Queen's lawyers pursue filmmakers over documentary

Published on Sunday 12 August 2007 00:48

THE Queen's lawyers have written to the filmmakers behind a BBC documentary trailer which wrongly claimed she stormed out of a photo shoot.

It is understood the letter from Farrer & Co warns the RDF Media Group that they have put themselves in breach of contract by their actions.

When publicising the documentary to journalists, the company showed a clip which it claimed showed the Monarch "walking off in a huff" halfway through a photo shoot with Annie Leibovitz.

In fact, she was walking into the room, rather than exiting it, and RDF has since admitted to being "guilty of a serious error of judgment".

Senior officials at Buckingham Palace believe the programme has been "tainted" by the fiasco, which threatened to damage the Queen's reputation, and there is pressure on the makers of A Year With The Queen to drop it.

Farrer & Co has been examining contracts drawn up between Buckingham Palace, the BBC and RDF Media Group.

A senior source said: "There are now serious doubts whether this programme will ever see the light of day."

A spokesman for RDF Media Group said: "The [BBC's] investigation is ongoing. [RDF's chief executive] is in conversations with the lawyers and the BBC.

"He's in contact with our lawyers and the Palace lawyers - he has been talking to everyone that has been in touch."

The BBC apologised to the Queen last month after admitting the trailer had been manipulated, while the broadcaster has also received an apology from RDF, which admitted responsibility.

The Queen has told her lawyers and her press office not to discuss the dispute until the BBC completes an internal investigation into what went wrong. No one at Buckingham Palace was available for comment last night.

However, one source was reported as saying: "The Queen feels very let down."

The dispute has already had major repercussions for the BBC and other broadcasters as one of several incidents that have led to questions being asked about the integrity of filmmakers, where footage has been purposefully misleading.

Mark Stephens, a senior media lawyer with Finers Stephens Innocent, believes the Queen has a strong case for breach of contract.

"The Queen agreed to appear in a programme subject to standard editorial guidelines and controls," he said. "The editorial standards of the BBC require them not to present a false picture.

"If they do portray someone in a false light they have breached their contract."

Stephens added that the Queen would have grounds to take legal action for defamation because the trailer had damaged her reputation.

"A programme wrongly portraying the Queen as having a 'hissy fit' because she had been asked not to wear a tiara, or whatever nonsense, is clearly defamatory," he said.