Channel 4 Order Costa Concordia Doc.

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Fast turnaround documentaries just keep getting faster. With 20 people still unaccounted for and culpability yet to be established, Channel 4 Commissioning Editor David Glover has already commissioned Dragonfly TV to make a film about the sinking of cruise ship Costa Concordia.

Entitled Terror at Sea: The Sinking of the Concordia, the film will go out on Tuesday 31st January at 20:00, it will “explore the events leading up to this enormous cruise ship hitting a sandbar off Italian island Giglio Porto.”

With the 100th anniversary of the Titanic coming up in April, C4 is clearly attempting to link the two tragedies. “With a capacity of 3780 passengers and at an impressive 290m long and 31m high, the ship was a palace of the ocean,” says C4. “So how did this boat, hailed as a glorious example of modern technology sink? And why do some critics say the design of these mega cruisers is dangerous? These are some of the questions this film will examine as it tries to understand how, after a century of safety measures and technological advances, a ship with so many passengers can sink.”

The film will use CGI and testimonial to recreate a minute by minute account of the timeline to tragedy - featuring exclusive interviews with survivors, rescuers and world renowned experts. Using images of the wreck and footage captured by people on board that night, the sinking will be recounted and analysed: "The Costa Concordia was 69ft longer and two and a half times heavier than the Titanic,” says Glover. “100 years on it will be interesting to see what has really changed."

Dragonfly creative director Simon Dickson and head of specialist factual Mark Roberts are executive producers.

 

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