Sir: I was astonished by the opening para - graphs in
Nick Farrell's otherwise excellent piece about the carbon monoxide in Henri Paul's blood.
At the time he wrote this piece he had never seen a copy of the script of the pro- gramme — and it shows. According to him, Mohamed Al Fayed was given 'hefty air time' to run viewers through his theories that MI5 and/or the paparazzi killed Dodi and Diana. 'I have seen this at first hand,' he claims.
I don't know what he saw 'at first hand', but he did not see any of this in our pro- gramme. Mr Al Fayed did not explore any conspiracy theories and neither did the pro- gramme. All he said was that he wanted to know whether it was an accident or murder.
LETTERS
Farrell claims that the programme-mak- ers 'used any witness they could find whose testimony, however shaky, might support the idea either of death by MI5 or death by paparazzi — or, who knows, possibly by both'. This is untrue. We did not interview any such witness and no such claim was made in the programme. The MI5 line was a complete invention by the Mail on Sunday the weekend before transmission. Don't believe everything you read in the cuttings, Nick.
The programme did, however, show that the paparazzi were much closer than they have admitted. By their account they were models of good behaviour. Indeed, some have told the judge that they were on their way home when they just happened on the crash in the tunnel. However, the civilian and police witnesses tell a very different story. We did not find a single witness who supported the paparazzi version of events simply because it is highly unlikely one exists. Certainly Nick Farrell did not find any such person. As for MI5, sorry to disappoint. They never got a mention.
Richard Belfield
Producer, Diana — Secrets Behind the Crash, Fulcrum Productions Limited, 254 Goswell Road, London EC1
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