BBC announces cast for Princess Diana drama ‘Diana & I’

The BBC will mark the 20th anniversary of Princess Diana’s death later this year with a new drama from the producer of Last Tango In Halifax.

Writer and director Jeremy Brock (Mrs Brown) has written a one-off fictional drama about “the extraordinary impact Princess Diana’s death had on people’s lives.”

Diana & I will be directed by Peter Cattaneo (The A Word, Rev) and produced by Karen Lewis (Last Tango In Halifax, Happy Valley).

The 90-minute film’s cast will include Tamsin Greig (Episodes), Nico Mirallegro (The Village), Kiran Sonia Sawar (Murdered by My Father) and Laurie Davidson alongside Gemma Jones, Neil Morrissey (Line of Duty), Tuppence Middleton (War & Peace), Charlotte Hope, Asif Khan, Kingsley Ben-Adir, John Gordon Sinclair and Roshan Seth.

Diana & I will focus on “the impact Diana’s loss had on society and the unique outpouring of emotion that ensued,” telling the story from the point of view of four ordinary people – a mother, a son, a wife, a boyfriend – across the week that followed her tragic death on 31 August 1997.

Writer Jeremy Brock commented: “I was compelled by the impact that incredible week had on all of us who remember it, whether royalist or not. I wanted to explore the lives of four ordinary people and how they internalised their memories of Diana in the aftermath of her death.

“The week following her fatal car crash was a week like no other before. It catapulted many of us into emotional states we rarely visit, leaving us open to new insights and new experiences. Diana & I is categorically not a film written in memoriam. It’s a celebration of what it’s like to be human – good and bad – in the unexpurgated and improvisatory shock of real life.”

BBC Two controller Patrick Holland added: “Diana’s death wasn’t just a tragedy for her family; the nation responded with a collective grief which is still remarkable 20 years on. Jeremy Brock’s emotionally layered drama engages with the lives of ordinary people whose stories play out against this extraordinary outpouring of communal loss.”

Diana & I is expected to air in the UK on BBC Two in August.