BBC to screen Iraq drama

[cal04]

Hard-hitting series will be corporation's first on invasion, after earlier projects controversially pulled
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/oct/05/bbc.television

The BBC, which has been attacked for not tackling the subject of the war in Iraq in its drama output, is to announce a hard-hitting new series about the impact of the invasion, starring James Nesbitt.

Occupation, by acclaimed screenwriter Peter Bowker, will tell the story of three soldiers who serve in Basra together and will chart their friendship as they face the aftermath of war and join in the effort to rebuild Iraq.

In April last year the BBC was criticised for not showing a controversial drama about the deaths of six army Red Caps who had been gunned down in southern Iraq in the summer after the invasion. Kieran Prendiville, creator of hit BBC1 drama Ballykissangel, had written the screenplay in collaboration with the relatives of the dead men. A BBC spokeswoman said the decision had not been taken because of concerns about covering a political issue. However, its termination followed a succession of failed BBC 'war on terror' projects.

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Occupation is to go out in three parts next spring after the nine o'clock watershed and will feature the 'unflinching language' of real soldiers. It aims to offer viewers an unsentimental look at what has happened away from the news cameras during the years since the invasion.

'We were open-mouthed with disbelief when we heard what went on at a time when the British public were being told that things were getting better,' said producer Derek Wax, of Kudos Films. 'It was just not what Tony Blair was having us believe.'

[Lydia Leftcoast]

1. And I bet that Americans who want to see it will have to order it

from Amazon UK and watch it on their region-free DVD players.