The BBC has received 925 complaints about The Princes and the Press, its documentary on the royal family’s dealings with the media.
Viewers raised concerns of bias in the two-part BBC2 documentary. It was presented by the Today programme presenter Amol Rajan, who has been critical of the royal family in the past, and the royal households issued a joint statement criticising its “overblown and unfounded claims”.
The BBC did not divulge the specifics of the complaints but it has previously said that viewers felt the programme was “disrespectful” to the monarchy. The volume of complaints is small compared to April, when it received a record 109,741 objections for its wall-to-wall coverage of the Duke of Edinburgh’s death.
Responding to controversy around The Princes and the Press, the BBC said producers had approached Buckingham Palace, Kensington Palace and Clarence House, offering them the chance to put someone forward for interview.
Rajan’s documentary explored the relationship between the Duke of Cambridge, the Duke of Sussex and the media, focusing on a battle to control the narrative. Buckingham Palace was said to be unhappy about not being shown a preview of the programmes and there was back-and-forth contact between the BBC and palace lawyers.
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The second part of the documentary did not focus, as some expected, on the allegations that William and Harry briefed against each other in the press through their representatives. The BBC2 show is expected to be followed by a five-part BBC Sounds podcast which could feature more detail from the 80 hours of interviews conducted by Rajan. Its release has been delayed.
After the documentary was broadcast last month, Rajan apologised for his “rude and immature” historical comments about the royal family, which resurfaced in the media. He wrote numerous articles criticising senior royals during his time as a journalist and editor of The Independent.
In a 2012 article about the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Rajan branded the Duke of Edinburgh a “racist buffoon” and said the monarchy was “full of fools”. He added that William and Harry were “posh nice-but-dims”.
Reflecting on the remarks Rajan, 38, said: “In reference to very reasonable questions about some foolish commentary from a former life, I want to say I deeply regret it. I wrote things that were rude and immature and I look back on them now with real embarrassment, and ask myself what I was thinking. I would like to say sorry for any offence they caused then or now.”
