Tasteless memorial

Channel 4’s Diana: The Witnesses in the Tunnel (Wednesday) was, as promised, pretty tasteless stuff, though not for the reasons we were told. There are those who still believe the princess’s death was not an accident, and that the royal family, Lord Stevens and both French and British governments are part of a huge conspiracy to cover up the fact that this lovely, innocent woman was coldly done to death to prevent her from marrying a Muslim.

Absolute nonsense, of course. I’ve done some work on why people come to believe irrational but beguiling theories. What these wacky beliefs have in common is an enormous amount of data, a cascade of facts and quasi-facts. So it’s simple to ignore everything that refutes your claim, exaggerate anything that supports it, and invent more if needs be. Princess Diana’s death was more extensively reported than anything in the past decade apart from 9/11 and Iraq, so the fantasists have as much material as a jewel thief locked into De Beers.