Was criticized for being heavily edited by the producers and by Bashir. Jackson has stated that he was betrayed by Bashir.
Michael Jackson's cameras were filming simultaneously next to Martin Bashir's cameras. Michael released two weeks later a reply to this show, the uncut version of the same interview: The Michael Jackson Interview: The Footage You Were Never Meant to See (2003).
The UK edit of the show, at least for the original showing, featured many Michael Jackson songs. The international version, distributed to overseas countries, such as Ireland, had some if not all of the Michael Jackson songs replaced with more generic stock library "Production Music". Most likely due to various Music Rights clearance issues, due to the original Sound Recordings, and Music Publishing being used.
This is the same Martin Bashir who had previously interviewed Princess Diana for the infamous BBC Panorama documentary about her marriage to Prince Charles. By 2020, his Diana documentary was also called into question as to if that interview had been obtained ethically, and legally, and was placed under investigation by both the BBC and Police.