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{{Short description|2003 British pseudo-documentary}}
{{Short description|2003 British pseudo-documentary}}
{{pp-protected|small=yes}}
{{pp-extended|small=yes}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2021}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2021}}
{{Use British English|date=May 2012}}
{{Use British English|date=May 2012}}
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| company =
| company =
| channel = [[BBC Two]]
| channel = [[BBC Two]]
| first_aired = {{Start date|2003|5|13|df=y}}
| released = {{Start date|2003|5|13|df=y}}
| related = [[The Man Who Broke Britain]]<br />Heatwave
| related = [[The Man Who Broke Britain]]<br />Heatwave
}}
}}
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==Plot==
==Plot==
⚫
In early December 2003, 18 months after the [[Potters Bar rail accidents#2002|Potters Bar rail accident]], a fatal train accident near [[Edinburgh Waverley railway station|Waverley]] in [[Edinburgh]] leads the [[Associated Society of Locomotive Engineers and Firemen|ASLEF]] and [[National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers|RMT]] [[trade unions]] to declare a strike for 19 December on safety grounds, forcing the heavy Christmas rail passenger traffic to use the roads instead.
{{long plot|date=July 2023}}
⚫
In early December 2003, 18 months after the [[Potters Bar rail accidents#2002|Potters Bar rail accident]], a fatal train accident near [[Edinburgh Waverley railway station|Waverley Station]] in [[Edinburgh]] leads the [[Associated Society of Locomotive Engineers and Firemen|ASLEF]] and [[National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers|RMT]] [[trade union]]s to declare a strike for 19 December on safety grounds, forcing the heavy Christmas rail passenger traffic to use the roads instead.


On 19 December, an accident on the [[M25 motorway]] leads to closure of the motorway in both directions. Within minutes, the resulting traffic congestion blocks the M25 at its junction with the [[M23 motorway|M23]]. Attempts at relieving the gridlock are hampered by a lack of coordination between police services overseeing different sections of the motorway. Traffic that managed to work its way through the diversion route past the original accident suffers a further setback when a chemical tanker lorry jackknifes on the M25 near [[Heathrow Airport]], causing a pile-up and further tailbacks, resulting in a second closure on the M25 and heavy delays on all the major arterial roads leading to London. Traffic attempts to drive through Central London, without much success. The first fatality is a patient whose gridlocked ambulance runs out of necessary medicine.
On 19 December, a [[Head-on collision|crossover accident]] on the [[M25 motorway]] closes the motorway in both directions, blocking access to the [[M23 motorway|M23]]. A [[detour|diversion]] is opened, but a lack of coordination between the [[Highways England|Highways Agency]] and [[Surrey Police]] means that the route is quickly gridlocked due to [[roadworks]]. A [[Tank truck|chemical tanker]] [[Jackknifing|jackknifes]] near [[Heathrow Airport]], completely paralysing the southern half of the M25. The first death occurs when an ambulance carrying a patient injured by the first accident runs out of medicine.


Meanwhile, as British airspace runs over capacity to cope with the Christmas traffic, heavy traffic delays force air traffic controllers to work double and triple shifts. Jerry Newell, a pilot, is forced to walk to Heathrow in order to reach his flight to [[Toulouse]]. A friendly football match between England and Turkey at [[Old Trafford]] in Manchester is cancelled for low attendance, with thousands stranded on the [[M6 motorway|M6]] and [[M40 motorway|M40]], effectively rendering Manchester and Birmingham unreachable. The message is delivered by a stunned [[Gary Lineker]] on ''[[Match of the Day]]''.
British airspace runs over capacity, forcing air traffic controllers to work double and triple shifts. Jerry Newell, a pilot for [[British Airways]] caught in the gridlock, opts to walk to Heathrow, where he is to captain a flight to [[Toulouse]]. [[Birmingham]] and [[Manchester]] are rendered unreachable by road, causing a planned [[Exhibition game|friendly match]] between Turkey and England at [[Old Trafford]] to be cancelled due to low attendance.


Julian Galt, his wife and two children are driving to Heathrow for a Christmas holiday in [[Bilbao]]. They are held up on the M25 after the tanker crash. Numerous people try to escape the motorway in their cars or on foot, but are turned back by [[Thames Valley Police]]. As night falls, hypothermia sets in among many of the stranded travellers. Julian's wife notices that Heathrow is less than a mile away, and convinces Julian to lead the family there; they sneak past immobilised cars and police officers on motorbikes to get off the motorway, then walk through farm fields in the darkness to reach a minor road and flag down a passing minibus. Julian tells his family that he will return to the car and catch the next flight to Bilbao in the morning. Subsequently the authorities implement the fictional top-secret Operation Gridlock, ordering everyone trapped on the M25 to leave their cars and performing [[triage]] in tent cities on nearby fields.
Julian Galt, his wife and two children are driving to Heathrow for a Christmas holiday in [[Bilbao]], and end up trapped on the M25. Numerous motorists try to flee the area, but are aggressively pursued, apprehended, and forced to turn back by officers of the [[Thames Valley Police]]. As night falls, Julian's family convince him to lead them off the motorway and towards Heathrow; he sneaks them past the police to a minor road, where they flag down a passing minibus, but Julian opts to stay behind. The freezing temperatures become deadly as motorists succumb to [[hypothermia]]. In an attempt to gain control of the crisis, the government initiates 'Operation Gridlock', a [[contingency plan]] instructing those trapped to leave the motorways on foot and make their way to [[field hospital]]s for [[triage]].


In Heathrow's tower, air-traffic controller Nicola Evans volunteered to work late when her replacement did not arrive. Overworked, she mistakenly sends an [[Aer Lingus]] jet to taxi onto a runway where a [[Czech Airlines]] cargo plane is about to land. Conflicting instructions are given by the other controllers. After agonising over her choices, Evans issues a [[go-around]] instruction to the Czech jet, which avoids the Aer Lingus plane but collides with the departing [[British Airways]] flight to Bilbao. Both planes explode on impact, killing everyone aboard the two aircraft. Burning wreckage falls across much of [[Hounslow]] and the surrounding area, causing extensive damage and fires. Emergency services attempting to reach the scene have to resort to minor roads because of the widespread congestion. Heathrow's fire services are sent out to assist, but this requires the airport to close, with incoming flights being diverted elsewhere, and all flights out of all UK airports are grounded after UK airspace is shut down.
In Heathrow's [[Air traffic control|control tower]], air traffic controller Nicola Evans volunteers to work late when her replacement fails to arrive for the start of their shift. Overworked, she accidentally directs an [[Aer Lingus]] flight to taxi onto a runway which is about to be landed on by a [[Czech Airlines]] cargo flight. Conflicting instructions are given by the other controllers. After agonising over what action to take, Evans issues a [[go-around]] instruction to the cargo flight, which avoids the Aer Lingus plane but collides with the departing British Airways flight to Bilbao, killing everyone on both planes instantly. Burning wreckage falls across [[Hounslow]], destroying swathes of the town and starting massive fires. Heathrow shuts down, followed by the rest of the UK's airspace shortly thereafter.


Several hours after pilot Jerry Newell left her car to walk to the airport, his wife Jane gets home to [[Shepperton]] and sees news of the air crash on the television. After repeated phone calls, she discovers that the flight involved in the disaster was to Bilbao. However, she then receives a phone call from British Airways, telling her that Jerry's flight to Toulouse was cancelled, and he had instead captained the flight to Bilbao and is dead. Julian's family are also all dead, having reached the airport in time to board the delayed flight to Bilbao.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/spl/hi/programmes/the_day_britain_stopped/timelines/story/html/default.stm |title=Programme Timeline: ''The Day Britain Stopped'' |publisher=[[BBC]] |access-date=16 July 2023 }}</ref>
Jane, Jerry Newell's wife, manages to make it to her home in [[Shepperton]], and sees news of the air crash on the television. She begins making calls to find out her husband's whereabouts, and is briefly calmed when she learns that Jerry was not scheduled to captain the flight involved in the disaster. However, she then receives a phone call from British Airways, telling her that Jerry's flight to Toulouse was cancelled, and he was reassigned to the doomed flight, dying in the crash. Julian's family also perished in the disaster, as they reached the airport in time to board the flight.


Nicola Evans and two other air traffic controllers are dismissed from their jobs and eventually tried on multiple manslaughter charges for their negligence. The charges are dropped after the prosecution case collapses following revelations of larger issues in Heathrow's air-traffic control and a previous near miss (also fictitious). The final death toll of the air crash is 87: 64 passengers and crew, and 23 people on the ground. There were also five deaths from hypothermia on the motorways, and eight other deaths.
In the wake of the disaster, Nicola Evans and the other air traffic controllers are charged with [[manslaughter|multiple manslaughter]]. However, the case against them collapses when the investigation into the air crash finds that systemic failures in Britain's air traffic control were to blame. The final death toll of the air crash is 87: 64 passengers and crew, and 23 people on the ground. There were also five deaths from hypothermia on the motorways, and eight other deaths.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/spl/hi/programmes/the_day_britain_stopped/timelines/story/html/default.stm |title=Programme Timeline: ''The Day Britain Stopped'' |publisher=[[BBC]] |access-date=16 July 2023 }}</ref>


==Cast==
==Cast==
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==Reception==
==Reception==
''[[Radio Times]]'' called the film: "Scarily realistic&nbsp; ... so plausibly done that it should really have a warning flash in the corner of the screen saying 'fiction' in big red letters.&nbsp;... It works as a smart riveting drama and also as a warning of the power of the financial markets".<ref name="W">{{cite web | url=http://www.walltowall.co.uk/program/the-day-britain-stopped_29.aspx | title=The Day Britain Stopped | work=Wall to Wall | accessdate=24 September 2013}}</ref> A reviewer in ''[[The Guardian]]'' wrote that it was " an excellent and horrible film&nbsp;... Indeed, if there was anything that betrayed the fictional nature of The Day Britain Stopped, it was its craftedness and lack of [[sensationalism]]."<ref>{{cite news |author=Gareth McLean |url=https://www.theguardian.com/media/2003/may/14/broadcasting.tvandradio |title=Last night's TV |work=[[The Guardian]] |date=14 May 2003 |access-date=16 July 2023 }}</ref>
''[[Radio Times]]'' called the film: "Scarily realistic&nbsp;... so plausibly done that it should really have a warning flash in the corner of the screen saying 'fiction' in big red letters.&nbsp;... It works as a smart riveting drama and also as a warning of the power of the financial markets".<ref name="W">{{cite web | url=http://www.walltowall.co.uk/program/the-day-britain-stopped_29.aspx | title=The Day Britain Stopped | work=Wall to Wall | accessdate=24 September 2013}}</ref> A reviewer in ''[[The Guardian]]'' wrote that it was "an excellent and horrible film&nbsp;... Indeed, if there was anything that betrayed the fictional nature of The Day Britain Stopped, it was its craftedness and lack of [[sensationalism]]."<ref>{{cite news |author=Gareth McLean |url=https://www.theguardian.com/media/2003/may/14/broadcasting.tvandradio |title=Last night's TV |work=[[The Guardian]] |date=14 May 2003 |access-date=16 July 2023 }}</ref>


In response to the programme's original broadcast, the following statement was issued by [[NATS Holdings|National Air Traffic Services]]:
In response to the programme's original broadcast, the following statement was issued by [[NATS Holdings|National Air Traffic Services]]:

Latest revision as of 00:06, 16 November 2024

The Day Britain Stopped
GenreDrama
Docufiction
Pseudo-documentary
Written by
Directed byGabriel Range
Narrated byTim Pigott-Smith
ComposerAlan O'Duffy
Country of originUnited Kingdom
Original languageEnglish
Production
Executive producers
ProducerSimon Finch
Editors
  • Horacio Queiro
  • Simon Greenwood
Running time90 minutes
Original release
NetworkBBC Two
Release13 May 2003 (2003-05-13)
Related
The Man Who Broke Britain
Heatwave

The Day Britain Stopped is a dramatic pseudo-documentary produced by Wall to Wall Media for the BBC. It depicts a fictional disaster on December 19, 2003, in which a train strike is the first in a chain of events that lead to a fatal meltdown of Britain's transport system. Directed by Gabriel Range, who wrote the script with producer Simon Finch,[1] the film first aired on Tuesday, May 13, 2003, on BBC Two.

The drama makes use of various British television news services and newsreaders (such as Sky News and Channel 4 News), foreign news channels (such as France's TF1), radio stations (Radio Five Live), real-life archival footage (from a train crash site, a speech by Prime Minister Tony Blair and various stock footage of British traffic congestion) and cameo roles by well-known British personalities. Accompanying music includes excerpts from the film soundtracks of The Shawshank Redemption, The Sum of All Fears, Requiem for a Dream, Heat, and 28 Days Later.

Plot

In early December 2003, 18 months after the Potters Bar rail accident, a fatal train accident near Waverley in Edinburgh leads the ASLEF and RMT trade unions to declare a strike for 19 December on safety grounds, forcing the heavy Christmas rail passenger traffic to use the roads instead.

On 19 December, a crossover accident on the M25 motorway closes the motorway in both directions, blocking access to the M23. A diversion is opened, but a lack of coordination between the Highways Agency and Surrey Police means that the route is quickly gridlocked due to roadworks. A chemical tanker jackknifes near Heathrow Airport, completely paralysing the southern half of the M25. The first death occurs when an ambulance carrying a patient injured by the first accident runs out of medicine.

British airspace runs over capacity, forcing air traffic controllers to work double and triple shifts. Jerry Newell, a pilot for British Airways caught in the gridlock, opts to walk to Heathrow, where he is to captain a flight to Toulouse. Birmingham and Manchester are rendered unreachable by road, causing a planned friendly match between Turkey and England at Old Trafford to be cancelled due to low attendance.

Julian Galt, his wife and two children are driving to Heathrow for a Christmas holiday in Bilbao, and end up trapped on the M25. Numerous motorists try to flee the area, but are aggressively pursued, apprehended, and forced to turn back by officers of the Thames Valley Police. As night falls, Julian's family convince him to lead them off the motorway and towards Heathrow; he sneaks them past the police to a minor road, where they flag down a passing minibus, but Julian opts to stay behind. The freezing temperatures become deadly as motorists succumb to hypothermia. In an attempt to gain control of the crisis, the government initiates 'Operation Gridlock', a contingency plan instructing those trapped to leave the motorways on foot and make their way to field hospitals for triage.

In Heathrow's control tower, air traffic controller Nicola Evans volunteers to work late when her replacement fails to arrive for the start of their shift. Overworked, she accidentally directs an Aer Lingus flight to taxi onto a runway which is about to be landed on by a Czech Airlines cargo flight. Conflicting instructions are given by the other controllers. After agonising over what action to take, Evans issues a go-around instruction to the cargo flight, which avoids the Aer Lingus plane but collides with the departing British Airways flight to Bilbao, killing everyone on both planes instantly. Burning wreckage falls across Hounslow, destroying swathes of the town and starting massive fires. Heathrow shuts down, followed by the rest of the UK's airspace shortly thereafter.

Jane, Jerry Newell's wife, manages to make it to her home in Shepperton, and sees news of the air crash on the television. She begins making calls to find out her husband's whereabouts, and is briefly calmed when she learns that Jerry was not scheduled to captain the flight involved in the disaster. However, she then receives a phone call from British Airways, telling her that Jerry's flight to Toulouse was cancelled, and he was reassigned to the doomed flight, dying in the crash. Julian's family also perished in the disaster, as they reached the airport in time to board the flight.

In the wake of the disaster, Nicola Evans and the other air traffic controllers are charged with multiple manslaughter. However, the case against them collapses when the investigation into the air crash finds that systemic failures in Britain's air traffic control were to blame. The final death toll of the air crash is 87: 64 passengers and crew, and 23 people on the ground. There were also five deaths from hypothermia on the motorways, and eight other deaths.[2]

Cast

  • Eric Carte as Tom Walker
  • Andy Shield as Inspector Clive Turner
  • Steve North as Julian Galt
  • Angelo Andreou as Tomas Galt
  • Emma Pinto as Ana Galt
  • Olivia MacDonald as Marina Galt
  • Prue Clarke as Pauline Watkins
  • Jonathan Linsley as PC Tony Foster
  • Tony Longhurst as Steve Thomas
  • David Holt as Dominic Steel
  • Joanna Griffiths as Nicola Evans
  • Alison Skot as Air Traffic Controller
  • Daniel Copeland as Matt Ogden
  • Nancy McClean as Jane Newell
  • Rebekah Janes as a concerned woman
  • Satnam Bhogal as Inesh Gunwadena
  • Tim Crouch as Daniel Boyd[1]
  • Julie Wilson Nimmo as TV phone witness (uncredited)

Tim Pigott-Smith provided the narration.[1] Katie Derham, Charlotte Green, Philip Hayton, John Humphrys, Gary Lineker, Anna Rajan, Jon Snow and Kirsty Young appeared as themselves.

Archive footage of Prime Minister Tony Blair was used, combining parts of his statements in the House of Commons about Air France Flight 4590 and the Great Heck rail crash.

Production

The M96 motorway, a converted airfield used by the Fire Service College for training, was used as a stage for the M25.

Director Gabriel Range explains how he and the production team went about realistically recreating the disaster:

During September 11, there were some incredibly powerful telephone interviews from eyewitnesses right at the centre of the disaster on both TV and radio. They are the simplest way for a rolling news channel to keep their audience up to date – but they offer an incredible immediacy. [...] For the aftermath of the collision, we focused on just a few streets, placing a specially constructed fuselage at the end of a narrow terraced street. Using a combination of home video, fire service video and news footage, we were able to recreate the chaos that would follow such a disaster. But the key to creating an impression of scale was the combination of our own footage with carefully chosen archive and computer-generated images.[3]

Reception

Radio Times called the film: "Scarily realistic ... so plausibly done that it should really have a warning flash in the corner of the screen saying 'fiction' in big red letters. ... It works as a smart riveting drama and also as a warning of the power of the financial markets".[4] A reviewer in The Guardian wrote that it was "an excellent and horrible film ... Indeed, if there was anything that betrayed the fictional nature of The Day Britain Stopped, it was its craftedness and lack of sensationalism."[5]

In response to the programme's original broadcast, the following statement was issued by National Air Traffic Services:

National Air Traffic Services believes that this programme not only fails to portray standard operational procedures accurately, but in doing so, paints an unfair and misleading picture of UK air traffic operations. In particular, there is no mention that the two aircraft involved in this fictitious incident would have been fitted with on-board collision avoidance systems which, combined with air traffic control's Conflict Alert system, would have prevented the 'accident'. Furthermore, the programme inaccurately portrays Heathrow's standard go-around procedures and the way air traffic controllers at Heathrow communicate with each other and with the West Drayton unit. The programme takes insufficient account of the traffic flow management procedures and ground movement radar systems, and inaccurately portrays the context in which airspace sectors are combined. This programme presents itself as dramatised documentary. However, it is not only based on a highly unlikely scenario, but deliberately ignores – or misrepresents – almost every standard safety system or procedure currently in use. NATA keeps these procedures under constant review and, as a consequence, the UK has maintained its exemplary air safety record despite rising levels of traffic. In our view, this programme is highly inaccurate and needlessly alarmist.[6]

Projected studio version

In 2012, Ridley Scott and Steve Zaillian planned to make a film inspired by The Day Britain Stopped at 20th Century Fox.[7]

References

  1. ^ a b c "The Day Britain Stopped (2003)". British Film Institute. Archived from the original on 16 July 2023. Retrieved 16 July 2023.
  2. ^ "Programme Timeline: The Day Britain Stopped". BBC. Retrieved 16 July 2023.
  3. ^ "Recreate Chaos". BBC. Retrieved 20 August 2021.
  4. ^ "The Day Britain Stopped". Wall to Wall. Retrieved 24 September 2013.
  5. ^ Gareth McLean (14 May 2003). "Last night's TV". The Guardian. Retrieved 16 July 2023.
  6. ^ "Statement from National Air Traffic Services". Retrieved 20 August 2021 – via BBC.
  7. ^ Tatiana Siegel (26 July 2012). "Ridley Scott and Steve Zaillian Team for Disaster Pic (Exclusive)". Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 16 July 2023.
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