Grenfell Tower fire is being adapted into a BBC drama
Dramatisation, which BBC promises will be made ‘sensitively’, aims to reach the ‘heart of the catastrophe’
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Your support makes all the difference.The BBC has commissioned a factual drama about the 2017 Grenfell Tower fire in which 72 people died.
Grenfell, which has been written by Bafta-winning Wolf Hall and The State screenwriter Peter Kosminsky, draws from more than five years of research and hours of public testimony.
The three-part series will give a comprehensive account of the events leading up to, during, and after the tragedy.
An inquiry into the catastrophe found that cladding on the building helped the fire spread as it was made from highly flammable material.
The new drama will be told from multiple perspectives, and will explore the impact of the blaze on survivors, the loved ones of those who died, the firefighters at the scene, and the wider London community.
“Occasionally, events occur in our national story which touch us all. The fire at Grenfell Tower is such an event,” said Kosminsky in a statement.
“We remember what we were doing when we heard about it, remember the pictures, the saturation coverage. And yet, despite this, despite the many newspaper pages and TV hours devoted to the story, we may be left with a less than clear sense of exactly what happened, what went wrong.
“In our drama, we attempt to pick our way through hours of public testimony, as well as original interviews conducted by our team, to reach the heart of this catastrophe: how such a thing can have happened; how we can avoid it ever happening again.”
The BBC’s director of drama Lindsay Salt promised the subject would be covered “sensitively and respectfully”.
This new commission comes as the BBC prepares to air a drama about the decades of abuse carried out by Jimmy Savile, which has attracted much scrutiny ahead of its release.
The Independent has contacted survivor group Grenfell United for comment.
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