BRITAIN'S CHANNEL FIVE TV TO SCREEN DRAMA ON MMR CONTROVERSY LONDON, UK:
Britain's Channel Five television is to spend £1 million on a drama about
the controversy over the triple MMR (measles, mumps, ruibella) vaccine and
its alleged link to autism.
The 90-minute drama, to be called "Hear the Silence," will star Juliet
Stevenson, making her first appearance in a major British TV drama for four
years. She plays a mother who only finds out about the possible connection
between the MMR jab and autism when her four-year-old son is diagnosed with
the condition.
The film is based on real life stories and features Hugh Bonneville as Dr
Andrew Wakefield, the British gastroenterologist whose research first
suggested a link between the MMR vaccination, autism and bowel disease and,
in so doing, provoked a backlash from the medical community.
"This is an entirely new direction for Five. This is such a compelling story
that I felt it was a drama we had to make," said Channel Five's controller
of drama, Corinne Hollingworth.
"The fact that we have been able to attract such well respected names as
Juliet and Hugh is testimony to the power and immediacy of the script."
"Hear the Silence" has been written Tim Prager and is being made by an
independent production company Zenith North, which makes, among other
programmes, the children's series, "Byker Grove."
The drama is due to go into production in June, with Tim Fywell directing
and Adrian Bate producing.
Channel Five, with its relatively small programming budget of around £150m a
year, has commissioned very little original UK drama - other than the early
evening soap Family Affairs - in its six-year history. But the channel's
director of programmes, Kevin Lygo, announced at the Guardian Edinburgh
International Television Festival last August that he wanted to do more
original drama, even with Five's limited resources.
(Source: The Guardian, May 23, 2003)
'SPREAD THE WORD'
Regards
Colin Revell
Hull and East Riding DAN
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