Play about Grenfell Tower fire set to air on Channel 4
A play about the Grenfell Tower fire is set to air on Channel 4 this summer.
The not-for-profit production, entitled Grenfell: Value Engineering, was on stage in London and Birmingham last year and is now being brought to the small screen.
The play – which was called “mesmerising, informative and alarming” in one review last year - is based on the words of those involved in the ongoing inquiry into the 14 June 2017 blaze, which killed 72 people.
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When it airs on Channel 4 and All 4 in June it will be called Grenfell, and it will feature an introduction by former Channel 4 newsreader Jon Snow.
Grenfell was created by producer and director Nicolas Kent and the creative team responsible for the dramatisation of The Colour Of Justice: The Stephen Lawrence Inquiry, which ran at the Tricycle Theatre and the National Theatre in 1999.
Kent said: “In the heart of one of the richest boroughs in Europe 72 people died in the horrific circumstances of the Grenfell Tower fire, and this play looks at the causes, failures and those responsible for this tragedy, and how we can try to ensure that it never happens again.
“When last autumn we produced the play close to the Grenfell site the production was welcomed by the four main Grenfell support organisations.
“We were regularly told by residents that they hoped it would have a future life as they believed it’s important that people kept talking about the systemic failures which led to the fire."
Kent said he was pleased Channel 4 had made it possible "for the play to reach a much larger audience".
Caroline Hollick, head of Channel 4 drama, said she was “proud” the channel was bringing the production to the screen.
“It is an utterly shocking indictment of the tragic mistakes, corporate greed and buck-passing of so many involved with the Grenfell tragedy – it’s hard to imagine a fictional drama cutting quite as close to the bone,” she said.
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Grenfell will air on Channel 4 and All 4 in June.
Additional reporting from PA.
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