Almost 2,000 people have signed a petition in just four days calling for a BBC show to be scrapped. The BBC is planning to air a drama on the Grenfell Tower fire, but 1,850 people signed a petition calling for it to be pulled in the first four days of the campaign.
Cecilia Corzo, who started the petition, wrote: "We don’t want the BBC to make a drama about the Grenfell fire tragedy.
"It has been less than 6 years since the fire that took 72 innocent lives and left hundreds more people displaced grieving without any justice. Many people are still suffering from PTSD and many cannot even return to their old neighbourhood because of the trauma they experienced that night. There are still survivors waiting for a permanent home. Survivors who will never hold their loved ones again. Whole families who now only exist in memory. The perpetrators have avoided all criminal consequences."
She added: "In spite of all of this, the BBC has decided that they wish to recreate the brutal events for their own entertainment purposes, claiming under the guise that they will spread awareness with the permission of the residents and survivors.
"I am one of these residents of Lancaster West Estate and I have never been contacted by the BBC, nor did they respect the wishes of the survivors who had been contacted a few years ago and were deeply offended by the proposal of such a drama show. However the BBC believes they are above respecting the actual community affected in search of gaining views through sensationalism.
"It makes me sick to my stomach that the most disturbing & traumatic night of our lives will be made into a tv show that people across the country will watch from the comforts of their homes with a cup of tea. This is not a fictional story, these are real events affecting real people.
"If the BBC had wanted to do the community justice they would air instead a documentary about the fire, as there have been many that have been made with the right intentions that shine a light on the government's austerity and carelessness towards people in social housing. This is just another example of higher powers taking a marginalised community's autonomy away from them, masquerading as aiding their cause.
"I am demanding that the BBC stops making the Grenfell fire TV Drama. I demand that they do not add more trauma to the people who are still mourning the loss of their loved ones."
The BBC has commissioned a three-part drama from writer and director Peter Kosminsky, which will explore the events of the 2017 fire at Grenfell Tower.
Grenfell, which will draw on more than five years of research, will tell the story of the fire in west London which killed 72 people and impacted the lives of many more.
The upcoming drama will “shine a light on the human stories of those caught up in the tragedy” over three episodes told from multiple perspectives.
Drawing on research since the fire broke out on June 14 2017, the drama will rest on information from public sources, extensive interviews conducted by Kosminsky, who directed the BBC adaptation of Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall, and information available from the inquiry hearings that took place following the fire.
Bafta award-winning director Kosminsky said: “Occasionally, events occur in our national story which touch us all. The fire at Grenfell Tower is such an event.
“We remember what we were doing when we heard about it, remember the pictures, the saturation coverage. And yet, despite this, despite the many newspaper pages and TV hours devoted to the story, we may be left with a less than clear sense of exactly what happened, what went wrong.
“In our drama, we attempt to pick our way through hours of public testimony, as well as original interviews conducted by our team, to reach the heart of this catastrophe: how such a thing can have happened, how we can avoid it ever happening again.”
The drama, which is yet to be given a release date, will aim to offer a comprehensive account of the events leading up to, during, and following the fire, according to the BBC.
Grenfell is expected to spotlight a variety of narratives, from those who survived the blaze in the north Kensington residential tower block, to those who lost loved ones during the tragic event, the emergency services who responded to reports of a fire on the evening of June 14 2017 and the community within which the remains of Grenfell Tower still stand.
The series is set to be made for BBC One and BBC iPlayer by production company The Forge. The associate producer will be Ahmed Peerbux and executive producers Kosminsky, Mark Pybus for The Forge, and Lucy Richer for the BBC.
Associate producer Peerbux said: “We have been working on this drama for more than five years now, and it is only right that such a terrible event, seared into the national psyche, should be approached with rigour and not rushed.
“We are immensely grateful to the men and women who have shared their stories with us, and let us into their lives – we couldn’t possibly hope to honour their experiences without the time and trust they have given us.”
Director of BBC drama Lindsay Salt said: “Grenfell was a tragedy that touched the entire nation, and is one of the most significant and devastating events in our recent history.
“In the trusted hands of Peter, Ahmed and their dedicated team, Grenfell will utilise drama’s unique ability to sensitively and respectfully show the human side of what happened, and to offer a response to some of the many unanswered questions that remain.”
