Camera credit

Freelance lighting cameraman Tony Poole tells All About Horsham's October 2017 edition the details of shooting the Panorama interview of the Prince of Wales by Martin Bashir back in 1995. 

In late October, my agent called asking if I would work on a Sunday. She said, ‘I think it’s a big one. Would you mind if Martin Bashir called you?’ Martin phoned and said: ‘I will mention the name only once. It's Diana at Kensington Palace.’ Right from the start, there was a paranoia that phones might be tapped. 

The interview was cancelled, which I was not surprised about. However, it was re-scheduled for the following week. I went to BBC White City to discuss it with producer Mike Robinson and editor Steve Hewlett. Diana had stipulated that only three people could attend as she didn't want to draw much attention, so there could be no sound recordist. Mike wanted to film the interview with two cameras, which is difficult as you need to light in both directions and synch the time codes. It became complicated as I decided to have a back-up tape in case of a ‘drop-out’ as we filmed on Betacam.

On the day of the interview, Martin made a call to Kensington Palace and to my amazement, we got the green light. I hid my equipment in cardboard boxes as our cover story was that we were demonstrating a new hi-fi. Security was expecting us, so we passed without a problem. Martin had been told where to park, out of sight of CCTV cameras. He rang the bell and Diana opened the door. It was quite surreal. She was very relaxed and showed us around whilst we discussed where the interview should be filmed. There was an immediate warmth and I understood the empathy people felt she had. 

It took an hour and a half to set up and we weren't ready to shoot until 9pm. I put on my sound equipment and could hear a fridge clicking on and off in the background, so I asked Diana if I could switch it off. So that I remembered to turn it back on, I used an old trick and put the car keys in the fridge! The table lamp was too bright, so I attached a neutral density filter to get the exposure right. It may well still be on the lamp. 

The tapes recorded for 32 minutes, so every half an hour we’d stop and change all three. We’d have a brief chat about the next line of questioning before carrying on. There were nine tapes in total, so about 90 minutes of recording. I remember Diana become flustered when asked about James Hewitt. But she answered very cleverly. Martin did tread carefully, although he had prior approval to probe. 

At no point was I thinking about the importance of what was being said. I was just hoping that there would be no ‘drop-out’ and making sure the lighting and sound levels were good. I was listening of course, as it was important to alter the framing at key moments. But I’m never sure what to say when people ask if I enjoyed the interview, as it was work and I was spinning plates.

When the interview was over, Diana brought out some champagne but I couldn’t have any as I was driving home! We left at gone midnight and drove to meet Steve Hewlett, who was worried as he hadn’t heard from us since 7pm. I remember Martin saying, ‘I can't believe what has just happened!’ But there were nerves too as we checked to see if we were being followed.

I believe the duplicate tapes were locked in a safe. An editing suite was created in an Eastbourne hotel, with security personnel either side. Marmaduke Hussey was Chairman of the BBC Board of Governors and his wife was a lady-in-waiting to the Queen, so there was great secrecy within the corporation. On the night of broadcast, I was in a room full of BBC bosses. They would shake my hand, telling me what a good job I’d done whilst looking over my shoulder for somebody interesting to talk to.

For the next week, I received calls from the tabloids. They were after any gossip or details about what had been cut. The Sunday Express ran a double page article quoting a supposed ‘insider’ who claimed that Diana had the crew ‘eating out of her hand.’ I phoned the journalist and said the article was fabricated. He claimed that he’d spoken to one of the crew but couldn't divulge his source. I knew he was lying. The story implied that I had advised Diana on what to wear, which made me laugh. Me? Giving tips to a global fashion icon?