Smallpox 2002

2002 British docudrama

Simon Chinn
Daniel Percival

Directed byDaniel PercivalStarring

Bolen High
Leigh Zimmerman
Tara Hugo

Narrated byBrian CoxComposerAndy PriceCountry of originUnited KingdomOriginal languageEnglishProductionExecutive producerJonathan HewesProducerSimon ChinnRunning time90 minutesOriginal releaseNetworkBBC TwoRelease5 February 2002 (2002-02-05)

Smallpox 2002: Silent Weapon is a fictional docudrama produced by Wall to Wall, showing how a single act of bioterrorism leads to terrifying consequences globally.

Background

The premise of it was one man who, in 2002, creates the smallpox virus himself, infects himself, and touches ten people in New York City. This eventually leads to a pandemic across the world that is later defeated, but not before 60 million people are killed.

The film was commissioned before the September 11 attacks and is presented in the form of a fictional documentary, including false interviews and stock footage. The tagline for the movie was, "Drama, until it happens".

Reception

Newspaper reviews of the documentary were mixed, varying from "a sick stunt" to "extraordinarily good".^[1] The docudrama proved very popular with viewers, attracting 3.4m viewers, 15% of the audience, to a 9:00pm slot on BBC2 according to overnight returns.^[2]

Notes

The film was renamed Smallpox when it aired on FX on 2 January 2005.

References

^ Smallpox 2002 – Silent Weapon round up of newspaper reviews, in The Guardian, 6 February 2002
^ Smallpox proves infectious for BBC2, The Guardian, 6 February 2002