Channel 4’s decision to show graphic pictures of the aftermath of the car crash that killed Diana, Princess of Wales, is “in appalling taste and deeply upsetting for her sons”, a family friend said yesterday.

The broadcaster rejected calls from Conservative MPs – and those close to the victims – not to show footage of the accident.

Diana: The Witnesses in the Tunnel will be screened next week, reportedly giving one of the first public displays of images taken by French photographers in the immediate aftermath of the crash.

Channel 4 claims that the victims have been blacked out in the only picture showing the car’s occupants. However friends of the late Princess and the mother of Henri Paul, the chauffeur who also died in the accident, criticised the channel.

Rosa Monckton, whose daughter is the late Princess’s godchild, said: “She is not here to defend herself. She can’t be hurt by it, but her boys can. Above all else, Diana was a mother. They should completely remove any photo that they have of the immediate aftermath of the crash.”

Gisele Paul, M Paul’s mother, also opposed the broadcast, saying: “Enough is enough. My sympathy as a mother is with the young princes who I am sure would be very upset if this programme showed their mother dying.”

Hugo Swire, the Shadow Culture Secretary, said: “We would expect more from a public service broadcaster.”

But Channel 4 said that the documentary, made by its history department, contained pictures that had been “carefully and sensitively selected”.

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