Reviewed by Rhianna Pratchett
Narrated by Lord Richard Attenborough
UK certification U | UK RRP £12.99 | DVD Region 2 | Runtime 90 minutes
I have to admit that I did approach this documentary with a certain sense of trepidation. Though she was arguably the best of a rather bizarre bunch, I was never much of a Diana fan and thought that this would just be another mawkish wringing of hands. But I actually found myself beginning to warm to the Diana painted here — certainly before she married into ‘The Firm’ and was just a bit of an awkward young lady who just liked kids and animals and wondered what all the fuss was about.
Lord Attenborough paints Diana in an almost fireside chat form that certainly embodies the ‘fairytale’ element of her life, which the documentary mainly focuses upon. Her good works — which are probably her most important and lasting contribution (along with a couple of sons who actually have some idea of what the world is like) — do, thankfully, also get a look in.
This is certainly much more of a celebration of Diana’s life than a detailed analysis of her death and the events leading up to it, which in itself is quite odd. Queen of Hearts does make the lady herself seem very squeaky clean and without scandal or reproach, which is a very sanitised and selective view of the reality that I can remember.
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