The decades-long cover-up of Cold War radiation experiments will be given the primetime TV treatment in a BBC documentary later this year
The 70-year scandal of Britain’s nuclear test veterans is to be the focus of a major new documentary, expected to air later this year.
Campaigners hope that it will be broadcast around the time the new Prime Minister Keir Starmer appears at the Cenotaph to lay a poppy wreath on behalf of the nation – and all eyes will be on whether he has delivered on his promises of truth and justice to the nuclear veterans who will march past.
Jack Bootle, head of commissioning for BBC Specialist Factual, said: “It’s a film that should shock the nation.”
With a competing documentary rumoured to be underway by Channel 4, veterans hope their stories will hit the headlines with the same impact as the Horizon scandal exposed by ITV drama Mr Bates vs The Post Office.
Veterans’ son Steve Purse, 50, of Prestatyn, is one of those interviewed for the programme. He tells the story of his father David, who was in charge of the airfield at Maralinga, South Australia, in 1962.
He was there for Operation Vixen B, a series of simulated nuclear accidents which left the Outback – and the camp – covered by fallout. Steve was later born with undiagnosable genetic defects, and is believed to be the only person in the world with his condition.
His own young son Sascha was apparently healthy, until a dentist diagnosed him with a genetic defect of his own, and needed 6 baby teeth removed under general anaesthetic. But Steve has been refused access to his dad’s blood tests, taken during the weapons trials, which would show whether he was exposed to radiation.
Steve said: “For years our fathers and grandfathers have been fighting for justice alongside the Mirror only for their voices to go unheard by the wider public. Now we will be thrust into the front rooms of millions. The stories of my dad, myself and my son along with thousands of others affected will be centre stage.”
He added: “This is our Mr Bates moment, the chance for justice so many have fought for, for so long. The MoD can no longer airbrush us from history.”
Alan Owen, who founded campaign group LABRATS to fight for justice, is also interviewed about the genetic legacy that haunts his family after his father Jesse witnessed 24 hydrogen bombs in just 78 days in Operation Dominic, a series of US tests held using British troops at Christmas Island in the Pacific.
He said: “We hope the general public, once they see and hear what happened to us, will be as angry as we are., just as they were with the Post Office. There will be nowhere left for the Ministry of Defence to hide, and the new government will be judged on whether it has fully delivered on its promises to us.”
In Opposition, Keir Starmer became the first party leader to meet nuclear campaigners and promised them “your campaign is our campaign”. His deputy Angela Rayner and defence secretary John Healey also pledged full-throated support in their battle for a medal, and their missing medical records from the time.
But the standalone post of Veterans Minister, previously held by Johnny Mercer, was axed by Starmer when he entered government. Emily Thornberry, who publicly accused the MoD of committing potential criminal offences over withholding blood tests from veterans and their next of kin, was not given a ministerial job.
The hour-long documentary is expected to be “the definitive history” of the testing programme, and will include the recognition campaign which has been led by the Mirror since 1983.
It is being produced by award-winning Hardcash Productions and filmed and directed by Simon Rawles, who has previously made documentaries on Madeleine McCann, incels, and Russian attempts to infiltrate Westminster.
