With the flurry of TV documentaries rolling out across several TV channels to mark the 20th anniversary of the death of Princess Diana, there's really only one that deserves your time and effort: Diana and the Paparazzi on ITV Choice (DStv 123).
Try and catch a repeat or watch it on DStv Catch Up.
I've watched them all - and I mean all - but they've been mostly disappointing. Most of the Princess Diana documentaries, although newly produced, suffer from the same problem: stale, old subject matter.
Although they interview new people, they mostly fail to add anything new. They don't offer (a) new perspective(s), new insights, or frame what happened and Princess Diana's life in a new or different way.
Several have moments of new insights and interesting quotes from people, but mostly they didn't bring anything new to the table. Diana and the Paparazzi does.
Don't be put off by the word "paparazzi" and think "oh its about the tabloid photographers". The title could actually have been better chosen.
It's more about the media relationship between press and a famous person - in this case Princess Diana - and how it both changed and yet stayed the same - during the course of her life. It makes for truly fascinating viewing.
The documentary has new people, saying new things, and also cleverly does a broad sweep across the whole of Princess Diana's life with a wide lense.
Especially interesting is one of Diana's personal friends and what she constantly reveals (I think in a sense unwittingly - although she's not being exploited) about contact, interaction and the to-and-fro "deal-making" Diana had with the media and paparazzi.
If you like media or media matters, and are interested in the confluence of media, press and celebrity, you will really enjoy this documentary.
■ The worst and laziest documentary was the one on CNN International (DStv 401), Diana: Chasing a Fairytale, a really lazy cut-and-paste job from all of the other Diana stuff that just surfaced.
CNN International didn't even bother coming up with spending 5 minutes on thinking of a new angle, like maybe looking at how TV news, or international TV news channels reacted, or how covering her death changed TV news.
The documentary wasn't bad - but if you haven't watched it, you haven't missed anything.
You'd think CNN International marking a 20th anniversary would have come up with something of its own that's different and better than the Clarissa Ward fronted, undercooked special.
■ Noteworthy is a very, very cool MultiChoice promo on DStv to market the various Princess Diana documentaries, employing a chess board and its pieces as the striking set piece.
It was extremely creative and very well executed, with smartly done graphics and voice-overs and looking majestic.
The cool looking promo manages to strike the perfect tone between subject matter and symbolism and creating a visual hook for the viewer to entice them to watch the programming. I thought it was brilliantly done.
DStv really deserve to win some award somewhere for this really great promo.
