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Diana Panorama interview: Graphic designer urges BBC to ‘come forward and apologise’


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The graphic designer who created ‘false bank statements’ that were allegedly used to encourage the late Diana, Princess of Wales to take part in a BBC Panorama interview has asked the BBC to apologise after he became what he describes as ‘the fall guy’.

In 1995, Princess Diana sat down with journalist Martin Bashir for an interview, during which the royal famously said that there were ‘three of us’ in her marriage to Charles, the Princes of Wales.

Last week, following claims made by Diana’s brother, Earl Spencer, that he was shown ‘false bank statements’ in order to help encourage his sister to take part in the interview, the BBC said it was going to conduct an investigation.

In a new statement, director-general of the BBC Tim Davie said the broadcaster was taking the allegations ‘very seriously’, adding: ‘We are in the process of commissioning a robust and independent investigation.’

During an interview for new ITV documentary The Diana Interview: Revenge Of A Princess, graphic designer Matt Wiessler, who was reportedly asked by Mr Bashir to create the ‘false bank statements’ in question, said that he wanted to ‘clear his name’, stating that he was ‘blacklisted’ from the industry following the interview.

‘I’ve agreed to talk to you because I’m this guy that’s remembered for forging the document and I want to clear my name,’ Mr Wiessler said, during his first television interview.

‘I want to clear my name,’ graphic designer Matt Wiessler said (Credit: PA)

Mr Wiessler, 58, said that he ‘quite clearly felt that I was the one that was going to be the fall guy in this story’.

‘All I want is for the BBC in this instance to come forward and honestly make an apology. Because it’s had a huge impact,’ the 58-year-old said.

Mr Wiessler said that in 1995, before the Panorama interview took place, he received a phone call from Mr Bashir asking him to ‘make up a couple of bank statements about people being paid to do surveillance that he needed the following day’.

The late Princess Diana during her Panorama interview with Martin Bashir (Credits: PA)

‘And he did say that they were just going to be used as copies … I had never been briefed in that way before,’ he added.

Mr Wiessler remembered noting that there was a name on one of the statements that had been used on a different Panorama programme he had previously worked on with Mr Bashir.

‘I just thought, ‘You can’t repeat the same name in two completely different projects. It must mean that current project you’re working on is fake’,’ he said.

The graphic designer told the ITV documentary that his flat was later broken into, with the intruders stealing two computer discs that contained the back-up copies he had made of the documents.

When contacted by Metro.co.uk for comment, the BBC pointed to Tim Davie’s earlier statement.

The Diana Interview: Revenge Of A Princess is being shown on ITV at 9pm on Monday November 9, with the second episode airing on Tuesday at 9pm.

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