The Day Britain Stopped

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 19 December 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, the film first aired on Tuesday, 13 May 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.