Observations: A Diana film we won't see

Among the guests at the Flat Lake Festival in Co Monaghan last weekend was Keith Allen. His brother Kevin, a film director, is a co-organiser of the event. Between stints manning the bar Keith discussed his latest project, a documentary examining the inquest into the deaths of Diana, Princess of Wales, and Dodi Al Fayed.

Allen had intended screening a rough cut of the film, called There Are Dark Forces, but got cold feet about showing a work-in-progress.

"It's not about whether they were murdered, it's about a conspiracy that absolutely took place during the inquest," Allen told the audience. He said the film shows discrepancies between what the press reported and what actually happened; how the media and the Royal family colluded to make "Al Fayed look like an idiot, a mad man, when he was a grieving father ... It's about a man who lost his son and is not satisfied about what he has found," he said.

Allen added that he illegally filmed inside the court, claiming it provided the opportunity to contrast footage of the BBC's Nicholas Witchell at one moment asleep in court and the next broadcasting what happened while he snoozed.

Yet he admitted the film might only be seen in America – after a screening for English lawyers he was told it would need 87 changes before release here. Allen showed rough footage of the film's final scene: it features Dodi's mausoleum in the grounds of Fayed's home and concludes with Fayed setting alight a 15ft Royal Warrant that was awarded to Harrods. According to Allen, Al Fayed declared, "They murdered my son. I blow up their warrant."