BBC and National Theatre face backlash from families of Grenfell fire survivors over dramatisations of tragic inferno which killed 72
The BBC and National Theatre are facing backlash from families of Grenfell fire survivors over dramatisations of the tragedy which saw 72 people killed.
Attempts by the BBC to film near the tower for its drama ‘Grenfell’ could be disrupted as a result, it has been claimed.
Nabil Choucair, whose sister, mother, brother-in-law and three nieces died in the fire, said: ‘Our identity is being stolen. They don’t listen to us and now they want to do a play? A series? Who asked for this?’
The TV drama and the play are both based on survivors, according to The Guardian and The Times, but a petition urging the BBC to discard its series has received more than 50,000 signatures.
Maryam Adam, who escaped from the the block in 2017 while three months pregnant, said: ‘Who gives them permission to do these things and then tell us after?
The BBC and National Theatre are facing backlash from families of Grenfell fire survivors over dramatisations of the tragedy which saw 72 people killed
The TV drama and the play under scrutiny are both based on survivors, but a petition urging the BBC to discard its series has received more than 50,000 signatures
‘Before you do this sort of thing, you should get our permission, because this is our pain, our story.’
South African writer and daughter of the anti-apartheid politician Jo Slovo, Gillian Slovo, is working on the play, titled ‘Grenfell: in the words of survivors’.
The theatre explained Ms Slovo has spent five years ‘gaining the confidence of community members and recording their accounts’.
The play, which opens in July, includes voices from survivors and the bereaved.
The scene of devastation during the fire at Grenfell in June 2017
Meanwhile, Bafta award-winning Peter Kosminsky, who adapted and directed Wolf Hall for television, is set to write the script for the TV drama.
He previously said: ‘Occasionally, events occur in our national story which touch us all. The fire at Grenfell Tower is such an event.’
The hostile response from loved ones differs from the reaction to Steve McQueen’s silent film ‘Grenfell’, currently showing at the Serpentine Gallery in London.
A BBC spokesperson said its programme ‘will be made with the utmost sensitivity and respect’, adding that it will draw from more than five years of research from the tragedy.
MailOnline has contacted the BCC and the National Theatre for comment.
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