Leeds footballers trial to be made into TV drama

The trial of the two Leeds United footballers Lee Bowyer and Jonathan Woodgate is to be turned into a two-hour TV drama.

Yorkshire Television and its parent company Granada Media are planning to screen the drama and will use the writer and production team behind ITV1's controversial forthcoming drama about the serial killer Harold Shipman.

The sacking of David O'Leary as the Leeds manager has encouraged the team to press ahead with the TV programme. The producers believe O'Leary might be more inclined to talk to them about the events surrounding the trial, now that he is no longer on the club's payroll.

Michael Eaton, who will write the script, has already met police and legal representatives of Sarfraz Najeib, the Asian student who was the victim of the assault. Eaton is expected to approach the family and the football club shortly.

No casting decision have yet been made; but the producers are thought likely to look to the Trainspotting generation of British actors to play the footballers. Jonny Lee Miller, Ewen Bremner and Robert Carlyle could be considered.

The project, revealed in The Stage newspaper, follows the success of recent Granada factual dramas such as The Murder of Stephen Lawrence, Bloody Sunday and The Hunt for the Yorkshire Ripper. Eaton said the civil action being brought by Mr Najeib would make the drama more relevant.

Allen Jewhurst, the executive producer of both the Shipman and Leeds dramas, added that it was not just a story about race in modern Britain. He said: "It is mainly the story of how young men can earn £20,000 a week and virtually own whole cities and think they are bullet-proof."

At the trial, Woodgate was found guilty of affray but cleared of causing GBH. Bowyer was cleared on both counts. In his book, O'Leary criticised both players for "failing to exercise control" on the night of the incident.