Her Majesty The Queen: Behind Closed Doors indie, Love Monday TV, has partnered with 53 Degrees Global (The Royal House of Windsor, The Queen’s 90th Birthday Celebration) to produce Diana: The Unheard Truth (wt).
The project is fully funded by Rainmaker Films, led by Clay Pecorin, Russell Geyser and Zak Tanjeloff and Plymouth Films led by Kevin Weisberg.
Love Monday has secured access to never-before-heard audio recordings of the Princess to create a series that “challenges the reductive narrative that has too often framed Diana as a victim of her circumstances. The raw words of Diana present a fuller portrait: a woman navigating pressure, redefining her role, and moving forward with conviction. It invites the public to encounter Diana not only through what happened to her, but through how she chose to respond.”
During her lifetime, the Princess of Wales told her own version of her full life story just once, in 1991, on secret taped conversations made with her close friend Dr. James Colthurst. The recordings then formed the basis of the Andrew Morton book Diana Her True Story. Now 35 years on from those recordings, Love Monday TV has partnered with Morton and Colthurst to secure full and exclusive access to the tapes. In the three decades since Diana’s death, less than one hour of these tapes has been heard before. In a worldwide exclusive, Diana: The Unheard Truth (wt) delves into the five hours of previously unheard material to create the emotional and narrative spine of the series in Diana’s own words.
Alongside revealing Diana’s unheard words, Andrew Morton, Dr. James Colthurst and publisher Michael O’Mara reveal the risks that the Princess took, and the intensity of the scrutiny they all endured, “as they raced to reframe Diana’s narrative.”
In addition to the tapes, the series will also feature perspectives from those closest to Diana including: Delissa Needham, a prep schoolmate who has never spoken on camera before; Sam McKnight, the hairdresser who was with her throughout the nineties; Penny Thornton, the astrologer to whom she turned for guidance; Wayne Sleep, the ballet dancer who she met through her official patronages and who became one of the closest people in her life; Ken Wharfe, the bodyguard who went wherever Diana did for five years; Dickie Artbiter, the press secretary caught in the crossfire as Charles and Diana’s marriage imploded; Kent Gavin, the photographer who was there from the wedding and William’s christening through to the summer of 1997; and Richard Kay, the Daily Mail journalist who found himself Diana’s confidante.
Love Monday is led by Executive Producers Kerene Barefield and Naveed Chowdhary-Flatt. Sophie Todd is series editing Diana: The Unheard Truth (wt) with Emily Hirst producing. Justin Frahm is Director of Photography.
Jon Creamer
Share this story
