Controversial: Keith Allen's new movie Unlawful Killing looks into Princess Diana's death and brands Prince Phillip a 'Fred West-style psychopath'
14th May 2011
The Royal Family masterminded the car crash that caused Princess Diana’s death as a ‘warning’ to make her toe the line, a controversial new film premiered at Cannes yesterday claims.
The director, Keith Allen, said the House of Windsor had ‘got away with murder’ because no one had been held to account over the accident.
In the film, entitled Unlawful Killing, Prince Phillip is branded a 'Fred West-style psychopath' who 'orchestrated the murder' of Diana.
The Queen is dismissed as a 'gangster in a tiara'.
Controversial: Keith Allen's new movie Unlawful Killing looks into Princess Diana's death and brands Prince Phillip a 'Fred West-style psychopath'
Allen, who is trying to sell the film around the world, was bankrolled by
Mohamed Al-Fayed, whose son Dodi also died in the car crash, to make the movie.
He invested £2.5 million to back the production after it was turned down by every broadcaster in the UK.
It will not be shown in UK cinemas because of strict laws on libel and contempt, but Allen believes the movie will make money in America.
'The crash was supposed to be a warning': Diana died in 1997
Allen said: ‘I think Diana was in a position to rock a lot of boats. I think [the accident] was supposed to be a warning.
‘I believe there was a chance that she could have survived the accident. But I think the situation may have gone too far.'
In the film, the inquest in to her death is presented as a cover-up in which different arms of the British establishment - including the police, the Courts, and the Royal Family - as well as the French coroner and government had a hand.
Unlawful Killing opens with a details of a letter penned by Diana to her Butler, in which she claims that Prince Charles is planning to have her murdered in a car accident.
The production stated the 36-year-old could have been saved had she been taken to hospital quickly - and that the inquest failed to properly investigate why she wasn’t.
The film shows the graphic black and white close-up of Diana taken moments after the Mercedes carrying the couple crashed in a Paris underpass, for a few seconds.
The image, in which her blonde hair and features clearly visible, has never been publicly seen in this UK.
Allen said: ‘The photo is not used in the film for the purpose of shock. It is included as evidence, because it shows clearly that, although Diana had been injured in the crash, she was alert and very much alive. I repeat: it is not a picture of a dying woman.’
The film features Al-Fayed accusing the Royal Family of being racist.
Allen, who authors the documentary, suggests in it that the Establishment was unhappy with Diana’s relationship with Dodi, because he was a Muslim.
It also claims that her role in the anti-landmine campaign put her at risk from those in the arms industry, and those in power who had links to it.
'Gangsters in tiaras': The hugely controversial documentary makes some outrageous claims about the Royal Family's involvement in the accident
Psychologist Oliver James is interviewed about his behaviour for the film - and despite having never treated the Duke of Edinburgh, he claims he displays classic ‘psychopath’ behaviour, likening him to a 'Fred West'.
In another bizarre sequence the House of Windsor is compared to the mafia, and Allen describes one picture of the Queen, Princess Margaret and Princess Anne all dressed in black as ‘gangsters in tiaras’.
The controversial premiere was met with ridicule from critics with many questioning how editorially independent the film could be when it was funded by Al-Fayed.
Writer Martyn Gregory, who penned Diana: The Last Days the last days, branded the the film ‘ludicrous’ and claimed that Allen had simply made a vehicle for Al-Fayed’s rants.
Crash: The wreck of the car in which Diana and Dodi Al-Fayed died in Paris
Critic Richard Friedman compared the ideas put forward in the film as like Mel Gibson in Conspiracy Theory.
He said: ‘It is misleading not to let the audience know that Al-Fayed is funding this film.’
Unlawful Killing features interviews with Piers Morgan, Lauren Booth, and Tony Benn.
Allen enlisted the help of freelance journalist Richard Wiseman, who went undercover to monitor how the press covered the tribunal.
However the only insight he gained was that the BBC’s Royal Correspondent Nicholas Witchell fell asleep during some of it.
Publicity: Allen and writer Paul Sparks attended the photocall in Cannes yesterday, but Mohamed Al-Fayed was absent
The comedian said that he made the film to highlight the failings in the way he believed the death of Diana was investigated.
News of his documentary had been met with disgust with many close to Diana.
Close friend Rosa Monckton said: ‘The fact people are trying to make money – which is all that they are doing now – out of her death is quite frankly ... words fail me.’
A spokesman for St James’s Palace declined to comment.
Al-Fayed did not turn up for the screening amid rumours he was upset about the inclusion of the controversial crash picture.
His spokesman said he was 'delighted with the film' but it is understood that the tycoon had lobbied for the image to be taken out.
In 2008, after a six-month inquest, a jury concluded Princess Diana and Dodi Fayed were unlawfully killed as a direct result of grossly negligent driving by drunk chauffeur Henri Paul, who also died in the crash.