Bashir, nemesis of the rich and famous

Two showbiz legends were effectively on trial in a California courtroom this week. The first was Michael Jackson. The second was Martin Bashir, who now finds one of his best stories coming back to bite him.

The man who brought us Panorama's Princess Diana interview and the Jackson documentary has been forced to testify against his own star interviewee. By all accounts, the proceedings were far more entertaining than anything else either man has produced lately. Bashir gave evidence in a nearwhisper, refusing to answer most questions. Jackson alternated between breaking down in tears and glaring furiously at the reporter whom he blames for most of his troubles.

The defence says that Bashir's "truth-twisting" TV portrait of a weirdo who shares the same bed as other people's children is what prompted the authorities' pursuit of their superstar client. According to the prosecution, Jackson's efforts to combat the documentary led to some of the crimes with which the singer is now charged. Either way, Bashir is instrumental in this trial and the former Panorama reporter's journalistic techniques will be an important part of it.

But long before this case, those techniques had come under fierce, often hostile, scrutiny.

EVER since his Diana triumph, when he was 32, Bashir has specialised in revelatory, high-profile interviews. But on programme after programme, the high-profile interviewees, or their friends, have come forward to complain that they were exploited, tricked, or agreed to take part under false pretences.

"He is one of the most persuasive people you can imagine," says a former colleague. "If he could get past the gatekeepers, he could persuade people to do things. He plays to win. We all do. But some of us accept there are limits."

Football legend George Best accused Bashir of exploiting him when he was ill. The Broadcasting Standards Commission ruled in 2003 that Bashir had not properly informed Farooq Yusof, the father of a teenage prodigy, what he was proposing to do in his programme about the girl running away from university. After promising to help Mr Yusof find the truth about his daughter Sufiah's disappearance, Bashir instead featured a confrontation between the two. Diana's

own sister-in-law, the Duchess of York, accused Bashir of "tricking" the Princess into her interview - although Diana wrote him a nice letter afterwards.

Bashir's Panorama colleagues turned nasty when it emerged that he had asked a BBC graphic artist to fake two documents purporting to show that the Princess's security could have been compromised. Had he used the fakes to get his scoop? A BBC enquiry said not, but colleagues were in no doubt. One former senior Panorama producer, previously one of Bashir's best friends, has never spoken to him since.

After an uncomfortable few years, in which he appeared very little on screen, Bashir moved to ITV's Tonight with Trevor McDonald. His, and Tonight's, first show was a real coup: the five alleged killers of Stephen Lawrence, wriggling and squirming under some forensic Bashir questioning.

It is clear, however, that the boys only agreed to the interview because they thought Bashir still worked for the BBC. They were somehow left under the impression that they were doing it for Panorama. Tonight's deputy editor at the time, Mike Lewis, admits now: "There might have been some confusion. Martin had only just left the BBC. But I don't think it had any bearing whatever on their decision to take part."

Lewis, now series producer of the BBC's Real Story, is an admirer.

"He is a fantastic journalist," he says. "I've never seen anyone so dedicated to getting to the bottom of a story. He loves to get involved in the intrigue of the story."

Lewis blames the profession's rampant anti-Bashirdom on simple jealousy, the industrial disease of journalism. "Martin would concede he's fanatical," Lewis says. "He's so obsessive that it is challenging for people to work alongside him. It's no secret that he's particularly well paid."

At ITV, Bashir was believed to have been on a cut of each programme's earnings, which at ?3.5 million for America alone for the Jackson documentary might make him one of the richest journalists in the land. He lives reasonably well, though not lavishly, with his wife and children.

IT'S a long way from his council-estate beginnings in Battersea , of which he once wrote: "The only book I can remember seeing in our flat was the rent book." Bashir's road to fortune led through a local comprehensive, Southampton University and six years in sports journalism before local London news and then current affairs.

But the Jackson film may turn out to be the last big pay cheque. The star spent most of the 90 minutes digging his own grave, with actually rather little help from Bashir. But it didn't stop him issuing a furious denunciation of the reporter's "betrayal".

During the trial, Jackson's lawyers will allege that Bashir promised the singer a meeting with UN Secretary General Kofi Annan and a trip to Africa, neither of which was delivered. And, since the Jackson film, no major celebrity has volunteered for the Bashir treatment.

Now working for ABC in the States, Bashir may have reached the place where he is most at home. "He's Americanised current affairs," says one well-known British executive. "We had the voiceover tradition, not many glamour reporters. But now who would be a mere Panorama reporter when they could be a Martin Bashir?"