormous room,

and there were all
the Buckingham Palace officials,

and then there were the representatives

from each of the palaces,
as well as other people,

and we were sort of
the Downing Street contingent.

There was KP,

which was Kensington Palace,
which sat on that side of the table.

Diana's private secretary was there.

KP was the Spencer family.

Her lady-in-waiting was there.

There was JP, which was
St. James's Palace,

which was the headquarters
of Prince Charles.

I was there with a colleague
from the Press Office.

Sir Paul Condon, the head of the Met.

There was permanent secretary

from the Department
of Culture, Media and Sport.

Presided over by the Lord Chamberlain,
Lord Airlie.

So it was all sort of incredibly formal.

And right in the middle of this table
was this enormous wooden box.

The box was a speakerphone,

a direct line to royal advisors
in Balmoral.

The room was packed with important people,

and each faction had their own view
about how the funeral should be run.

But for the time being, the funeral team
were united by one aim,

to help heal a nation in deep shock.

It was clear to everyone
that the grieving public

would have to be involved
as much as possible.

My colleagues suggested

to have the charities
walk behind the gun carriage,

rather than a military procession.

I suggested that we had speakers
along the route

and a screen in Hyde Park,

that people could hear
and watch the service.

"The people's princess,"

although I don't think the phrase
was ever used in those meetings,

but there was definitely a sense of that,
and everybody got that,

and there was a real sense
that this was going to be

a slightly different funeral,

that this was going to be
an inclusive affair.

Royal funerals usually took
place at Windsor Castle.

This time, Prince Charles and Tony Blair

decided that it should be
at Westminster Abbey,

allowing as many people as possible
to pay their respects.

But this posed a problem.

With an abbey to fill,

organizers had to find 2,000 guests
in five days,

and they had no idea who to invite.

The Controller rather surprised me
by saying, "Who do we ask?

I mean, at the moment,
I'm not sure we can fill the abbey."

Which, with hindsight, is quite funny.

Uh... and I can remember saying,

"Well, if you get hold of a guest list
for the princess's Christmas drinks

in Christmas 1995,
invite everybody on that guest list,

then you won't have missed out
anybody important."

For the moment,
the funeral team were united.

But with so many competing voices
around the table,

it wouldn't be long
before cracks began to appear.

Two days after Diana's death,
London was now the epicenter

of the biggest outpouring of public grief
in British history.

When she was alive,

Diana had had a unique ability
to reach out to people.

Now these people,
tens of thousands of them,

had come to pay their respects.

People began to pile on trains
and come into London

just to be there,
just to be standing there, in...

looking at these flowers and being part
of this enormous national grieving event.

She was the queen of people's hearts.

Absolutely irreplaceable.

We all loved her.

We didn't realize how much we loved her
till we lost her.

Just can't say any more.

I was overwhelmed with grief.

I decided I'm just going to go
to central London

and just be part of that crowd.

And what was so comforting was,
I was one of a million people.

And we were all united in this grief.

Diana's death
touched a raw nerve across the country.

Church attendances increased dramatically,
as people sought comfort,

and there were record numbers of calls
to suicide help lines.

I've never seen anything like it
in my life.

I thought, these are the Brits.

You know, these are
the sort of tight-lipped Brits,

sort of, you know, weeping and wailing.

Like banshees.

I mean, it was quite an astonishing sight.

This unprecedented eruption
of grief came as a huge shock.

For some, it was impossible to understand
why there was so much public anguish.

As the response kicked in,
I remember very quickly feeling disgust

for all the people who were going
to Kensington Palace

with toys and with presents
and with gifts and weeping.

Um, I wouldn't be so hard now.
I was much, much younger then.

And I like to think
I'd be more compassionate,

but at the time I just remembered,
you're projecting all this love

onto somebody you didn't know.

There were people who felt...

after, you know, a decade of her being
on the front, middle,

and all other pages
of all newspapers and magazines,

that they did know her, and that they were
intimately connected with her life.

I was looking
at your bouquets there.

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."

Nice.

Sad?

I remember a phone-in where a man
literally said

that he was so upset,

he'd never cried so much.

His wife had died from cancer,
but he'd never been this upset.

And I think that was the moment I thought,
you just have got to stop this.

Um, this is absolutely mad.

Police were now predicting
that two million people

would descend on central London
for Diana's funeral,

making it the biggest in British history.

And with just four days to go,

the planning meetings
were becoming fraught.

The most tension in the room

at those meetings always came
from the Charles Spencer people.

When I say "tensions," you know,

it was sort of a slightly raised voice
type of tension.

Or, you know, a stiffening of the body.

Every detail of the funeral
had to be agreed upon

by both the Spencers and the royal family.

But they couldn't see eye to eye.

There was more bitterness
in the Spencers' side, and confusion,

and, uh, a sense that they had...

They didn't really know
what to think or feel,

because Diana was a very problematic issue
in their own family.

Towards the end of her life,

Diana's relationship
with her brother Charles had broken down.

To escape media attention,
Diana had asked to live

in a cottage on the family estate
at Althorp,

but he had refused.

He felt the press
would just decamp from London

and move up to Althorp,
and he didn't want the press interfering

with the smooth running of Althorp.

So they fell out, and they weren't
speaking at the time of her death.

This made the tragedy
of Diana's death...

even harder for the Spencers to bear.

Earl Spencer wanted to make sure
that after death,

Diana would again be part of the family.

It was almost like
the tug-of-war.

You know, she's ours, she's ours.

Spencer saying, "You've thrown her out.

You took away her HRH
and now you want her back?

She's ours."

So there was a lot of animosity.

Charles Spencer wanted to walk
behind Diana's coffin

in the funeral procession.

But royal advisors weren't happy.

The royal family did not want the focus
to be solely on Charles Spencer

walking behind the coffin.

They thought that that wouldn't be right,

that somehow it would set the Spencers
apart from the royal family.

Although Charles had divorced Diana,

he was adamant that he, too,
should walk behind the coffin,

and the funeral team
wanted to go one step further.

They believed that William and Harry,
aged just 15 and 12,

should join their father
in the procession.

Diana was their mother,

and William is one day going to be king.

And therefore he needed to be seen
to be taking a role

in mourning the loss of his mother.

And Harry, by default, as the spare,
should be seen as well.

It was a lot to ask of them.

But Prince William was refusing
to take part.

He just didn't want to be seen
grieving in public.

He felt it was a private event.

He was mourning his beloved mummy,
and, uh...

he didn't like the media attention.

He probably felt that the media
had had a hand in his mother's death.

He didn't want to perform.

The funeral team set up
a telephone conference with Balmoral

to try to persuade the reluctant prince.

I can remember...

it sort of sends a tingle up my back,
actually, even thinking about it,

is, we were talking about this,
and then from the box,

this huge big wooden box in the table,
the voice of Balmoral,

came Prince Philip's voice.

And we hadn't really heard it before,
I don't think.

And it was, it was anguished.

You know, he was saying,
you know, "These are the boys here.

You know, you're talking about
these boys, you know,

who've lost their ma."

I mean, it was an extraordinary moment.

And you did think, you know,
that's what brought it back to me,

my God, you know, there's
a bit of suffering going on up there.

The Queen and Prince Philip
were doing everything they could

to protect the young princes.

But this wouldn't satisfy
a nation in mourning.

Soon, a growing public anger

would focus on the royal family...

plunging them into their biggest crisis

since the abdication.

Three days after Princess Diana's death,

the carpet of flowers at Kensington Palace
now stretched more than 50 feet.

And the queues for the books of condolence
were 11 hours long.

But as the flower mountains got bigger

and the queues grew longer,

the mood in the crowd had shifted.

That's the thing I most recall, actually,
is the speed

in which it turned from this sort of tears
and this trauma

to anger, you know,
against the royal family.

Bunkered down in Balmoral,
the royal family had not appeared

or said a word in three days.

I think it's disgraceful
that they're not here in residence.

She hasn't said anything, the Queen.

And, as for Prince Charles, well, I think
there's not a lot he can say, is there?

Prince Charles had been
unfaithful to Diana during their marriage,

and following their divorce,

she had been abandoned
by the royal family.

I think they treated her terrible.

Absolutely shocking.

I don't think...

They're the most cold people
on this earth.

The crowd began to focus
their anger on one conspicuous issue.

Above every major building in London,

there was a Union Jack flying
at half-mast.

But at Buckingham Palace,
the flagpole was bare.

They must be very, very cold-hearted,
not to have a flag up.

I think it's a disgrace
on the whole royal family.

Throughout history,

the Union Jack had never been flown
over the palace.

Royal protocol dictated that the only
flag flown was the royal standard,

and that was only when
the Queen was in residence.

It's actually an "in and out" sign,

that it goes up when the Queen is there
and it comes down when she's away.

But this became a symbol
of royal callousness.

Forty-two thousand people
rang The Sun newspaper,

demanding that the royal family
do away with protocol

and fly the Union Jack
at half-mast over the palace.

But the Queen was sticking resolutely
to tradition.

No flag would fly.

On hindsight, yes,
we should have been more forceful.

The Lord Chamberlain should have been
more forceful.

The Private Secretary
should have been more forceful.

Or somebody should have just done it.

I really am upset.

I can't understand
the Queen doing it, really,

Everything people like about the Queen,

which is she is careful
and she is cautious,

and she is not emotional
and she is not impulsive,

she is steadfast, that's what she is...

Everything they always liked about her,
they realized that week,

they didn't like so much
that particular week

because they wanted to run down to London
and give everybody a cuddle.

Faced with a rising tide
of public anger,

courtiers in London
were now seriously concerned

that the Queen was losing touch
with her people.

There were battles going on,
there's no doubt about it.

Messages were being relayed to try
and encourage the Queen to engage more.

They wanted the Queen to come down
to London as soon as possible.

But the Queen and her immediate family
were still resistant to that.

Unlike the Queen, Tony Blair was
an expert judge of public mood.

He intervened to try
to persuade her to act.

Tony was talking to the Queen
and just saying, "Look,

you know, things are getting
a little bit hot down here."

Blair later claimed

that he asked the Queen
to show her vulnerable side.

Bye-bye.

But Her Majesty wasn't budging.

It's not stubbornness.

It's just that she's been around
a lot longer

than everybody else
that's working for her,

and she's not going to be pushed
by an agenda, by a media agenda,

that, well, you know, somebody famous
has died, so it's got to happen now.

The Queen was adamant
that her rightful place was at Balmoral

with her grieving grandchildren.

Since Diana's death, the family
had rallied round the young princes.

Every day, Prince Philip would take them
walking, fishing, and horse riding,

anything to take their minds
off the tragedy.

What the royal family pulled around

was the fact
that here were two young boys

who had lost their mum.

And I don't think there's
a human being alive

who doesn't respond to that
as being an important thing to do.

It was actually the first time
in her whole long reign

that the Queen was thinking of family
before she was thinking of her people.

And for that we should really admire her,

because her whole attention and thoughts
were for these children.

She wasn't thinking about how this was
going to, quote, "be played" on the media.

The following morning,

the press took aim at the Queen.

Earlier in the week, the newspapers

were being blamed for Diana's death.

Now they attacked the royal family.

In this case,
I think it was a conflation

of public desire and the press
being very quick

to get the attention away from themselves
and onto someone else.

It's the first time I'd felt, ooh,

I wonder if this is what
a civil war feels like.

I wonder if this is how it is
before it kicks off.

In the face
of such sustained criticism,

Prince Charles was now deeply concerned.

As he had predicted,

the royal family were now being
directly blamed for Diana's death.

He still believed it was his duty
to walk in the funeral procession

behind Diana's coffin,

but he was increasingly worried
for his own safety.

The Prince of Wales was convinced

that he was going to be the focus
of the anger,

that he was the real target
of the anger.

I mean, he thought that he might have been
attacked, actually physically attacked.

In response,
the Metropolitan Police drafted in a team

of mounted officers
to guard the funeral procession.

One of the protection officers said,
"There's just one area

where we can't cover the angle
that Prince Charles will be walking at,"

and they asked me if I could move
slightly to my right in Parliament Square

so that I was covering Prince Charles.

And, of course, at the time I went,
"Yeah, that's fine, no problem."

But I remember thinking afterwards,
so what you're asking me to do

is, if somebody wanted to try
and assassinate Prince Charles,

they'd have to shoot me first.

So, you know, at the time, you just go,
"Yeah, that's fine,"

but you think about it after,
thinking, what did I just agree to?

Charles was anxious,
not only for his own safety

but for the future of the monarchy.

He was now convinced
that the Queen had to act,

so he joined forces
with the prime minister.

Tony Blair spoke to Prince Charles

and implored Charles to talk to his mother
to try and sort of break the logjam.

Under extreme pressure
from the media, her people,

her government, and her own son,

the Queen responded.

It finally became clear to her,

out of self-preservation,
for which, you know, she is known,

uh, that this was something bigger
and more important

than her own personal feelings.

Firstly,
she asked her press officer

to break with protocol
and appear on television

to defend the royal family.

The Queen has asked me to say

that the royal family have been hurt
by suggestions

that they are indifferent
to the country's sorrow

at the tragic death
of the Princess of Wales.

Prince William and Prince Harry themselves
want to be with their father

and their grandparents at this time

in the quiet haven of Balmoral.

As their grandmother,
the Queen is helping the princes

to come to terms with their loss

as they prepare themselves
for the public ordeal

of mourning their mother with the nation
on Saturday.

Following the statement,
the palace announced

a series of astonishing steps.

For the first time in history,

the Union Jack would fly
at half-mast over the palace.

The royal family would return to London
on Friday,

a day earlier than planned,
to meet the grieving public.

And most remarkably, the Queen
would address the nation on television.

It would be her first live broadcast
in 50 years.

This was a truly unprecedented climb-down

by an institution
that had always resisted change.

It was very hard for the Queen
to do what she had to do,

yielding, if you like, to public pressure.

She knew better than anyone

that if she lost, or the royal family
lost, the affection of the public,

then their days really were numbered.

To gauge the public reaction,
Princes Andrew and Edward

were asked to walk amongst
the crowds on the Mall,

the first royal public appearance
in four days.

No one knew which way it would go.

There was a real anger.

The moment they were seen,

this sort of relief started to go.

People just wanted to talk
to these princes

about their former sister-in-law.

That evening, the Queen,
Philip, Charles, William, and Harry

stepped outside the Balmoral gates
for the first time since Sunday

to look at the tributes
that had been laid to Diana.

Finally, the world saw them as they were,
a family united in grief.

Faced with the biggest crisis
in half a century,

the Queen and the royal family
had fought back.

But tensions were still running high.

In less than 24 hours,
the Queen would return to London

to face the vast crowds

and she had little idea
how they would react.

Good afternoon. We're breaking
into your regular ITV schedules

to bring you a special program

on the return of the royal family
to London

for the funeral of Diana,
Princess of Wales.

Five days after Diana's death,

the royal family had finally bowed
to intense public pressure

to share openly in the nation's grief.

It was a grim-faced Prince of Wales

who drove his two sons out of the grounds
to begin the journey to London.

The Queen, with Princess Margaret,
left a short time afterwards.

They were driven by the Duke of Edinburgh,

a family together, mourning a family loss.

Princes Charles, William and
Harry boarded the royal plane

at Aberdeen Airport.

Normally, it is forbidden for two
future kings to fly on the same plane,

but the boys were desperate
to be with their father

and the Queen gave them
special permission.

With less than 24 hours to go
until Diana's funeral,

organizers were working around the clock
to make sure London was prepared.

Two million people were now expected
to line the streets for the funeral.

To accommodate the vast crowds,

funeral organizers had quadrupled
the length of the procession route.

It would now stretch

from Kensington Palace

to Westminster Abbey,

four and a half miles
through central London,

twice the length

of Churchill's funeral procession.

The police were horrified by this

'cause they just didn't think
they'd have the manpower

to block off all the roads
and ensure public safety, if you like.

In response,
the Metropolitan Police

mounted the biggest security operation
ever seen in Britain.

Thirty-five thousand officers were needed
on the streets for the funeral,

so all police leave was cancelled

and extra manpower called in
from surrounding forces.

It was one of those military exercises

where you keep having to change
the map board,

because the amount of territory

is needed to be bigger
and bigger and bigger.

And more territory, more police,

more security implications,
more whatever is required.

Huge screens were set up
in Hyde Park and Regent's Park,

with room for 100,000 people.

It was an incredible
organizational feat.

The logistics and the security.

I mean, there were so many things to...
to work out.

Meanwhile,

last-minute rehearsals were taking place
at Westminster Abbey.

Diana's royal coffin was lined with lead
and weighed 50 stone.

To get used to the weight,

her pallbearers had to practice
with a dummy version.

We got told we're gonna try
and simulate the weight

with a curbstone.

And we thought, gor blimey.

I'm not sure if it was one
or two curbstones, but it was heavy.

So we finally managed to get the coffin
on our shoulders and start walking round.

This was the first time we actually got
a feel for the cathedral floor.

It's marble, and it was like
an ice-skating rink

because you wear metal studs.

And we went up and down,
up and down, up and down,

getting the feel
of the actual marble itself.

Did put a bit of a reality check.

If something did happen,
it's gonna happen there.

Three hours
after leaving Balmoral,

Charles, William and Harry
arrived in central London.

The young princes hadn't yet
had a chance to experience

the staggering response
to their mother's death.

So at their request,
they made a detour to Kensington Palace

to look at the hundreds of thousands
of tributes that had been left for her.

It was so juxtaposed
with this "behind palace gates" approach

that we had seen earlier in the week
with no visibility of the royals at all.

And suddenly here they are,
like, in plain sight,

for everyone to see at this moment
of untold grief and upset.

Charles.

Thank you so much, thank you.

Harry, I'm so sorry.

William, William.

Thank you so much, thank you.

Thank you very much. Thank you.

William!

It was a very moving occasion.

Both boys behaved with fantastic dignity.

They were, by turns, interested and sad

and humbled, I think, by what they saw.

Um, and also they kept it together.

And because
what everyone prayed for, above all,

was that the occasion
didn't overwhelm them

and they didn't break down,
and they didn't.

-Your mum was a wonderful woman.
-I know she was.

She was greatly loved.
God bless you, darling.

Thank you.

They all said,
"Thank you very much for coming."

William said, "Thank you so much
for the flowers.

And I'll lay them.
Thank you ever so much."

I shook his hand, and I got all tearful.
I couldn't say anything.

Two miles across London,

the Queen and Duke of Edinburgh
were heading for Buckingham Palace.

They had little idea how they would be
received by the vast crowds.

So much bitterness
had been written in newspapers,

so there was a certain amount
of apprehension from the Queen

as to how she would be greeted.

There for the first time
the Queen witnessing for herself...

-The car is going to stop.
-...the flowers.

The car has stopped.
And Her Majesty is going to get out.

She is going to look for herself
at some of the thousands upon thousands

of floral tributes.

The Queen and Prince Philip
left their car to a muted response.

The attitude of the crowd
was unpleasant,

and it was something
which I have never, ever seen before

in any royal occasion, ever.

You know...

Usually, when the Queen goes by,
people clap, people cheer, people wave.

They don't just stand there.

I was waving my flowers,

and she came over and asked me

if she wanted me to go and put them down
with all the rest of the flowers.

And I said, "No, they're for you, Ma'am."

Been drummed into me to call her "Ma'am,"
mustn't forget to call her "Ma'am."

She'd held my hand at this point.
She was shaking.

And she sort of questioned me,
"Are you sure?"

And I said, "I think you deserve them.

I think you've done the right thing
staying with your grandsons."

I think I actually said,

"If my mum had just died,
I'd want my grandma with me."

I actually think that perhaps
what Kate said struck home,

and people realized that perhaps
they'd been

totally unfair to someone who, after all,

has given her life to our country.

-Don't cry.
-I'm not going to cry.

But, you know, that's what I--
that's what I believe.

Ma'am, take care of the boys.
Take care of the boys, Ma'am.

-That's what we've been doing.
-Sorry?

-That's what we've been doing.
-I know you did.

Courtiers had had little idea
how the crowds would react.

Now they and the Queen
could breathe a sigh of relief.

When the Queen was leaving
the enclosure to go back into the palace,

she walked towards me
and she had a look on her face

as if to say, you know, "Was that okay?"

And I just nodded.

Three hours later,

every television channel
interrupted their normal broadcasting

and cut to Buckingham Palace.

The Queen was about to deliver
her first live address in half a century.

Since last Sunday's dreadful news,

we have seen throughout Britain
and around the world

an overwhelming expression
of sadness at Diana's death.

We have all been trying
in our different ways to cope.

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.

I admired and respected her for her energy
and commitment to others

and especially for her devotion
to her two boys.

I for one believe there are lessons
to be drawn from her life

and from the extraordinary
and moving reaction to her death.

I hope that tomorrow we can all,
wherever we are,

join in expressing our grief
at Diana's loss

and gratitude for her all-too-short life.

I thought it was amazing
because it was delivered faultlessly

and with some degree of, I felt, um...

empathy.

Um, she wasn't a remote figure.
She genuinely was saying what she felt.

I'm sure she found it excruciatingly
difficult to give that address.

I thought that really showed the Queen
as somebody who did listen

and was willing to adapt
and change her behavior.

I thought she said everything
she should have said.

Can't think of anything
she left out at all.

She sounded very sincere and she looked
as though she was very moved.

And I think that will satisfy everyone.

The Queen had bowed to public
pressure as never before,

and she had helped heal the rift
between crown and country.

Later that evening, Diana was taken
home to Kensington Palace,

where she would spend one last night.

Behind a coffin
shrouded in the royal standard

and adorned by a spray
of her favorite white lilies

drove her two sons,
Princes William and Harry,

bringing their mother back home.

Bye, Diana darling!

Bye, darling!

Bye, baby!

It was quite an extraordinary
occasion, actually,

and there was a lot of people crying,

but it was also quite uplifting, too,
in many ways,

because you could... you felt this woman
really did reach out.

The boys said
a final private farewell to their mother,

before Paul Burrell,
Diana's butler for over a decade,

kept a solitary all-night vigil
over her body.

I'd asked the policeman
to bring in flowers from outside,

and I decorated the room
and lit all the candles,

and I pulled a chair up,
and I sat with her.

It may sound silly now,
20 years later, but...

I just wanted to have a last conversation

and tell her about all the people
that had been ringing

and all the people that had left messages

and all the people that had expressed
their love for her.

So that was important.

That night, Diana's mother,
Frances Shand Kydd,

paid her own personal tribute
to her daughter.

Diana's mother told me
that she had found the whole experience

of the mourning extremely moving.

It really did touch her,
and she told me

that she spent hours walking
the streets among the people

who had come to mourn her daughter.

With the funeral now just 12 hours away,

30,000 people bedded down on the streets,

with a further 500 on a specially adapted
train in Paddington Station.

After six days of intense public grief,

London was ready for the biggest funeral
in British history.

The morning of Princess Diana's funeral.

The culmination of one
of the most remarkable weeks

in modern British history.

Go!

The events of the past few days
had shaken the monarchy

and the nation to its core.

Now the funeral would be a chance
for both to grieve together.

The service was to take place
at Westminster Abbey.

Two thousand guests had been invited,

and many started queuing
from the early morning.

I remember rushing out
into the garden

and picking roses
and wrapping them in cooking foil

and taking them with me.

Uh, not the most elegant bouquet
you ever saw,

but I just wanted some sort of tribute.

And arrived at Westminster Abbey
and just put them there.

Across Britain,
33 million people tuned in to watch,

with a further two and half billion
around the world,

the biggest global audience
in television history.

That's Whitehall,
cenotaph at the end.

People just waiting silently.

In London,

more than a million people had now crowded
onto the procession route,

with tens of thousands in Hyde Park
and Regent's Park.

As a sign of respect,

the police had imposed
a "no fly" zone across London,

giving the city a sense of calm.

Then, with the time drawing close,
a deeper hush descended.

The silence...

I mean you really could hear
a bee buzzing.

There were no planes overhead.

There was no traffic.

There was nothing.

At Kensington Palace,

Diana's pallbearers were preparing
for the funeral procession.

Princess Diana's coffin come out

and we put it onto the gun carriage then.

And to see that, that was...

it really put a lump in your throat.

And you're just thinking, whoa,
I can't believe I'm doing this.

I can't believe I got chosen for this.

At 9:08 a.m.,

the great tenor bell at Westminster Abbey
began to toll.

I still remember the bell,
and then I had an earpiece in

and they just said, "Right, time to go."

When we went through the gates,
as soon as we got onto the road,

there was this... the best way
to describe it, really, is wailing.

You can hear the tears
in the crowd, it was inevitable.

This woman screamed,
"Diana, we love you!"

And it was like cutting through butter,
it was, the scream was.

It was cutting through you
something serious.

And to hear that
and the emotion behind it...

I certainly got affected by it.

The Westminster bell
tolled every minute,

signaling the procession's
slow progress towards the abbey.

On the coffin was a wreath
from William and Harry,

along with a hand-written card
that read simply, "Mummy."

That brought it home to people
that this wasn't this massive celebrity.

This wasn't this princess.

It was Mummy.
It was a little boy's mother.

It was deeply, deeply moving,

and an unforgettable image of the day.

And the cortege now goes
through Apsley Gate.

This is a historic moment

because only the monarch has ever ridden
through Apsley Gate.

You could just hear
the hobnail boots

hitting the surface of the road.

You could hear the wheels turning.
You could hear the horses' hooves.

You couldn't hear any birds.

It's almost as if the birds knew
what was happening and kept away.

It was quite eerie,
but it was very moving.

With the cortege approaching,

the Queen and the royal family
came out of Buckingham Palace

to stand at the west gate.

This is an extraordinary view
we're seeing here.

We've never, as far as I'm aware,
seen the royal family standing like this

at the gates of Buckingham Palace.

Anything is possible today.

Myself at the front and
a colleague at the back had earpieces in,

We were told unexpectedly that
the Queen walked out of Buckingham Palace,

which nobody had planned for,
nobody knew she was going to do.

So there was a great deal of chatter
in my ear, people panicking

all over the place
because the Queen suddenly decided

that she was going to come out
and pay her respects.

Then the world witnessed
a small but hugely significant moment.

In another break with royal tradition,
as Diana's coffin passed,

the Queen bowed.

It's respect.

And the Queen does respect.

Something like that would come naturally,
nobody would have to tell her to do that.

It's something that would be
inherent in her makeup.

As the cortege
snaked through London,

Westminster Abbey was filling with guests.

Diana had been the most famous
woman in the world,

and celebrities, royalty,
and heads of state

were all on the guest list.

Then the family of Diana's boyfriend,
Dodi, entered the abbey.

I remember sitting there
and the Al-Fayeds came in.

And there was a kind
of respectful gasp,

you know, in recognition that he'd also
lost a son in this terrible accident.

As the procession drew close
to St. James's Palace,

the world witnessed
another totally unexpected moment.

Princes Charles, William and Harry
emerged from their home

to walk behind Diana's coffin.

They were joined by the Duke of Edinburgh
and Earl Spencer.

I don't think I knew, until that moment,

that both of the boys were going to do it.

I mean, again, it sort of puts
a tingle in my spine, and I just...

you know, I just thought, my God,
you know, how brave.

For days,

Prince William had refused outright
to walk in the procession.

But on the morning of the funeral,
he agreed.

It took Prince Philip to persuade William
to do it in the end.

He put a grandfatherly arm
around him and said,

"Look, if I come, too, will you do it?"

Whose heart cannot go out
to those boys today?

Who can avoid a choke in the throat
at the sight of them?

Prince Charles felt it was
his duty to walk in the procession,

but he knew that he remained
deeply unpopular

in the wake of Diana's death.

Both he and the police were concerned
about the public reaction

when he appeared.

Alert to any potential threat,

the Metropolitan Police had placed
plainclothes officers amongst the crowds,

with marksmen watching
from nearby rooftops.

When we got
to St. James's Palace,

I remember somebody shouting out,
"You didn't deserve her!"

And I remember being slightly worried then
that whoever said that,

are they walking towards him?

I can't turn around,
I have to look straight ahead

and keep the horses moving
in a straight line,

so there was a sense then at the time,
is something happening behind me?

But, uh, I just kept going, really,
hoping that it was a one-off.

As we moved away, luckily there was
no other similar comment.

Almost intolerable moment

for the two boys, the two princes,

as they take their place
behind their mother's coffin.

Pretty daunting, to be walking
behind a gun carriage.

Their mother's on the gun carriage.

And they are being watched by tens
of thousands of people along the route

and millions on television.

And it was quite a tough experience
for them,

and they carried it off with such aplomb,
it's unbelievable.

I was incredibly impressed.

I lost my father when I was 12,
so I was their age.

So I remember, um...

what it felt like.

And to be able to have done that

in such a sort of, what I thought
was such a dignified fashion,

I thought was sort of quite,
quite amazing.

The princes were joined behind the coffin

by 533 workers from Diana's charities.

As the Queen made her way to the abbey,

for the first time in history,

the Union Jack was raised
above Buckingham Palace

before being lowered to half-mast.

The will of the people
had trumped centuries of tradition.

Then Diana's family entered
Westminster Abbey,

and the congregation stood.

They were followed ten minutes later
by the Queen and the Queen Mother.

One hour and 47 minutes
after leaving Kensington Palace,

the cortege arrived precisely on time.

Now, Diana's pallbearers

had to undertake
the most important job of their lives.

We'd just done four and half miles.
We're trying to wake our arms up.

We knew what was going
to happen now.

We had to pick up the coffin.
Um...

Emotionally, I think we blocked
a lot of that out.

I think, "We're here now.

Let's get it done now and do our best."

The coffin lined with lead,
so heavy.

And the eyes of the world
are on these men.

We waited and there was complete silence.

And then we saw the coffin
beginning to come in.

And I think that was when it became real.

And I just think of it now,
and the roses on the back

that had come from the children.

I... It was unbearable. It was unbearable.

Slowly, deliberately,

Diana's pallbearers walked her coffin

down the long nave of Westminster Abbey.

You could feel with the studs
that you were slipping all the time.

Every step you'd take, you could go.

And you had to concentrate
on what you were doing,

because it only takes a second,
one lapse,

and something serious
could have happened.

Out of respect,

the television cameras didn't film
the royal family or the Spencers.

To make the funeral
as inclusive as possible,

the hymns had been printed
in the day's newspapers.

People were actually able
to sing along in the hymns,

and we were able to really feel
that everyone was involved,

even though millions
were not present in the abbey.

Then Earl Spencer stood
to deliver his sister's eulogy.

The congregation
and the millions watching outside

had no idea what was to come.

Everything was fine until Earl Spencer
stepped into the pulpit,

and I thought that
that was going to be okay.

I thought it was going to be
just the same as we've heard before.

Diana was the very essence
of compassion,

of duty, of style, of beauty,

a standard-bearer for the rights
of the truly downtrodden

and who proved in the last year
that she needed no royal title

to continue to generate
her particular brand of magic.

It sounded to me like a speech
where nobody had advised him,

nobody had drafted it for him.

It was not, you know, the formal speech
on the formal occasion.

It came straight from his heart.

She talked endlessly
of getting away from England,

mainly because
of the treatment that she received

at the hands of the newspapers.

She would want us today
to pledge ourselves

to protecting her beloved boys,
William and Harry,

from a similar fate.

And I do this here, Diana,
on your behalf.

And beyond that,
on behalf of your mother and sisters,

I pledge that we, your blood family,
will do all we can to continue

the imaginative and loving way

in which you were steering
these two exceptional young men,

so that their souls are not simply
immersed by duty and tradition

but can sing openly as you planned.

He basically looked over, you know,
to a pew full of his in-laws,

uh, and had a go at them,

from the box, in the middle
of a funeral of his sister.

Well, you know, questionable.

He was saying
that they hadn't looked after her,

and they were inappropriate
to bring up her children.

It was very strong stuff.

I think the emotional impact
of his speech was so great

that we just sat and took it in.

And then the sound came.

I didn't realize
it was people clapping outside.

It sounded like pebbles rattling
on the roof of the abbey.

And it was coming closer and closer.

It quite put up the hairs
on the back of your neck.

That wonderful sound like the sea,

rolling in through the doors of the abbey

and then rolling up the aisles
of the abbey,

and we all joined.

We all joined.
I don't know who didn't, but we did.

Hmm.

But many people felt the eulogy
was totally inappropriate.

I thought, no, don't, don't applaud him.

Look at the Queen.

The Queen's horrified
by what he's just said.

Nobody addresses the Queen of England
in that way.

Nobody.

You would have been beheaded for that
a couple of centuries before.

I was very angry that Diana's brother
could stand up and say what he did say,

because in attacking the royal family,
he was attacking his nephews,

William and Harry,
and he talked about blood relative.

Well, he's had nothing to do
with their upbringing,

and they very rarely see him,

so what was actually said on the day
was sheer hypocrisy.

♪ Alleluia ♪

Was it strategically sensible?

Possibly not.

Did it make enemies for him? Probably.

But... for the general public,
it lanced a boil.

It made us feel, heavens,
somebody is saying...

she should have been protected.

Diana's funeral had been
a bittersweet farewell

to the people's princess.

I was quite sure
that she would have approved

of the turnout

and the solemnity,

and, uh, the beauty
of this great ceremony.

In just six days,

the royal establishment had pulled off
an astonishing feat of planning.

It was completely brilliant
because it was done

so efficiently, so, um...

effectively and so, sort of,
in such a dignified fashion

that it reminded people
why they like the royal family,

because it's part of an establishment
that does this

at moments of crisis.

I felt really moved
at the end

when this huge chord suddenly was over.

We could see the brilliant blue sky
out of the west door,

and it was then that we had
a minute's silence

in memory of Princess Diana.

The drama was so telling,
and it was almost unbearable.

Diana's funeral was over.

But she had one final journey to make.

Diana's funeral had been a fitting end
to an extraordinary week.

By delivering such a spectacle,

the royal family had helped repair
their damaged relationship

with the public.

But Diana had one final journey to make.

The princess was to be buried

at her family's estate
in Northamptonshire,

77 miles from Westminster Abbey.

Charles, William and Harry
left to take the royal train,

along with the Spencer family.

Diana's coffin would be driven
all the way there,

giving the public a chance
to say a final farewell.

For the entire journey,

the hearse would be escorted
by eight police motorcyclists.

All the riders had known Diana.

They'd quite often go
to Kensington Palace.

Then she'd be there in a track suit
and her slippers or whatever,

with the two boys looking at the bikes.

And we'd just chat.

You could just talk to her as if you were
talking to a member of your family.

She was just lovely. She was lovely.

And more applause.

Quite extraordinary.

I've never witnessed that in this country
at a funeral.

It's as if the people
want to say something,

and this is the best way
to express their feelings.

As the cortege
left central London,

it became clear
the police had underestimated

how many people would want
to pay their respects.

Look at the crowd.
They're pressing around the cortege.

The police aren't there to hold them back,
and it really doesn't matter.

Suddenly we found roads
completely blocked with people

who generally wanted to wish her well
and throw flowers on the car, et cetera,

but I was getting a little bit concerned
about the amount of people.

Almost hemmed in
by the crowds here.

It's almost as if they don't want her
to go, isn't it?

They want to press forward and see her,
but, you know, slow down, slow down.

Yes.

We were driving through a sea of flowers
being thrown in the air.

It was like a mist in front of you.

When you're concentrating
on the guy in front

and get hit on the head with flowers,
from a motorcycling point of view

it was a complete pain.

You know, I think it's fantastic
that people wanted to do that,

and one or two bunches of flowers
wouldn't have been so bad,

but it was a continual barrage of flowers
that were wrapped in cellophane.

And when they hit you on the head,
you know it.

A lot of those stuck on
the windscreen and started to build up,

reducing the vision from the driver's seat
from the hearse,

so he couldn't see where he was going,
so the message came back

saying that we needed to stop
to clear the windscreen.

The hearse was forced to make
an unscheduled stop

on the northbound carriageway of the M1.

The guy in the front
of the hearse got out.

Took a great big arm full of flowers.

I was slightly concerned
that he would just

walk to the side of the road
and drop them,

but he didn't.

Uh, he took them and put them down
and got back in the hearse

and off we went.

As the hearse made its way
to Northamptonshire,

thousands of people lined the motorway.

Just cars abandoned
all over the place,

and people standing
by the central reservation

to see us go past.

Totally surreal.

Never seen anything like it.

Not something which is usually
allowed by the police,

but still people on the motorway
paying their final respects.

The hearse finally arrived
at the Spencer Estate at Althorp,

an hour later than expected.

When the coffin arrived at the house,

the royal standard was replaced
with the Spencer flag,

before Earl Spencer announced,
"Diana is home."

I realized at that point

that they were truly claiming back
their sister.

"She's a Spencer now," he said.

Diana was buried on a small island
in the middle of a lake.

Her family chose the spot to allow her
the seclusion and privacy

that she was denied during her life.

This is the private funeral bit.

This is what the family wanted.

We didn't want hordes of press
or other people appearing

on the scene.

Colin Tebbutt and Paul Burrell
were the only non-family members invited

to the intimate private ceremony.

We followed the coffin down to the lake

and across the pontoon which they'd built,
onto the island.

The sunlight was coming through the trees

and the coffin was being lowered
into the hole.

And a few prayers were said.

And I just stood there,
rooted to the spot.

People threw earth onto the coffin.

And then we left.

It was as simple and as lovely as that.

Thousands of the flowers
that had been left at the gates

were laid out for her.

To this day, Diana has no headstone.

If there was one lesson
from that week, it is that

Diana's memory means an awful lot
to a great many people.

Just as much today as it did then.

Today, Diana's legacy lives on,

especially through her two sons.

Do you want a kiss?

Ohh!

Oh, no! See?

They're their mother's sons.

People see her channeled
through those two princes.

The events of that extraordinary week
also left their mark on the Queen.

She proved that, when pushed,
she was prepared to bow to the public

and act against centuries of tradition.

Out of tragedy,
the royal family began to forge

a new relationship with the public,
a relationship which still survives today.

It was an enormous scare
for the royal family,

who, basically, I mean,
in the subsequent decades,

has sharpened up its act no end.

The Queen and Charles
have both learned from Diana,

to interact more with a public
that so nearly turned on them.

They understood afterwards that they did
have to be more inclusive,

they did have to open up, they did have to
show they were part of the modern world.

But for Diana,
that would have never happened.

Now the Queen
is more popular than ever,

as her stoicism, her restraint,
and her lifetime of service

have all come to be appreciated again.

The royal family endures.
If anything, it's stronger than ever.

And today, when the Queen
is not in Buckingham Palace,

the Union Jack always flies overhead,

a clear reminder of seven days
that shook the world.