A new television drama will portray Boris Johnson’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic.
The project will be helmed by Michael Winterbottom, the filmmaker behind hits including 24 Hour Party People, The Trip and the recent film Greed, with The Sunday Times political editor Tim Shipman acting as a consultant.
Richard Brown, one of the producers, has described the premise as “a story which appears to demonstrate that fact is indeed sometimes stranger than fiction.”
His fellow producer Andrea Scrosati added, “There are rare moments in history when leaders find their private lives uniquely connected to national events, where personal experience and official role collide in an unusual way. The last few months in the life of the UK prime minister clearly mark one of these moments.”
It’s been reported that the programme will cover Johnson’s appointment as Prime Minister, the UK’s first COVID-19 cases, his time in intensive care and subsequent recovery, the birth of his child with Carrie Symonds and the UK’s death rate – the highest of any country in Europe.
It is unclear which other incidents – for example the Dominic Cummings scandal – will appear in the drama, which is as yet untitled and which has no cast members attached at this stage.
Johnson and his government’s handling of the crisis has come in for criticism from various angles, with at least 40,000 people having died with the virus since the outbreak began.
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