Princess Diana’s lover Dodi Fayed’s executive producer chair has been spotted on the set of The Crown as the hit Netflix series replicates his part in the making of the 1981 Oscar-winning film Chariots of Fire.
Photographs taken of the set at Camber Sands, in East Sussex, on Friday, show a chair with Dodi’s name penned on the back of it while cameras film actors running along the beach in scenes similar to the award-winning production.
Dodi, who became romantically involved with the Princess of Wales 16 years later in the summer of 1997, was an executive producer on the 1981 film after his billionaire father Mohamed Al Fayed set him up in the movie business.
But in 2012, film producer Lord Puttnam claimed he ordered Dodi off the set of the film – which told the story of the 1924 Olympics – after the man who later stole Princess Diana’s heart tried to give the cast cocaine.
The upcoming fifth series of The Crown – which sees British actor Khalid Abdalla, 39, cast to play the role of Dodi – will cover the Royal Family’s history throughout the 1990s, so it’s unclear if the Netflix show has altered timelines slightly.
Dodi and Diana were photographed enjoying each other’s company on his boat, named ‘Cujo’, in July 1997, just weeks before their deaths in a Paris car crash on August 31 the same year.
Princess Diana’s lover Dodi Fayed’s executive producer chair has been spotted on the set of The Crown as the hit Netflix series replicates his part in the making of the 1981 Oscar-winning film Chariots of Fire (pictured left). Pictured right, Executive producer Dodi Fayed, left, with Chariots of Fire producer David Puttham, right
Photographs taken of the set at Camber Sands, in East Sussex, on Friday, show a chair with Dodi’s name penned on the back of it while cameras film actors running along the beach (pictured) in scenes similar to the award-winning production
Eventually Chariots Of Fire (pictured) took £26million at US box offices alone – and Al Fayed made a reported £6.5million
In 2012, film producer Lord Puttnam claimed he ordered Dodi off the set of Chariots Of Fire after he tried to give the cast cocaine.
‘Dodi had other things on his mind than developing a film career for himself, of which girls and drugs rated pretty highly – and not necessarily in that order,’ he said.
Puttnam arrived one day to find a number of cast members whose mood had clearly been altered by what he suspects was cocaine provided by Dodi. ‘I said to Dodi, “With the best will in the world, Dodi, this didn’t happen. And I never want to see you again around my cast and crew.” It was very unpleasant,’ said Puttnam.
The story was leaked to Dodi’s father. ‘It upset him terribly,’ said Puttnam. ‘Al Fayed had spent a huge amount of his life dealing with his son’s problems and trying to contain them. So maybe he found it difficult now that it was out in the open. It was all very sad.’
Though he will always be remembered as the man who died beside Princess Diana in a car crash in Paris in 1997, Dodi was a little-known playboy at the time of the film’s making in 1981.
Final holiday: Diana and Dodi are pictured in St Tropez on August 22, 1997 – nine days before their deaths
Dodi, who became romantically involved with the Princess of Wales 16 years later in the summer of 1997, was an executive producer on the 1981 film after his billionaire father Mohamed Al Fayed set him up in the movie business. Pictured, is the executive producer chair (centre) on The Crown set
The upcoming fifth series of The Crown (pictured is the series’ latest set) – which sees British actor Khalid Abdalla, 39, cast to play the role of Dodi – will cover the Royal Family’s history throughout the 1990s, so it’s unclear if the Netflix show has altered timelines slightly
Al Fayed had set up the film production company Allied Stars for his son and it was this company that provided nearly £2 million to finance the early development of Chariots Of Fire.
Puttnam said: ‘He was one of the laziest human beings I’ve ever come across. So the idea of him being an executive producer was always going to be hopeless because he had the attention span of the average flea.’
The film told the story of Eric Liddell, the Scottish sprinter and devout Christian who withdrew from the men’s 100m sprint after learning the heats fell on a Sunday.
Dodi and Diana were photographed enjoying each other’s company on his boat, named ‘Cujo’, in July 1997, just weeks before their deaths in a Paris car crash on August 31 the same year. Pictured, The Crown cast and crew during filming on Friday
The film told the story of Eric Liddell, the Scottish sprinter and devout Christian who withdrew from the men’s 100m sprint after learning the heats fell on a Sunday. Pictured, The Crown crew during filming
Though the 100m was Liddell’s best event, he trained instead for the 400m – which he famously won. Puttnam referred to the film as his ‘proudest achievement’. Pictured, The Crown cast and crew during filming on Friday
Though the 100m was Liddell’s best event, he trained instead for the 400m – which he famously won. Puttnam referred to the film as his ‘proudest achievement’.
His unlikely partnership with the Fayeds was forged by chance. Puttnam hit on the idea of working on a film about the Olympic Games, inspired by his father Len who had worked as picture editor at the Associated Press news agency and was responsible for images during the 1948 Olympics.
During research Puttnam stumbled upon Liddell’s story. It just happened that Al Fayed’s lawyer at Allied Stars had attended Eltham College with Liddell and became determined to make a film about his hero.
‘So enthusiastic was the lawyer about the project that it all got nasty at one stage because Al Fayed began to suspect, and quite wrongly, that there was some sort of malpractice afoot,’ said Puttnam.
‘He felt he was being railroaded into investing in a doomed project about two sprinters with no sex, no beautiful women and not a fast car in sight.’
When the movie opened in 1981, there were mixed reviews and poor audiences at the single London cinema where it was first shown.
‘I was on holiday in Cornwall and phoned the box office every two hours,’ said Puttnam.
‘The second afternoon performance, I was told, had been only one-third full. “Well, that’s it,” I thought. “It’s over.”
‘But then an extraordinary thing happened. Audience figures peaked the longer the film was showing. In America, audiences got younger and younger as the attendances grew. Slowly, we had a global hit on our hands.’
Eventually Chariots Of Fire took £26million at US box offices alone – and Al Fayed made a reported £6.5million.
Dodi actor Khalid Abdalla will appear opposite Elizabeth Debicki who is set to take over the role of Princess Diana for The Crown’s fifth and sixth seasons, with Netflix confirming in September that the series will return in November 2022.
Ahead of landing the role, Khalid appeared in the 2007 film The Kite Runner, and also appeared as Al Qaeda member Ziad Jarrah in the 2006 film United 93, which depicted the events aboard United Airlines Flight 93, one of four plans hijacked during the September 11 attacks.