I was working in a Pharmaceutical plant in Runcorn and the local radio was playing maudlin music with the DJ literally crying. I turned it off and was nearly lynched by other staff. My Dad had just died and people were saying it was like a member of their family dying. No it bloody wasn’t. Pathetic.

I mean it was weird but it shouldn't have overshadowed anyone's grief and I'm so sorry that happened.

It was completely over the top. The media had been printing salacious stories about her for years then suddenly she’s a saint. Hard to remember how despised Camilla was at the time but look at her now.

I know. I did watch the funeral because I'd been given the morning off work and her brother said exactly the right things, the press clamoured for her and printed shit about her and then the press effectively killed her.

This is it - it’s been completely forgotten about, but in the run up to her death the press had REALLY ramped up their negative coverage of her. There seemed to be a new hit piece every day on here as soon as her relationship with Dodi became known. Something was always going to come to a head.

Because she was shagging a brown man. That was it. Fucking horrible.

Absolutely! 💯

Absolutely this.

August '97 was generally insane. I was in London the week before and the Di & Dodi coverage was kinda like the Travis & Taylor coverage now. And of course Be Here Now had just come out too. Oasis mania was rife. A bit like now.....

Are you predicting another royal death jenfur?

Well, I am about to leave the country for a few weeks....... Also Big KC3 is a given before Xmas. But there could be another death at Buckingham Palace, but for who, Chris Kamara?

Suddenly reminded of that time 20 years ago when some mates and I played the 'official' Soccer Saturday drinking game. One rule was when Kammy is talking, you must he drinking. The game he was covering finished 5-4...

Big question would be who is actually *liked* enough now to even cause a fuss? Kate maybe?

Meghan? 🫢

Taylor

Keeping it solely to the adults: Kate is literally the only one that would. She's the picture of perfect womanhood in the right wing tabloids. The madonna to Meghan's... you know. Me? Well, I'll just say that I have a strong suspicion about who made the comments about Meghan's baby.

Yeah, there was definitely a sort of press and public mea culpa feeding into it all, with those of us who had zero interest caught up as bystanders whether we liked it or not

The Queen died 7 months after my mum and I was being scolded and told on Twitter by some Big Accounts that I should grieve for her the same way I did for my mum. Imagine telling an Irish person that. Or anyone, for that matter.

It is absolutely pathetic. Who are these people to tell you how you should feel. Gobshites.

One is an awful racist Tory self-declared "expat". The other is a surmised catfish. Both blocked.

The usual suspects.

I’d finished my A-levels & going out all the time, having found my tribe. My dad had died while sitting my GCSEs 2 years earlier & I was ready have lots of fun. Just back from Reading fest & everyone in the staff room at the supermarket I worked was crying. It was a total mystery to me

Yeah it was weird enough as it was but I imagine if you were grieving someone you actually knew that grief felt kind of hijacked

Exactly. I couldn’t believe seeing grown adults outside Buck house openly weeping. Blair with his “Peoples Princess” bollocks. Looking back it was the start of this country losing it.

whos Diana?

Radio 1 playing One Night Stand by the Aloof was MAD

ALL FUCKING DAY

And for those wondering one of the Dublin pirate radio stations streamed Radio 1 at night in the 90s

So I was driving to the shops and the music was so sad/dreary. It was only on the way back I found out. Very strange atmosphere everywhere. I also can’t understand why your boyfriend didn’t take you all the way home. That’s weirder

I think he was going to work and we lived quite a long way apart

McDonald’s on the High St or Aspects ? 😆 We lived in Bedford then !

High St!

lol ! Details are important !

Then we had the 24/7 coverage for three or five weeks on the news. Day 21 and we explore whether the media is covering this too much, now to you Jane…. A moment of disgust in the media.

My mum did the same banging on the door and shouting. Only, it was the morning after my 18th birthday party, I was absolutely hanging and MY NAME IS ACTUALLY DIANE. I had to take a moment.

I remember reading the headline that morning and how shocking and sad it was 😔

Queen of Hearts? More like Queen of Cockblocking.

This kind of reminds me of how I was told. My girlfriend of the time woke me up very gently and whispered in my ear like it was foreplay but when I properly woke up she was saying “Diane’s dead, Diane’s dead” in a way that sounded like a kid saying “Santa’s been!”

I was a bit bleary from the night before and turned on the telly, and I swear my thought process was: Martin Lewis is telling me Princess Diana’s dead, not Chris Morris. Blimey, it must be true, then

We didn’t have a tv so I remember us sitting round the radio which felt very 1940s.

To be clear, she wasn’t happy excited just big news excited.

I’d gone to play football, and one of the dads said, “I thought it might be cancelled today, out of respect”, and my Dad said, “Respect for what?” He wasn’t being callous, we just hadn’t had the news on.

That does go to show how quickly the madness descended though eh?

Yes! I can’t remember if we played. I *think* the match was cancelled.

I’ve seen some serious cultural commentators say this caused the death of Britpop.

I would blame the music of 1997

Me (having just released Be Here Now): this is diana’s fault

Yes I went to university that following autumn and the musical memories are BLEAK. The boyfriend did not last past that Christmas.

Oh God I forgot how Candle in the Wind was the only music for 4 months or something.

It’s like I’ll Be Missing You was the trial run

Established the ‘grieving too much to write something from scratch’ template

I still can’t believe HE DIDN’T WRITE A NEW SONG AND CO-OPTED ONE HE’D WRITTEN ABOUT SOMEONE ELSE

Rialto came just too late to save it!

I was on call on the day of her funeral and got bleeped for something quite trivial during the two minutes silence which I thought was a bit rude. Still feel bad that my initial thought was “they’re going to cancel the Liverpool Newcastle match now” (they did!)

I remember my dad barging open the front door bellowing Dodi’s Dead! (Obv before the news broke that she had died too) which was even more surreal as I thought he was talking about a long extinct sea bird.

The night she died my dad was sat out all night atop the tallest hill at the back of town with binoculars, looking for UFOs. “Skywatching”, they call it. Anyway, my mum woke me up the next morning in tears to tell me the news. Five minutes later my dad gets home. “Did you see anything?” “No.”

Ha ha - was this one of those things dads just said they were doing for a bit of peace and quiet?

Possibly. But he was also bang into UFOs too. Used to go to regular Ufologist meetings and everything.

I hate to add to everyone's cynicism, but the only reason the powers that be are making a fuss on this 28th anniversary of her death is because there are documentaries in the works to be released on the 30th anniversary. We are going to have to live thru 2 full yrs of this propaganda.

Went, hungover, to a morning screening of Austin Powers - using free tickets from the Guardian. Came outside to a biblical rainstorm. Hurried back to the car and couldn't understand why the radio was playing this music. Also went to McDonald's.

It’s what she would have wanted

It did feel like a fitting tribute.

I'd been to a grotty rave in a Norfolk gravel pit and picked up something about it on the radio on the way home. Most of what I remember after that was the strange music they played

We were on the way back to someone’s flat after an all nighter and found out in the corner shop when stopping for munchies. Bought a load of Red Stripe and decided to just carry on. My mate told the owner it’s what she would have wanted, got refused his beers and told to leave.

My mother had a very tragic face on and said, "I've just been talking to Patricia and she said..." and I thought, oh no one of Trish's cats has died (who were her absolute babies) so when I heard the rest of the sentence I was actually relieved.

My wife woke me up and said "Princess Diana's died!" I said "No she hasn't" and went back to sleep. An hour later i got up to feed the baby and discovered she had been correct. She knew, she'd been glued to the tv since trying to wake me.

My fiance was on a 5 week training exercise. I got up Sunday morning, got all of my housework done so I could watch the EastEnders omnibus that afternoon. I turned the tele on & saw her photo. It took me a minute to realise the importance of 1961-1997 under it. My 1st thought, damn, no omnibus 😅

I was staying at my dad’s for the weekend - what year was it? 96? I suppose I was 15?- and I remember he bought me a cup of tea and said - in these exact words ‘Diana - the princess Diana - has died. In a tunnel. Extraordinary’. He had no interest in the royal family 😂

97! I’d just done my A-levels and then went to uni that autumn

I was staying with my folks. Had been to a house party and came back at 3am. My mum was up watching the news, at that point it was just a crash. At 8am my radio alarm came on and the news started bang on the second it came on. Then they played the instrumental version of the Aloof's One Night Stand.

The radio playing "The Lady In Red" and "Careless Whisper" on repeat

I was volunteering at a Tent City campsite on Hackney Marshes & my bedroom was the football changing room that summer. A Finnish colleague rushed in while I was sleeping to tell me ‘your princess’ has died & I thought I’d managed to get past the mirror into the other world for a bit.

Ha ha - I mean it was sad and everything but I’d resent being woken up for it

I was woken up by my late mother shouting ‘well they’ve bloody killed her’. She did conspiracy theories before it became fashionable.

I mean….

My colleague looked like a pixie which made things more confusing to my slightly addled mind.

Ha ha - ‘Can I ask the wizard for help?’

Ad infinitum

I was walking my now wife to the corner shop - she was off to Sunday morning Pilates and I was wearing socks - when we saw the tabloid headlines. definitely a moment.

The weeks of mawkishness afterwards on all media platforms created the perfect level of boredom that led to the accidental creation of my eldest child

Ha ha ha

Dirty Diana

Dirty Diana deeds done dirt cheap

it’s what she would have wanted.

I think I’d been out raving at ‘freaky disco’ so was heading back to bed. glad we weren’t all online then I’d have found it tiresome.

Tears around the world and I remember the royals being quiet in the first days probably protecting the boys. I also remember the Queen bowing her head as the casket rode by.

I got up put the radio on for Danny Baker just to hear a replacement interviewing people for inanities. The whole media cancelled shows & gave itself over to trying to fill space. We set about our chores listening to CDs, & in the afternoon went to see the newly released Full Monty

I moved to London that morning. We didn’t put the news on and didn’t get a Sunday paper so had no idea what was going on. Weird mood on the train, people going to football matches but weren’t sure if they were going to go ahead. Don’t think I found out what had happened until later in the day.

They put sad music on the radio because you didn’t finish foreplay?

Someone woke me up by ringing from the Guardian - where I had a 4pm shift - saying 'of course, you'll have to come in early' but didn't say why. I just had to keep saying 'yes, yes' in a serious voice while wondering if it was the queen mother or WWIII