This special film tests Britain's crumbling transport infrastructure to destruction. "The Day Britain Stopped" is a 90min drama for BBC2, presented in the guise of a classic contemporary history documentary.

The fictional documentary is set in the near future in the aftermath of a horrendous transport meltdown. The film aired on BBC2 in May 2003 to press acclaim:

“Beautifully done… entirely persuasive… wonderfully sharp… a powerful reminder that all disasters are unimaginable right until they happen – when they suddenly seem inevitable” Daily Telegraph

“An excellent and horrible programme… The Day Britain Stopped was meticulous in its pastiche and fearsome in its effect… every detail added to the utter believability of the film… as with [Wall To Wall’s] Smallpox 2002, the grammar and vocabulary of the documentary was used to goose-pimpling effect.” The Guardian

“Few programmes are as disturbing as The Day Britain Stopped, an eerily convincing docudrama about how easily disaster could befall the country…. The skill of the writers, Simon Finch and Gabriel Range, lies in growing such a mighty oak from such a modest acorn.” “The telltale giveaway that this was not a genuine documentary was that it was longer, more thorough, less hysterical than any documentary you would see on telly today.” The Times

"Brilliantly convincing drama documentary. It’s the best sort of docudrama: as a drama it’s completely gripping and as a documentary it’s a shocking wake-up call. In fact, it’s so good you can’t always be sure where fact stops and fiction starts, or vice versa." Radio Times