A Right Royal Week Ahead

TVNZ 1 and Prime are about to swamp viewers with Royal Family documentaries to commemorate the 20th anniversary of Princess Diana’s death.

Prime will devote much of primetime to these specials in the week starting August 26.

It will open with the two-part, four-hour documentary, The Story of Diana (8.30 Sunday), continue with Diana and the Paparazzi (8.30 Wednesday), and conclude with the two-hour Diana – Seven Days That Shook the World (8.30 Thursday).

TVNZ 1’s Diana, Seven Days will screen 7.30-9.30 Monday that week; the network will also premiere the Diana-related Prince Harry in Africa on Thursday at 8.00, a 2016 production that The Telegraph thought “an unexpectedly insightful encounter”.

NZ and US networks are going overboard on remembrance compared to the UK (where only two tributes are scheduled), prompting The Guardian to quip: “What’s going to be left for the 30-year memorial? Diana the new Dunkirk?”

The first hour of The Story of Diana has already screened in the US.

“Although much of the drama is saved for part two — Charles’s explosive affair with Camilla Parker Bowles, the divorce, and, of course, the tragic car crash in Paris — the first half of the documentary contains plenty of heartbreaking moments,” Vogue said of the ABC production.

The Australian described Seven Days That Shook the World as an “excellent documentary” that examines the lead-up to Princess Diana’s funeral in 1997.

“It features broadcasts from the time, interviews with key participants and observers, and highlights a moment when critics openly questioned whether the British royal family could retain popular support.”

Prime also has the controversial Diana: Her Story, which will screen next Wednesday at 8.30. It topped the ratings in the UK but was critically castigated.