The Accident starts tonight (Thursday, October 24) at 9pm on Channel 4. The drama comes from This Is England, Skins and His Dark Materials writer Jack Thorne and stars Sarah Lancashire. The series follows a tragic incident at a building site which tears a small Welsh community apart but is the series based on real events?
Is The Accident based on a true story?
The plot of The Accident is entirely fictional. However, the real-life tragedy of the 2017 Grenfell Tower fire which killed 72 people, inspired the story.
The Accident is set in the fictional community of Glyngolau, Wales, where a gas explosion on a construction site of a regeneration project has killed several teenagers from the area.
The series follows the victims’ families and residents of Glyngolau as they search for justice and along the way, are forced to confront difficult truths.
Show creator Jack Thorne told the BBC The Accident could “do a bit of light-shining” on Grenfell, the victims and families affected.
WHO IS IN THE CAST OF THE ACCIDENT?
On June 14, 2017, a fire broke out at the 24-storey Grenfell Tower block of flats in North Kensington, West London.
The disaster killed 72 people and injured approximately 70 others, with 223 people escaping the blaze.
The first report as part of the Grenell Tower inquiry is expected to be released by the end of October.
The report looks into how the fire started, how it spread and the reaction of emergency services.
Thorne told the BBC that originally, The Accident aimed to “look at class and restorative justice.”
He explained: “I had an idea in my head and then Grenfell happened and the idea changed.
“And the concept of looking at corporate manslaughter and the way a corporate manslaughter trial might work came about.“
Thorne revealed he was reluctant to take on the topic of Grenfell as a show in itself.
He said: “I was actually offered Grenfell three times by three different production companies… but I didn’t feel like there were the facts in place to look at it properly without hurting an awful lot of people, trampling over people’s lives.
“It’s not to say that there isn’t a beautiful drama to be made. I just didn’t feel capable of it myself.”
He added: “It felt like TV could tell a story, which was not looking at Grenfell directly, but by looking at another story around that, maybe we could do a bit of light shining.”
Thorpe added: “People do need justice. And justice leads to things improving. The fact that not all the Grenfell cladding has been taken down is really, really crucial because it means that the companies that put the cladding up are not frightened enough to remove it.”
Who stars in The Accident?
Sarah Lancashire stars as the main protagonist Polly Bevan in The Accident.
Polly is married to the local politician who is behind the construction project that collapsed.
Lancashire is best known for playing Catherine Cawood in Happy Valley and Caroline in Last Tango in Halifax.
Mark Lewis Jones stars as Iwan Bevan, Polly’s husband in The Accident.
Jones is best known for playing Captian Moden Canady in Star Wars: The Last Jedi and Rob Morgan in Stella.
Gavin and Stacey’s Adrian Scarborough stars as Phillip, representing the families affected by the accident.
Joanna Scanlan, best known for The Thick of It, takes on the role of Angela, one of Polly’s friends who’s daughter was a victim of the disaster.
Informer’s Nabhaan Rizwan also stars alongside, Westworld’s Sidse Babett Knudsen and up and coming actress, Jade Croot.
The Accident premieres tonight at 9pm on BBC One.