Did it bother you that last week's Diana movie on Channel Five - the supposed 'tribute to the People's Princess' - featured acting that would have put the late and never lamented cast of Santa Barbara to shame; that the script was a series of mind-numbing clichs, that the actors didn't look like the characters they were supposed to play and obviously didn't have any acting ability so how come they were picked in the first place (though from a distance, at just the right angle and frame, Amy Clare Seccombe looked a tiny bit like Diana)?

Na, me neither. As far as I was concerned Channel Five had excelled themselves yet again. (Sunset Beach and The Bold and the Beautiful are also particular faves). Obviously made for an American audience, but we discover the truth about Diana and Dodi's relationship.

The casting, however, was a bit dodgy and we couldn't work out who some of the characters were supposed to be. For example, 'Dr Hasnat Khan' was nothing like the real one. Too tall, too dark, too handsome (though this one had disturbingly bulging eyes. I understand that the Princess was eye-poppingly beautiful but a heart surgeon would have realised that it is rude to stare).

And why was English rose 'Jemima Khan' speaking with an Australian accent? And didn't she look maddeningly familiar? After racking my brains for half an hour it dawned on me. Could she possibly have been horse-mad Lauren - Lou Carpenter's daughter from Neighbours? And strong but silent Imran Khan was played by a white man - but then again so was Gandhi.

'Dodi' looked all right but it took me a while to work out that the tall gentleman was supposed to be his father. And as for 'Kelly Fisher's' histrionics on TV well, what a good job 'Dodi' gave her the elbow.

It wasn't all bad though. There were triumphs such as the young princes, especially Harry who was scrummy and so believable. A pity the adults looked and behaved like cardboard cut-outs.

But whatever the misgivings about the technical aspect of the film: the casting, script, acting, etc, etc, I was glued to the edge of my seat. After all, Diana's early life and all too early death had been so tragic, what did it matter if the film was bad too? And though it has been roundly dismissed as 'tacky', in a bizarre kind of way I do think it was a tribute.

As the anniversary of her death approaches we will all remember Diana in our own way. At first she was just living proof that wealth, beauty and fame can't buy happiness but she fought back to make sense of her life.

"You're all going to get a big surprise with the next thing I do," she said to the paparazzi as they plagued her on holiday. Whatever that meant, whether she was going to convert to Islam, marry Dodi and have a baby, we will never know. She promised to shock us all, and she did.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.