Branagh to star in Newsnight Iraq films
Mark Sweney and Tara Conlan
Thursday January 24 2008


The BBC has signed up Kenneth Branagh, Harriet Walter and Art Malik to appear in a series of special Newsnight mini-dramas, called 10 Days to War, marking the fifth anniversary of the Iraq invasion.
Due for broadcast in March, the 10- to 12-minute films will run in Newsnight's regular slot on BBC2 at 10.30pm.
Kenneth Branagh: will star as Colonel Tim Collins. Photograph: AP They will be followed immediately by special editions of Newsnight, which will allow the current affairs show to question "the real players about the events of 2003", according to the Newsnight editor, Peter Barron.
A total of eight short films, which will air on BBC2 between March 10 and 19, will chart the countdown to the eventual military action in Iraq.
The mini-dramas are a collaboration between Newsnight, BBC Vision and the BBC factual department.
10 Days to War was today described by BBC2 controller Roly Keating at a Broadcasting Press Guild lunch as "the most schedule-testing thing" his channel is doing.
Each drama will be 10 to 12 minutes long and the series will tell the story of key events including the hunt for weapons of mass destruction, the political manoeuvring in the lead-up to the decision to invade and the tense build-up to the invasion itself.
Branagh has been confirmed to star as Colonel Tim Collins, the British Army officer who uttered the famous lines "We go to liberate not to conquer... if you are ferocious in battle remember to be magnanimous in victory" in a speech to his troops as they prepared to invade Iraq in March 2003.
He will appear in the final mini-drama of the series, while Malik and Toby Jones will star in the second film, which will be about Iraqi exiles.
Another of the short films will feature Harriet Walter and focus on two Labour MPs battling with issues of loyalty and personal conscience during the crucial House of Commons vote on the war.
The BBC describes the series of dramas, the first collaboration of its kind between BBC Vision and BBC News, as "part thriller, part political drama".
No details have yet been revealed on the other films in the series.
The dramas have been penned by writer Ronan Bennett, the writer behind Hamburg Cell and Face, and executive produced by Colin Barr, who has previously worked on The Secretary Who Stole £4million.
BBC drama productions has also announced details of the BBC1 adaptation of Charles Dickens' Little Dorritt.
The production, from Sense and Sensibility and Bleak House writer Andrew Davies, stars Spooks actor Matthew Macfadyen as Arthur Clennam. The rest of the cast are yet to be revealed.
The 15-part series, commissioned by the BBC Fiction controller, Jane Tranter, will begin filming in April and is directed by Adam Smith.