The information in The Crown Season 5’s second episode, “The System,” is nothing new for long-time Diana fans. For years, the stories about the lengths she went to work with Andrew Morton on his book Diana: Her True Story, have been in the public sphere. It was interesting to watch The Crown and Peter Morgan really lean into the sense that Princess Diana had very good reason to believe that her phones were tapped and she was being listened to and recorded. The Crown also leans into the idea that as Morton was working on the book, several very unnerving things happened to him and to James Colthurst, who acted as a go-between for Morton and Diana. Incidentally, they really found an actor who looked like a young Andrew Morton too, and the show is very, very kind to Morton. Anyway, Morton spoke to Tom Sykes at the Daily Beast about seeing himself on-screen and seeing Elizabeth Debicki channel Diana.
Andrew Morton on Debicki’s Diana: “I was blown away by how authentic Elizabeth Debicki was in her portrayal of Diana. It was like being back in the room with her 30 years ago. It was unnerving. It was like being with a ghost. It spoke to me very clearly.”
Morton says the bike incident & the break-in really happened: “Writing that book was the royal equivalent off All The President’s Men. You would see danger in the shadows. From the first moment that I heard the tapes, I was very careful. I remember standing back from the edge of the platform on the subway going home. I had been admitted into a secret circle. The secret circle knew the truth about Diana’s life, and many powerful people did not want that truth to be revealed…. My office was broken into. It happened just a few days after I had been warned, separately, by [journalists] Arthur Edwards and Richard Kay, that the security forces were looking carefully to find my source. An old camera was stolen and some files. Did it increase the sense of paranoia? Yes. And James was knocked off his bike in Parliament Square—and left scrambling in the gutter to pick up a tape recording of Diana.”
Diana had her apartment swept for bugs: In The Crown, Diana is so concerned that she calls in a team of specialist security people to sweep her house for bugs, even demanding they check the light fittings. Morton confirmed to The Daily Beast that this really happened. “Yes, we had Diana’s rooms swept for bugs. Towards the end, I would use payphones. The Crown shows the sense of un-named and anonymous watchers and it’s absolutely true, there is no need for Peter Morgan to make anything up.”
Morton believes Diana’s calls were being tapped & recorded: Asked if he believed Diana’s calls were indeed being tapped, Morton pointed out that four royal tapes made it into the public domain in the ’90s. While it is obviously hard to prove definitively that Diana was being surveilled, Morton’s compelling argument is that not just Diana but all of the royal family were having their communications intercepted. Most famously of course there is Tampongate, the intimate phone call between Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles in which Charles fantasized about being a tampon.
Even the Queen thought there was an issue with tapped phones: “Even the queen, as I say in my new book The Queen, was wondering when it would all stop… It’s hard to avoid the conclusion that everything was being taped, because the ones that leaked were what I would call significant phone calls. What are the chances of that?”
The part about Arthur Edwards and Richard Kay warning Morton is interesting. The ‘90s were a crazy time and the red-top tabloids had a crazy amount of power, but even some of the tabloid journalists and editors were wary of what the palace and establishment would do to them. Especially as Diana got older and began harnessing her power too, when she effectively had her own royal court in direct contrast to Charles’s court. You also have to remember that many of those reporters were on Diana’s side. They knew where the money was, and covering Diana was their livelihood. Anyway, yes – I’m glad Morton is saying “actually, The Crown got it entirely right.”
Photos courtesy of The Crown/Netflix.
Someone should tell William that just because his mother was “paranoid”, it doesn’t mean that people weren’t really after her.
Idk. I’m on ep.8 now. There’s a lot of sympathy for William (played by Dominic West’s real life son!) that seems rather deserved. He was still a kid and the adults around expected him to support them, even (esp?) Diana.
Not excusing any of his behavior sad an adult. The Crown repeatedly seems to make the point that this system (ie r monarchy) screws up everyone within it, even those who benefit.
Can’t confirm, but remember reading somewhere that that wasn’t true – Diana expecting inappropriate support from William-it was stated that this was just another way of maligning her.
The stories of Diana leaning on william come from Charles sympathizers like penny and Ingrid. Diana had close friends like Elsa bowker and Caroline Bartholomew. They were her support group. Wil liam was away at school and Diana did not just sit home
Regardless if it’s true or not that Diana leaned on William for support, that child absolutely experienced considerable trauma in his childhood, as did Harry. Some people can overcome it and some people can’t. I have sympathy for what those children went through. It does not excuse adult behavior of course.
Wil liam as spare was more protected imo than harry. After Diana’s death. There were a few months of photo ops of Charles with his sons with great dad spin. Less than a year Charles restarted Camilla campaign and introduced his sons to her less than a year after diana died. He used his sons in the Camilla campaign which supposedly upset Wil liam.
I love her. She was an amazing, empathic woman that did a lot of good.
All of these cloak and danger shenanigans are probably still happening. The entire enterprise is nothing more than a game to those courtiers to see who can get the upper hand and what kind leverage they will have. Who would willingly want to live like that? You would have to be some sort of delusional narcissistic fool to live knowing you are being watched and monitored with knowledge that at some point much of your doings will be exposed for profit. Happy as Harry stated, “he knows the game and does not want to live like that,” and left with his family.
Exactly. I’d rather have far, far less money, get by OK with my family, than have this kind of life. Scrutinised when you step outside your front door, and no doubt neurotic that everything you say and do inside your own home is being watched by staff with dubious loyalties. Perhaps phones being tapped, online stuff monitored. It makes me smile that they think of us as their subjects, when they are just goldfish in a bowl.
I have no doubt the phones were tapped and Dianna’s paranoia was legit. I recall being in a cruise years later and chatting with an English woman (I was 29 she was in her 50/60) about Diana. I made the comment I believed Diana was done in by the BRF she agreed and went to say something but her husband have her a death look and she stopped and stuffed her mouth with food. I never forgot that incident nor how the space between went ice cold.
I believe it is possible she was killed deliberately. Thanks for sharing your experience.
I absolutely believe it and have thought so for years. it used to get me pretty well mocked but I see people’s opinions are shifting over time and with additional information.
Looks like men (from the establishment-media and elite) are trying to do this huge gaslighting operation not just on Diana but on all of us.
I remember what happened. So did many women here.
Seems like they’re trying to reprogram our memories.
Not falling for it.
Exactly my thoughts as well!!
Flowerside, too many people remember what happened. Let them try to gaslight. We’ll just come back with our knowledge. I find it amusing that they really believe that they can change our memories and minds by writing something different. They really are idiots.
Apparently, Diana had taped recordings of men who worked in the royal houses accusing a senior royal male of assault. And also Barry Mannakee, bodyguard, who was killed in a suspicious RTA. He and Diana were meant to have got close and it was a questionable accident, some thought. I bet she did. I can imagine her fear was justified. No doubt well informed CBers will know all of this already, but it’s worth repeating!
Allegedly she had a tape of a male footman, I think, detailing his rape by Michael Fawcett, who still works for Chuckles. Paul Burrell said she kept it in a safe deposit box but when he went to get it after her death it was gone.
I am at episode 6 and so far Chucky is getting a pretty easy ride from Morgan. What is pretty shocking is the way Charles and Camilla are portrayed as victims.
The scenes with Mark Boland were also really watered down. That man was pure evil and did some pretty evil shit to torture Diana to the point Charles had to distance himself in the end.
The Bashir scenes are also hard to watch, as Morgan also seems to support the theory that Diana was manipulated. The racism is also on show when the Crown portrays Dimbleby as old guard dependable and not prone to tabloid fluff, whereas Bashir is the Pakistani kid from a council estate who uses less than decent means to cajole and manipulate Diana to giving the interview. What’s interesting however is that Morgan also then seems to support Diana’s theory that she was being spied on via wiretapping (a theory that would then go on to be proven and bankrupt News International after her death).
Also, I now know why Elton John chose the song Candle in the Wind at Diana’s service as it perfectly encapsulated how people viewed and treated her as a commodity in life. Big respect to Harry for now allowing the same to happen to his wife and children.
I binge watched the whole thing and the entire RF got too easy a ride. Bashir’s character was destroyed and they did not emphasize Diana’s assertion that she was not coerced. Charles and Camilla were whitewashed beyond recognition. We have to remember that Morgan is a Brit, Was he persuaded to go easy?
The hbo documentary was a better representation of exactly what they put her through, as a victim of domestic violence and abuse of course they don’t want her truth out there and the gaslighting to discredit everything Princess Diana is just a continuation of the abusive behavior that Charles and Camilla first started before she even had a chance. Shame on all of them, they are cowards and can’t even face the reality of the blood on their hands for what their actions resulted in. If Prince Harry had not fled with his family they would have suffered the same fate. I believe that 100%.
I suspect that Edwards and Kay warned him because he wrote for a tabloid and was a colleague.
It was way back when tabloid was used as a designation not a descriptor.
That changed as their newsgathering techniques became publicly known.
What bothers me and I an on episode 6 now is Charles work is glorified but so far nothing said about diana who was very innovative and forward thinking. Charles as depicted by West imo comes across as pompous.
Diana scenes seem to be emphasizing her being passive and reacting to what Charles does or says. She was said to have felt vindicated with the release of c and c tapes instead she is seen moping. Not liking how Diana’s story is spun.
I understand, but the Netflix version doesn’t portray Diana’s struggle at all. It actually downplays it