IT IS ALL PART OF THE HEALING PROCESS

IS CHANNEL 4 acting responsibly airing a documentary that contains images of Princess Diana in the car crash that killed her ten years ago?

The Shadow culture secretary Hugo Swire has said the programme would violate Diana's privacy and cause further grief to her sons.

This is debatable; the young princes William and Harry must be aware, now they are older, that Diana used the press to her own advantage and wasn't always the victim of the paparazzi; she had in fact colluded with many journalists.

They have grown up with the knowledge that every part of their mother's life was picked over and stripped bare by the media. They themselves have come of an age where they are accustomed to dealing with the press, yet lessons still need to be learned. Falling out of a nightclub drunk is always a photo opportunity and one of the young Princes seem adept at it.

I believe that if people are appalled at the documentary they have the option not to watch.

There is still a genuine public interest in Princess Diana and the events that led to her death. The TV company is acting on the demand of the public who still cannot get enough of the "People's Princess". Even in death, she takes up more column inches than her ex-husband.

The documentary titled The Witnesses in The Tunnel is due to be shown this Wednesday and includes pictures taken by French photographers following the 1997 collision.

This no doubt has upset the Royal family, who at best would love to put Diana's death and the circumstances surrounding it to rest and focus positively on the huge memorial concert being performed in her honour this coming July.

It has been reported that the film features a previously unpublished photograph of the Princess receiving medical attention from a doctor as she lay dying in the back of the black Mercedes S-Class. Channel 4 says the images shown "have been carefully and sensitively selected" and that the identities of those in the car have been blacked out. A spokesman for the broadcaster said: "These photographs are an important and accurate eye-witness record of how events unfolded after the crash."

Having a parent die in suspicious circumstances is something I share with William and Harry.

My mother was last seen on 1 April, 1982, going out for a walk with her boyfriend who the previous year had been charged with attacking her. He had a history of violence towards women and once served a lengthy prison service for attempted murder on an ex-girlfriend in the 1970s.

My mother and this man had apparently gone fishing up the River Clyde and he came home alone, denying any knowledge of her whereabouts when questioned by me. My mother's body was found floating in the river three days later and despite her boyfriend's admission that he "saw her fall in but never bothered to tell anyone" the local police deemed it an accident and no further investigation was carried out. Her boyfriend was never even regarded as a suspect! She was just a wee insignificant woman from Shettleston in Glasgow.

I am anxious to see the photos of the scene where she "fell in" and, as I am 47 years old next year - the same age at which my mother died - I will endeavour to unearth some of these facts for myself.

I need to know what happened and I am willing to face any disturbing images to achieve that. I owe it to my mother.

Maybe I will uncover some home truths that will leave me disturbed, but anyone who has lost a loved one in questionable circumstances will understand.

Princess Diana's death affected so many people around the world. Channel 4 understands the public need for information.

I am sure the young Princes have had the full facts of their mother's death clearly laid out for them and have been supplied with all the details that a family needs when a sudden death occurs. This is integral to the healing process.

Something I have long been denied, but hopefully not for long.

ME, SHIRLEY AND A HIPPO AT GLASTONBURY

SHIRLEY Bassey is one of the headline acts at Glastonbury this year, it has been announced. I will be performing too - at the comedy tent, of course.

This will be the third time I have performed at the world famous festival. I love it but the downside is the dirt and mud.

Even though we performers get more exclusive toilets and showers, it really still is a manky smelly hell. By the third day, the camp site resembles the hippo swamp enclosure at Whipsnade Zoo.

My daughter Ashley is a wee toff and refuses to use the showers. She is convinced all comedians have crusty veruccas: I have never seen anyone have a full body shower with just baby wipes. It's a performance in itself!

Most folk absolutely wallow in the mire and filth. They celebrate being grubby.

Those people who love the grime are middle class and find it very bohemian. I, on the other hand, came from Shettleston and to me it's just a horrifying flashback. I hate the dirt.

Maybe Miss Bassey will let us share her Winnebago?

FLUSHED... BUT NOT WITH ALCOHOL

LAST week while I was in New York I took a walk to Washington Square in Greenwich Village.

An impromptu hippy style band turned up and gave a jam session to entertain the visitors. It was awesome and I was having a great time. That was until three bare-chested young American guys covered in tattoos drunkenly stormed the party.

People tried to ignore them, but me having the "looney catnip" that I possess, the guys came over. One lunged at me with open arms and went for a bear hug.

Having been a barmaid most of my life, I merely kneed him in the knackers and he bent double, groaning: "That nasty girl popped me in crotch!"

I got a round of applause.

I love New York.

DOG'S LIFE WOULD BE BETTER FOR AMBER

MACY'S in New York is the world's largest department store, according to their signs. The place is heaving with pushy, aggressive shoppers.

Outside, on the pavement, I met a young girl called Amber.

We shared a coffee. Amber is 21 years old and from New Orleans.

The floods wrecked her life and that's why she is living in a box.

She explained that, if she had a dog like her other homeless friend she would make more money, as people feel more generous to animals. But her dog died in the floods.

George Bush has got a lot to answer for: one young woman begging in the street for money to buy tampons, yet billions being spent on a war in Iraq.