BBC orders docs investigating Piper Alpha oil rig tragedy and 1960s Moors murders

The Piper Alpha Disaster killed 167 people in 1988

Alamy

UK pubcaster the BBC has commissioned a docuseries about the Piper Alpha oil rig disaster off the Scottish coast in the 1980s and a two-parter investigating the Moors murders in England in the 1960s.

The Piper Alpha Disaster (working title) will explore the series of explosions that ripped through the North Sea oil platform Piper Alpha, off the coast near Aberdeen, which killed 167 people in 1988.

The 3×60’ box-set series comes from BBC Studios Specialist Factual for BBC Two, BBC Scotland and iPlayer. Lucie Ridout exec produces and Laura Blount directs.

The Moors Murders: A Search for Justice, meanwhile, is produced by Longtail Films for BBC Two and iPlayer, and commissioned by BBC Current Affairs.

The 2×60’ series will draw on newly discovered documents and recordings of infamous serial child killers Ian Brady and Myra Hindley, who murdered five children in and around Manchester between 1963 and 1965.

The docuseries seeks to expose past missed opportunities while also uncovering new evidence which could be used to find the body of the final missing victim, Keith Bennett.

Directed by Poppy Goodheart, the exec producers are Longtail Films’ creative director Duncan Staff and Jonny Young. Silverlining Rights will distribute internationally.

In additional news, the BBC has commissioned a third season of cricket series Freddie Flintoff’s Field of Dreams. Produced by South Shore for BBC One and iPlayer, the series sees former cricketer Flintoff form and coach youth cricket teams made up of groups of unlikely teens.

In the first two seasons, Flintoff built a team in his hometown of Preston who he then took on tour in India. In season three, Flintoff will attempt to form boys teams in Manchester and Liverpool, plus a girls team in Blackpool.