EXCLUSIVE: The BBC is creating a drama sequence in regards to the Piper Alpha catastrophe, one of the catastrophic offshore oil incidents of all time and the worst by way of lives misplaced.
The drama comes round 35 years after the catastrophe, which happened off the coast of Scotland on a North Sea oil rig that on the time accounted for round 10% of the North Sea’s oil and gasoline manufacturing.
The BBC, Scottish producer STV Studios and author James Wood (Making an attempt, The Nice) are within the analysis section, we’re informed, and the present is but to enter manufacturing or be given the inexperienced gentle. It’s being developed in session with Piper Alpha survivors and relations, and could be primarily based on these new interviews, ongoing analysis, the 1990 Cullen report into the tragedy and the e book Hearth within the Evening by Stephen McGinty.
Piper Alpha started manufacturing in 1976 round 120 miles north east of Aberdeen, a Scottish metropolis generally known as one of many oil capitals of Europe. Twelve years after it opened, the rig collapsed following jet fires, which killed 165 males on board and two rescuers. Lots of the our bodies have been by no means recovered and the catastrophe’s ripple results are nonetheless felt immediately. There have been 61 survivors.
Piper Alpha stays one of the costly man-made catastrophes of all time and is the same as the 2010 Deepwater Horizon catastrophe by way of its affect on the oil business. The inquiry happened two years after the catastrophe and made a wealth of preventative suggestions for the longer term, though no fees have been introduced towards operator Occidental Petroleum.
Charles, Prince of Wales and Diana, Princess of Wales meet members of the rescue crew after the Piper Alpha oil rig catastrophe. Picture: Mirrorpix by way of Getty
Factual drama
STV Studios made a BAFTA-winning documentary in regards to the catastrophe, Piper Alpha: Hearth In The Evening, round a decade in the past, and we perceive the corporate is taking excessive warning in the course of the analysis course of as a way to respect the survivors and their relations.
Factual dramas are common at current and up to date BBC choices embody the likes of The Sixth Commandment and Jimmy Savile sequence The Reckoning, whereas the company is at the moment within the course of of constructing a present in regards to the Grenfell tower catastrophe penned by Peter Kosminsky. ITV, in the meantime, was accountable for the most important factual drama of the yr, Mr Bates vs the Submit Workplace, whereas Netflix is making Toxic Town in regards to the tragic Corby poisonings, written by Jack Thorne.
The BBC and STV Studios declined touch upon the Piper Alpha sequence.
