Martin Bashir is depicted as a slimy journalist, the kind of journalist who gives others a bad name. As the Dyson Report suggested, he manipulated Diana from the beginning. Series 5 of The Crown illustrates this but does not paint him in a negative enough light. Diana was only 20 when she married Charles. To say she was young, naive and not well-educated is an understatement. It would have been easier than shown on The Crown for Bashir to manipulate her by playing to her paranoia. I wish the writers had shown him in a more negative fashion. Also, The Crown's writers' depiction of the BBC is not as harsh as it could have been. Greedy media companies, hungry for sensational "stories" no matter who they hurt has always, and will always be, the name of the game. Again, the episode shows poor innocent Diana getting caught up in Bashir's ambitions, the BBC's desire to scoop the story for prestige, and Charles and Cruella's disgusting, sordid affair (it matters not one bit that they married!). Ugh.
Review of Gunpowder
