BBC readies IRA drama

BBC2 in the UK has commissioned BBC Studios to produce a factual drama about the IRA bombing of UK town Warrington 25 years ago.

Piers Wenger

Written by Nick Leather (Murdered for Being Different), Mother’s Day (1×90’) centres on the lives of two women living on separate sides of the Irish Sea who are brought together by the tragedy.

Filming has already begun on the show, which stars Anna Maxwell Martin (Motherland) as the mother of one of the two bombing victims and Vicky McClure (Line of Duty) as an Irish woman so outraged by the events that she organised one of the largest peace rallies in Irish history.

Mother’s Day is directed by Fergus O’Brien (Against the Law) and produced by Scott Bassett (Murdered for Being Different), with Tommy Bulfin and Aysha Rafaele exec producing for the BBC and BBC Studios respectively. It was commissioned by Piers Wenger, controller of BBC Drama, and Patrick Holland, controller of BBC2.

BBC Studios is the commercial production arm of the UK pubcaster.