Podcast 117 – The Princes & the Press Part 1 – What is this BBC2 documentary all about?
Publisher |
Jeanette Songolo
Media Type |
audio
Publication Date |
Nov 24, 2021
Episode Duration |
00:07:17

Royal Family followers cannot have failed to miss the controversy about a UK documentary titled 'The Princes and the Press.'  The first of this two-part miniseries aired this week on the publicly funded U.K. BBC 2 T.V. channel. 

I don’t think the show was causing much of a stir in public until a day or two before the first program was due to air. At that time it was reported by the U.K. Daily Mail newspaper  that senior royals such as Prince William, the Queen and Prince Charles,  had united to complain about the program. They had allegedly threatened to boycott future projects with the BBC because they were refused an opportunity to view the series before it was due to air and, the Royals felt that they had not been given a chance to respond to the program's content. 

So why were the Royals worried?Well,  per the Daily Mail, the documentary was going to talk about allegations of vicious briefing wars between members of the Royal Family, with certain Royal Family members and their staff,  releasing negative stories to the press about other members of the Royal Family. 

Ahead of the show airing,  Meghan and Harry followers were on Twitter also condemning the show but for a different reason. They were absolutely convinced that the documentary would be another "let’s make Harry and Meghan look bad exercise," with many fans saying they would simply refuse to watch the program.

Of course, the net result of this was that many more people tuned into watch the first program then might otherwise have done so had this story not broken. We all wanted to see what all the fuss was about.

The format of the documentary was a series of interviews with various newsprint and TV journalists from a cross-section of newsprint publications and TV channels.

Here are some of the key points that have come out so far:

  1. The UK press will not be controlled and they make this clear. They admit they are not controllable. 
  2. There was confirmation of what Prince Harry has called the ‘unwritten contract’ or what Mr. Rajan called “the deal’  between the Royal Family and the UK media.
  3. The BBC provided the context behind Prince Harry’s attitude towards the media. 
  4. Part one of the documentary only touched briefly on the issue of the negative briefing by one Royal household against another Royal household. Not one journalist denied that this happened. All of them were keen to protect their sources. 
  5. It was confirmed how the Royals seem to act in their own little silos. That there is competitiveness between them about how much and how favourable their press coverage. 

So not a lot of new stuff but intriguing, nevertheless. 

For my listeners outside of the UK, Part One of the Princes and the Press miniseries, called "The New Generation" is now on YouTube.

Please keep listening for future podcasts on all things Meghan, Harry, Archie and Lili.  Reach out to me through my blog at https://www.kindthoughtsformeghanmarkle.com/ and on twitter https://twitter.com/JeanetteSongolo

Show written and produced by Jeanette Songolo. Please keep listening for future podcasts on all things Meghan, Harry, Archie and Lili and in the meantime watch out for other posts on all things Sussex on my blog at https://www.kindthoughtsformeghanmarkle.com/

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