The
BBC's decision to shelve a documentary about the Royal Family days
before it was due to be broadcast is 'sinister censorship', critics said
today.
Reinventing
The Royals is said to be critical of Prince Charles' attempt to rebuild
his reputation and increase public sympathy for Camilla Parker Bowles
after the death of Princess Diana.
MPs
said today the Royals are guilty of 'gross interference' after lawyers
known to represent Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall are said to have
complained about the shows.
Critics have also said that the BBC has questions to answer after failing to 'stand firm' under pressure over the documentary.
Controversial: Reinventing The Royals is said to be critical of Prince Charles' attempt to rebuild his reputation after the death of Diana, left in 1990, and his relationship with Camilla Parker-Bowles, together in 1997
The series was due to have documented a PR plan to make Charles and Camilla more popular after Diana's death in 1997 in a campaign called 'Operation Mrs PB'.
Informed sources close to the Royal Family said its makers said it would be a 'general look' at the relationship between the media and the monarchy but 'appears to have become a hatchet job'.
Welsh Labour MP Paul Flynn told MailOnline: 'It seems to be gross interference with the BBC in their role to tell their paymasters, the British public, the truth.
'The Royals have used their expensive PR operation to influence the BBC.
'People are right to believe this is sinister censorship. This is not Moscow - the BBC should be fearless and free to broadcast.
But the BBC should have held firm. We are being infantilized by broadcasters who are keeping the truth from us about the Royals.
'All this will do is increase pressure to have it shown and increase the number of people who will watch it when it is'.
Jim Sheridan, a senior MP on the Commons culture, media and sport committee, told the Daily Mirror: 'We cannot now have the Royal Family deciding what can and cannot be shown on our national broadcaster. That is a dangerous precedent to set.
'The BBC is a publicly-funded broadcaster and if this programme is in the public interest then it must be shown.'
New life: The documentary is said shed light on Prince Charles's attempts to repair his battered image using the Royal Family's PR department to make him look caring
According to the Radio Times, the documentary, presented by former Panorama editor Steve Hewlett, was pulled from the 9pm slot on Sunday's schedule after lawyers 'known to represent senior members of the royal family' had made contact.
Mr Hewlett edited Panorama during its notorious interview with Diana in 1995 in which she referred to Charles's affair with Mrs Parker Bowles, saying: 'There were three of us in this marriage, so it was a bit crowded.'
The new programmes are said to say Charles's methods to improve his image left the teenage Prince William feeling he had been 'used to further his father's interests' after details of his first meeting with Mrs Parker Bowles ten months after Diana's death were leaked to a journalist.
Upset: Labour MP Paul Flynn says the Royal Family are guilty of 'gross interference' and the BBC should not have caved in
Mr Hewlett says in an article for the Radio Times that Charles hired Mark Bolland from the Press Complaints Commission to act as his media advisor in what was a departure for the royal family.
He says Mr Bolland tried to repair the Prince's battered image by taking every opportunity to show his different side as a single parent and caring father.
His other objective was to increase public acceptance for the woman Charles described as a 'non-negotiable' part of his life – Mrs Parker Bowles, who is now Duchess of Cornwall.
A BBC spokesman said: 'The BBC is delaying broadcast of the documentary Reinventing The Royals, due to be shown on BBC Two on January 4, until later in the New Year while a number of issues including the use of archive footage are resolved.'
A source in the corporation said the delay is temporary and it is 'certain to air soon'.
Graham Smith from Republic, who want the monarchy abolished, said: 'The BBC has a responsibility to the public to show no fear or favour in its reporting. Prince Charles is in line to be Britain's head of state - he must be subjected to the same standards of media scrutiny as any politician.
'The BBC and other broadcasters are far too deferential to the royals. It's time they began to treat them in the same way they treat politicians and other public officials.'
It is understood the Royal Family had co-operated with the documentary but then became worried about its content.
Informed sources say Clarence House appears to feel the programme makers have been disingenuous from the start about what they intended to do with the documentary.
'What started out as a general look at the relationship between the media and the monarchy appears to have become a hatchet job on the Prince of Wales', one source said.
DAILY MAIL