Fun
Frisky
Nostalgic
Intense
Adventurous
Choked Up
Curious
Romantic
Weird
We’re all familiar with the details surrounding the tragic passing of Princess Diana. When the calendar turns to August 31, it will be exactly twenty years since the Princess of Wales was fatally injured during a now infamous automobile accident that also claimed the lives of her boyfriend, Dodi Fayed, and the car’s driver, Henri Paul.
Renowned for her empathy and prodigious charity work, Diana was unparalleled in terms of popularity, as she was often described as the “most photographed person in the world” and regarded as the “people’s princess.” Her surprising death back in 1997 was unlike any that came before it. While documentaries like Diana, Our Mother: Her Life and Legacy explore her extraordinary life, Diana: 7 Days That Shook the World — which is now streaming on Netflix — provides riveting insight into the aftermath of her tragic death.
Diana’s passing galvanized the world, but I was unaware of the personal, visceral effect it had on the public before streaming 7 Days That Shook the World. On the morning of Diana’s death, England’s National Grid registered a record power surge due to the tens of thousands of kettles and televisions simultaneously being switched on.
“Diana’s death was our JFK,” said Sunday Express editor Camilla Tominey. “It was our moment of real shock at a cataclysmic, unexpected tragedy.”
People were so distraught that broadcasters played the National Anthem every hour. In the midst of unprecedented emotional turmoil, the population wasn’t quite sure what to do with their influx of grief. Church attendances increased dramatically, people were visiting the Royal Palaces in droves to leave flowers and pay their respects, and there were record numbers of calls to suicide prevention lines.
From Diana’s death to her funeral a week later, 7 Days That Shook the World also takes an in-depth look at the public’s increasingly tense relationship towards both the press and the Royal Family, as well as how young William and Harry processed the untimely death of their beloved mother.
The sea of flowers, the overwhelming outpour of sorrow, and Elton John’s emotionally-charged rendition of “Candle in the Wind” are what many of us remember from this tragic moment in history, but the spate of behind the scenes anecdotes and previously undisclosed information combine to make Diana: 7 Days That Shook the World an engrossing, comprehensive must-stream doc for anyone looking to commemorate the passing of Princess Diana.
