State broadcaster BBC is developing a new factual drama about the Piper Alpha North Sea disaster.
It is thought BBC will develop the drama focusing on the world’s worst offshore oil accident alongside Scottish broadcaster STV.
Thirty bodies were never recovered from the North Sea following the tragedy in 1988 which claimed the lives of 167 people.
News agency Deadline said the project will be developed in consultation with survivors and families affected. The narrative will be based on these interviews as well as historic research and documents including the 1990 Cullen report. A book published in 2008 by Scottish author Stephen McGinty, called Fire in the Night, will also be used.
STV made a BAFTA-winning documentary about the disaster, Piper Alpha: Fire In The Night commissioned by BBC Scotland for the 25th anniversary of the cataclysm over ten years ago.
It is not thought that the series has been commissioned yet and there is no known date for its broadcast.
BBC has been approached for comment and STV declined to comment.
Factual dramas are popular at present particularly in the wake of ITV’s Mr Bates vs the Post Office. The success of the format prompted a damaging inquiry into the decades-long miscarriage of justice scandal. The Post Office Horizon IT Inquiry is expected to begin its final phase on 16 September.
More to follow.
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