Diana and I (BBC-2 2017, Tamsin Greig, Gemma Jones)

Written by acclaimed writer and director Jeremy Brock (Mrs Brown, The Last King Of Scotland), Diana & I is a fictional single drama about the extraordinary impact Princess Diana’s death had on people’s lives. It tells the story from the point of view of four ordinary people and is set across the week that followed her tragic death on 31 August 1997.

Directed by award-winning director Peter Cattaneo (The A Word, Rev, The Full Monty) and produced by Big Talk Productions for BBC Two, the focus of the drama is on the impact Diana’s loss had on society and the unique outpouring of emotion that ensued.

Writer Jeremy Brock says: “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.”

The drama traces four lead characters’ fictional stories, in parallel but at times interlinked. Each will lift the lid on one extraordinary week in time, covering the tumultuous events that followed from that fateful Sunday to Diana’s funeral at Westminster Abbey.

A mother, a son, a wife, a boyfriend – their human stories concern death, love, grief, greed, relationships, marriage – and will explore the role that chance and luck play in life.

Luke Alkin, Big Talk Executive Producer, says: “We’re incredibly excited to be bringing Diana & I to the screen, and to be working with Peter Cattaneo again. It’s a testament to Jeremy Brock’s wonderful script that it has attracted such a fantastic cast and a brilliant production team led by Karen Lewis.”

Patrick Holland, Controller BBC Two, says: “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.”

cast
Tamsin Greig
Nico Mirallegro
Kiran Sonia Sawar
Laurie Davidson
Gemma Jones
Neil Morrissey
Tuppence Middleton
Charlotte Hope
Asif Khan
Kingsley Ben-Adir
John Gordon Sinclair
Roshan Seth

key behind the scenes crew
Peter Cattaneo as Director
Karen Lewis as Producer
Kenton Allen as Executive Producer
Matthew Justice as Executive Producer
Luke Alkin as Executive Producer
Simon Curtis as Executive Producer
Elizabeth Kilgarriff as Executive Producer
Jeremy Brock as Writer / Executive Producer

show type
Drama,

broadcast from
Currently in production

network and production companies
BBC Two – Big Talk Productions