British TV Drama to Depict Bush Assassination

LONDON, Aug. 31 A British television network plans to broadcast a documentary-style dramatic film about a fictional assassination of President Bush, the network's head said Thursday.

The program, to be aired Oct. 9, uses actors and digital manipulation of real footage to show a fictional account of Bush being gunned down after delivering a speech in Chicago, Peter Dale, the head of More4, told a news conference. More4 is the digital offshoot of Britain's Channel 4.

"Death of a President," which will first be shown this month at the Toronto Film Festival, in September, focuses on all those linked to the pretend crime -- including nearby antiwar protesters, suspects, Secret Service guards and investigators, Dale said.

The White House declined to comment on the network's announcement, saying it would not dignify the program with a response.

"It's an extraordinarily gripping and powerful piece of work, a drama constructed like a documentary that looks back at the assassination of George Bush as the starting point for a very gripping detective story," Dale told reporters. "It's a pointed political examination of what the war on terror did to the American body politic."

Dale said he expected the film would upset some, but defended it as a sophisticated piece of work.

"It's not sensationalist or simplistic but a very thought-provoking, powerful drama," he said. "I hope people will see that the intention behind it is good."

"Death of a President" is directed by Gabriel Range, whose 2003 TV movie "The Day Britain Stopped" showed what might happen if the country's transportation network ground to a halt.