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Diana's Decades, review: a time of war, riots and the dutiful wife

Diana - Tim Graham
Diana - Tim Graham

Another day, another Diana documentary. This one, Diana’s Decades (ITV), is a three-part series. The first episode was about the 1970s. The quick-witted may have spotted that the princess was in the public eye for only two decades, first stepping out with the Prince of Wales in 1980, but let’s not quibble. Instead, let’s applaud the fact that this show was at least striving to offer something a bit different.


It was a cross between one of those Dominic Sandbrook social histories and a retread of Diana’s public life, with Meera Syal providing wry narration. Thus the royal wedding was set against the Toxteth riots, and the popularity of this young aristocrat placed in the context of a Britain in which “the prevailing mood was not so much levelling up as taking the toffs down a peg or two”. The birth of Prince William, victory in the Falklands and Brideshead Revisited were all there to explain the heady atmosphere of the early 1980s.


But to fully understand the Diana effect, the programme argued, we had to look at the decade from which the nation had just emerged. Ghost Town by The Specials matched the mood in some corners of Britain. In archive footage from the royal wedding day, newsreader Carol Barnes mingled with the crowds and asked one woman why she was there. “To get away from this horrible recession!” came the reply.

Charles and Diana - AP
Charles and Diana - AP


There was mention of the 1970 Equal Pay Act and Margaret Thatcher being made leader of the Conservative Party, but also a reminder that equality had only taken us so far. Earl Spencer told reporters that his daughter “would make a very good housewife”. Interviewed by Angela Rippon and Andrew Gardner on the eve of the wedding, the royal couple were asked if they were looking forward to making a home together.

Charles looked at Diana: “You’re the one with the domestic responsibilities.” Diana: “Yes, very much so. Looking forward to being a good wife.” Try to imagine Harry and Meghan, or even Kate and William, saying the same thing now.


That interview is seldom now seen, overshadowed by their engagement one. Diana’s Decades combed the archives for these lesser-known clips, including the Spencers’s TV repairman recalling the moment a teenage Diana attended her sister’s wedding and said: “Nothing like this for me, Ray. It’s Westminster Abbey or nothing.” And a reminder that Diana gave her first solo interview to an Earl’s Court neighbour who happened to be a journalist, demonstrating even back then that she was determined to tell her own story.