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Roger Darthwell · 31-08-2022, 12:03 AM

It's been 25 years, a quarter of a century since Diana, Princess of Wales died from the injuries that she sustained in a car crash in the Point de l'Alma tunnel in Paris alongside her friend Dodi Fayed. Therefore I have decided to share with you all the recordings from the BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5 and from radio stations. Here is the BBC's initial reports and coverage:
www.youtube.com

www.youtube.com

Here is the initial report of her death and the full ITN Special Report ''Diana: Death of a Princess''
www.youtube.com

www.youtube.com

And finally reports from other channels:
Channel 4 News Special: www.youtube.com

Channel 5 News: www.youtube.com

Sky News (very short snippet): www.youtube.com

BBC Radio 1 overnight Newsbeat bulletins: www.youtube.com

Mike Dickin announcing the death live on Talk Radio UK (now known as Talksport): www.youtube.com

Coverage from various radio stations: www.youtube.com

BBC World Service coverage: www.youtube.com

I sincerely apologise for this very long thread but I felt it was fitting to remember her death after a quarter of a century, may she continue to RIP

ALV · 31-08-2022, 10:43 AM

I was not born when the benevolent and gorgeous Princess Diana died on this traumatic day of history, but I have been re-watching a lot of footage from the BBC in recent years. Does anyone know the rough timeline of BBC One's overnight coverage?

I know BBC News 24 haven't launched back in the day and BBC World was still in their old logo and flags branding... BBC One did a news flash at 1:42AM and joined BBC World's coverage at 2:30AM... I seem to can't find any footage of this... is there a continuity announcer announcing we're joining BBC World and did they cut short of a film for this?

Apart from that, it seems BBC One have opted out of BBC World and started its own domestic news report sometime in the early morning... does anyone remember what exact time is it, and how it happened? (e.g is there a continuity or just a crash?)

Also, am I right that the BBC did the formal death announcement and played the national anthem a couple of times throughout the morning? From the footage I watched, the national anthem was first played at around 5AM with Nik Gowing, on BBC World for the international audience and BBC One viewers too (which I think they won't if they were NOT simulcasting with BBC One); then it was played at 6AM and 8AM with Martin Lewis on BBC One.

Of course, I totally understand there won't be any video footage because nobody DVR TVs for the entire overnight as DVR tapes are not cheap back in 1997~ If anyone could recall witnessing this I'm very eager to see your description of the presentation side of this historic event...

On a side note, here's BBC One's coverage of the news at 8AM that day:
www.youtube.com

This is the earliest footage of BBC One's rolling coverage I can find, it's a snippet of the announcement aired at 6AM, rebroadcasted by CNN:
www.youtube.com

W. Knight · 31-08-2022, 11:58 AM

(31-08-2022, 10:43 AM)ALV Wrote: Does anyone know the rough timeline of BBC One's overnight coverage?

Is there a continuity announcer announcing we're joining BBC World and did they cut short of a film for this?

Apart from that, it seems BBC One have opted out of BBC World and started its own domestic news report sometime in the early morning... does anyone remember what exact time is it, and how it happened? (e.g is there a continuity or just a crash?)

Also, am I right that the BBC did the formal death announcement and played the national anthem a couple of times throughout the morning?

I wasn't born by the time of her death (and not in the UK as well!), so I'm not too sure about the first-hand witnesses as well.

But, from what I gathered from this MHP article on the Princess's death (last updated in 2000!), this is probably what it looked like on One:

[*]1.15 Special News Report from Martyn Lewis (interrupting film twice)
[*]2.30 Final BBC 1 CA; BBC World coverage started (anchored by Nick Gowing)
[*]4.45 First hint of Diana's death (then on embargo) on World from Stephen Jessel
[*]5.10 Buckingham Palace confirmation; BBC1/2/World/Prime news simulcast; National Anthem first heard
[*]6.30 End of World coverage; joint BBC channel news programme (as "BBC Television from London"), anchored by ML

Judging by the wording the article used, the Anthem was played several times. Not too sure if the switch to Martyn at 6.30 used the Family ident and CA, or cut directly to the newsroom.

JasonB · 31-08-2022, 11:59 AM

I recall Sky channels such as Sky One and possibly others replacing ad breaks with a sombre piece of music.

James2001 · 31-08-2022, 01:48 PM

Thank you for people saying they weren't born, makes me feel old! For me it was the week before I started secondary school and I remember it well.

~~Newsroom~~ · 31-08-2022, 03:00 PM

That MHP summary of events is totally wrong about ITN.

A very young Tim Wilcox broke the news of the accident at around 1.30am

youtu.be

Dermot Murnaghan and Nicholas Owen were on way before 5.35am because I was channel hopping. I can recall at least 2 hours of ITN coverage before they handed over to Fiona Phillips and GMTV.

itsrobert · 31-08-2022, 03:59 PM

(31-08-2022, 01:48 PM)James2001 Wrote: Thank you for people saying they weren't born, makes me feel old! For me it was the week before I started secondary school and I remember it well.

This thread has made me feel like an old fossil! I must be the same age as you as I started secondary school the week after, too.

I don't recall the coverage with much detail now, although the video clips above give a good idea of what it was like. I very much remember the whole nation being in mourning; Princess Diana was a much loved member of the Royal Family. It was an utterly shocking and devastating event. I seem to recall that Mother Teresa died very shortly afterwards (i.e. within the week) and her death was pretty much reduced to a footnote.

My own recollection of hearing the news: it was a Sunday morning and my parents had a bit of a habit of having a cup of tea in bed while reading the Sunday newspapers (delivered to the front door by the paperboy....there's something unusual for you young'uns!). My Dad would go downstairs to make the tea and while doing so he would have a quick look at the sports news headlines on Ceefax/Teletext (again, I bet the youngsters here don't remember that - basically a pre-internet information service received through the TV). That morning, he turned the TV on and immediately saw that Diana had died as it was being shown on every channel. We abandoned our usual routine and all gathered round the TV to watch the news. Mine was a BBC household so I have vivid memories of watching Martyn Lewis and Peter Sissons on the Nine O'Clock News set (previously unheard of at that time of day) and hearing the National Anthem every so often throughout the day. I do remember watching the Prime Minister, Tony Blair, make a statement. He'd only been in office for about 4 months at that point.

Probably the reason there is very little footage of how it unfolded as the news initially broke is because it happened overnight and most people wouldn't have been recording programmes broadcast then. And in fact, BBC1 used to close down for the night in those days! This is an updated version of the page linked to earlier which has some audio clips that might be interesting for you: telly.site

Death of Diana, Princess of Wales - MHP Redux
Television and radio coverage of the death of Diana, Princess of Wales on Sunday…

Source: telly.site

I did enjoy the reference earlier in the thread to VCRs and VHS tapes as DVRs/DVR tapes! No such thing as a DVR in those days. Analogue tape all the way....! Even the longest VHS tapes only recorded up to 4 hours in 'short play' or 8 hours in 'long play' but the picture quality of long play was much worse. I don't remember VHS tapes being expensive; you could buy a pack of them fairly cheaply as I recall. I only remember getting my first DVR in about 2006 when I got Sky+. Up until then I very much continued to use the VCR and I think I did have a DVD recorder at some point, but I can't remember when exactly.

Here endeth the history lesson.

ALV · 31-08-2022, 04:52 PM

(31-08-2022, 03:59 PM)itsrobert Wrote: I did enjoy the reference earlier in the thread to VCRs and VHS tapes as DVRs/DVR tapes! No such thing as a DVR in those days. Analogue tape all the way....! Even the longest VHS tapes only recorded up to 4 hours in 'short play' or 8 hours in 'long play' but the picture quality of long play was much worse. I don't remember VHS tapes being expensive; you could buy a pack of them fairly cheaply as I recall. I only remember getting my first DVR in about 2006 when I got Sky+. Up until then I very much continued to use the VCR and I think I did have a DVD recorder at some point, but I can't remember when exactly.

Here endeth the history lesson.

Apologies for my lack of knowledge on TV history, but I thought digital TV was already launched quite early in the UK back in around 1997 (hence why I made a reference to DVRs for digital TVs)? Isn't that one of the selling points of BBC News 24's launch back in November, having it being available only on cable and digital terrestrial?

~~Newsroom~~ · 31-08-2022, 05:06 PM

(31-08-2022, 04:52 PM)ALV Wrote:
(31-08-2022, 03:59 PM)itsrobert Wrote: I did enjoy the reference earlier in the thread to VCRs and VHS tapes as DVRs/DVR tapes! No such thing as a DVR in those days. Analogue tape all the way....! Even the longest VHS tapes only recorded up to 4 hours in 'short play' or 8 hours in 'long play' but the picture quality of long play was much worse. I don't remember VHS tapes being expensive; you could buy a pack of them fairly cheaply as I recall. I only remember getting my first DVR in about 2006 when I got Sky+. Up until then I very much continued to use the VCR and I think I did have a DVD recorder at some point, but I can't remember when exactly.

Here endeth the history lesson.

Apologies for my lack of knowledge on TV history, but I thought digital TV was already launched quite early in the UK back in around 1997 (hence why I made a reference to DVRs for digital TVs)? Isn't that one of the selling points of BBC News 24's launch back in November, having it being available only on cable and digital terrestrial?

I think Rob meant there was no such thing as a DVR device being able to record video and it's true - there wasn't. It was VHS all the way when Diana died as Betamax had all but gone.

itsrobert · 31-08-2022, 05:58 PM

(31-08-2022, 04:52 PM)ALV Wrote:
(31-08-2022, 03:59 PM)itsrobert Wrote: I did enjoy the reference earlier in the thread to VCRs and VHS tapes as DVRs/DVR tapes! No such thing as a DVR in those days. Analogue tape all the way....! Even the longest VHS tapes only recorded up to 4 hours in 'short play' or 8 hours in 'long play' but the picture quality of long play was much worse. I don't remember VHS tapes being expensive; you could buy a pack of them fairly cheaply as I recall. I only remember getting my first DVR in about 2006 when I got Sky+. Up until then I very much continued to use the VCR and I think I did have a DVD recorder at some point, but I can't remember when exactly.

Here endeth the history lesson.

Apologies for my lack of knowledge on TV history, but I thought digital TV was already launched quite early in the UK back in around 1997 (hence why I made a reference to DVRs for digital TVs)? Isn't that one of the selling points of BBC News 24's launch back in November, having it being available only on cable and digital terrestrial?

No need to apologise!

Digital TV only started up in 1998, but even then it was only available through receivers (much as the old analogue satellite and cable TV had been). Digital video recorders (DVRs) that were capable of recording digital TV to an internal hard disk drive didn't arrive until much later, although I can't put a specific date on it. Digital TV didn't exist in the UK when Diana died and even when it was introduced, the only way to record from any sort of TV was on a VCR using VHS tape - at least as far as I can remember. Most people still had VCRs into the mid-2000s when DVRs started to become popular with the likes of Sky+ et al.

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