In the end, after all the fuss, the Channel 4 documentary about the immediate aftermath of the car crash that killed Diana, Princess of Wales, turned into nothing more than a thoughtful, non-invasive essay on the role of the media before, and during, the event.

Like the Camilla film last week, it plumbed unexpected depths and left viewers better informed, especially about motives, than they may have been before.

The much-trailed photographs of the dying Diana were absent, except for one so dark nothing could be seen. All that was visible was the shape of the lone French doctor who happened to be passing and bravely went to the aid of a woman he didn’t recognize.

Confusion reigned for minutes afterwards, when even the first paparazzi arriving at the scene seemed unaware that this was Diana and Dodi. Much of the action in the film was reconstructed and simply showed photographers firing off flashbulbs.

Still shots inside the tunnel were few, but they did illustrate the sense of shock and bewilderment that prevailed. The ambulance arrived 17 minutes after the crash and was confronted with two dead bodies, a badly injured Trevor Rees-Jones, screaming in agony, and Diana, who seemed only to have concussion and superficial injuries. Many still didn’t realize who she was.

It was some minutes before a police officer became aware it was Diana and called in for backup. The criticism of the paramedics in the ambulance seems misplaced, given that they had four people to deal with in the car, not just Diana.

In terms of the “intrusion” into Diana’s privacy, the scenes in the tunnel were undoubtedly graphic and would have caused her sons and close family considerable discomfort. But they did shed much needed light on the reality behind these now almost mythical scenes. What came across was the slow build-up of shock as people gradually realized what had happened. Newsreaders, sharp at first, descended into stunned incoherence. It was as if it all happened in slow motion, surreal and out of sync. The British Ambassador, crying like a baby in the hospital, added to the sense of poignancy.

The aim of the programme was to focus on the actions of the media, and to what extent the press and photographers caused this crash.

The man Diana called “the big red tomato”, James Whitaker, summed up succinctly : “Although a few of the press pack were following,” he said, “there was no need for Henri Paul to drive so fast.” The car swerved into the tunnel at great speed, clipped a white Fiat Uno, and careered into a pillar. It was almost inevitable.

At first everyone blamed the media, even Mohamed al Fayed and memorably, Diana’s brother, Charles Spencer at her funeral. Once her death had been announced, however, the photographs taken at the scene became worthless except as evidence in the police inquiry. Ken Lennox, picture editor of the Sun, explained the process clinically. The first shots coming through, the planned headlines and layout, then nothing. Not one of the first, graphic pictures could be used.

The hysteria that followed, with witch hunt against the media added to witch hunt, showed the “wisdom of crowds” to be as flawed as any other. Whitaker got it right, Henri Paul didn’t need to drive Formula One-style around Paris that night. The paparazzi knew the couple were going to Dodi’s apartment, so what was the rush?

In retrospect it all seems so inevitable once the decision to put an alcoholic behind the wheel of the car had been taken. All that has happened since, including the long delays in the legal process, have been caused by attempts to deflect attention away from that crucial decision.

So, how did the press emerge from this often painful documentary? As a staunch believer in a free press — which often protects us more than parliaments and politicians — I think the press comes out of it better than we were led to believe at the time.

The enormous sums of money on offer to the photographers were driven by the public, not greedy picture editors and press barons. It was the public with its insatiable appetite for anything revealing about this shy, aristocratic girl, plucked from obscurity to play a role in the Royal drama.

Like Icarus, she flew too close to the sun and was burnt up in a tangle of events caused by a single flawed decision.

Ignoring pleas from Prince William and Prince Harry, Channel 4 has decided to go ahead with its documentary on their mother, Princess Diana’s death tonight, and to broadcast pictures taken at the scene of the crash.

Young Princes William and Harry at their mother’s funeral in 1997

The Princes’ private secretary, Jamie Lowther-Pinkerton, has written to C4 on their behalf asking that the station remove the images showing Princess Diana receiving medical treatment following her 1997 Paris car crash. He wrote: “Put simply, if it were your or my mother dying in that tunnel, would we want the scene broadcast to the nation? Indeed, would the nation so want it?”

It seems the broadcaster is more interested in the publicity than doing the right thing by Diana’s bereaved family, not to mention a future King of England. This is a very poor show on their part.

Our comments on the documentary will appear here tomorrow.