EXCLUSIVE: A BBC documentary will follow the first people to be convicted under the UK’s new National Security Act after they burned a Ukrainian business on behalf of Russian mercenaries.
The Telegram Terror Plot, which has not published production credits in order to protect those behind it, will use first-hand testimony, exclusive access and unseen archive to explore how the attacks were carried out.
Last October, Dylan Earl and Jake Reeves became the first two men prosecuted using the National Security Act 2023 after an investigation found they had carried out an arson attack on a Ukrainian-owned business in London following orders from Russia’s Wagner Group, which caused £1M ($1.3M) of damage. They recruited a group of men to carry out the attack and organized surveillance of other businesses. The commanding officer on the case said they “acted willingly as hostile agents on behalf of the Russian state.”
The show from BBC Studios-backed Samphire Films will “examine the troubling questions this raises about vulnerability, manipulation and the growing reach of hostile-state actors into the lives of young people in the UK,” the BBC said.
The corporation revealed The Telegram Terror Plot on a Sheffield DocFest slate that also includes an exploration of life as a British Muslim post-9/11, hosted by Mobeen Azhar. Azhar and filmmaker Masood Khan will travel around the country for Being Muslim After 9/11 [working title], speaking to people from the community about how things have changed over the past 25 years. It comes amid a febrile political atmosphere and with Islamophobia on the rise.
The BBC is also making a feature-length doc about how 38 Republican prisoners escaped from one of Northern Ireland’s highest security prisons, titled Prison Break – Escape from the Maze [working title], which will see a number of escapees and former prison officers speak publicly for the first time.
Rounding out the slate is Bel, about Kenyan Scottish musician Beldina Odenyo Onassis who tragically took her own life, and Aberfan: The People’s Fight, spotlighting the catastrophic collapse of a coal waste tip that killed nearly 150 people in Wales 60 years ago and was famously explored in an emotional episode of The Crown.
Emma Loach, the BBC’s Interim Head of Commissioning, Documentaries, said: “These films reflect the strength of co-commissioning across the BBC, bringing together voices and perspectives from across the UK to tell stories that feel both distinctive and universally resonant. Combining rigour and insight alongside emotionally engaging storytelling, they speak to the power of documentary filmmaking in deepening understanding and leaving a lasting impact.”
Sheffield DocFest has been taking place all week and BBC commissioners have been out in full force. Yesterday, we revealed the Storyville strand is expanding to premium documentary shorts.
