The Stage

BBC Tsunami drama team rejects criticisms

Published Friday 24 November 2006 at 17:15 by Liz Thomas

The producer and writer of the controversial new BBC drama based around the events of the 2004 Asian tsunami have defended the programmes amidst criticism that it was insensitive to fictionalise the disaster.

Tsunami: The Aftermath will broadcast in two parts next Tuesday and the one following on BBC2 and is has been billed as a fictionalised account of the time immediately after the event, which killed in excess of 227,000 across Asia.

Penned by Abi Morgan, the Bafta-winning writer behind Channel 4’s Sex Traffic, and starring Sophie Okonedo, Gina McKee and Chiwetel Ejiofor, the production has come under fire from some relatives of those who died, both because it is a fictional piece and because of the Corporation’s decision to broadcast the programme so close to the second anniversary.

Morgan, who has spent more than seven months researching and interviewing witnesses to create the storyline, said that drama helped better explain what it might have been like for people caught up in the disaster, better than a documentary and kept some of the issues alive. The piece is critical of the response by the British consulate in Thailand and Morgan added that she felt that the enormity of the situation and its impact on resources and responses could be expressed more easily in a fictional piece.

The executive producer, Jane Featherstone, who heads up leading independent production house Kudos, said that survivors and relatives had seen the drama and been happy with it. She added: “The survivors that we’ve spoken to since felt that we should do it as quickly as possible to keep the memory alive.”

Featherstone added that it was also important for people in Thailand and other Asian regions affected, where work to rebuild was still ongoing. She said that many of the people in the region had said they felt that everyone had forgotten about them after the news cameras left.

The drama will be broadcast next Tuesday evening on BBC2.