IFTA-winning actor James Nesbitt (Murphy’s Law, Cold Feet) is set to star in TV drama ‘Five Minutes of Heaven’, commissioned by BBC Drama Northern Ireland, due to film in Belfast in the coming weeks.
The drama, directed by German helmer Oliver Hirschbiegel (Downfall), is penned by BAFTA-winning writer Guy Hibbert (Omagh), with the film’s first act based on real events. In 1975, 19-year-old Catholic, Jim Griffin, was murdered by 17-year-old Alistair Little, a member of the Ulster Volunteer Forces. Two weeks later, Alistair was arrested along with three others involved and served 12 and half years in prison. Jim’s murder was witnessed by his eleven year old brother, Joe Griffin and the impact his death devastated the Griffin family.
“The opening of the film is essentially an accurate, dramatised reconstruction of the events leading to the murder in 1975,” says Hibbert. “The action of the remainder of the film, set in present day, is fiction but based on their emotional response to the fictional situations their characters have been placed in, following close liaison with both men.”
Hibbert worked separately with both Little and Griffin in writing the script, receiving their full permission and co-operation for the drama. Nesbitt will play Joe Griffin.
‘Five Minutes of Heaven’ is produced by Big Fish Films, in association with Ruby Films for BBC Two with co-financing from Northern Ireland Screen. Pathe is international distributor for the film outside the UK and Ireland.
Big Fish Films Eoin O’Callaghan will produce, with the BBC’s Stephen Wright. Executive Producers are Patrick Spence and Paul Trijbits (Bloody Sunday, The Wind That Shakes the Barley) and Cameron McCracken for Pathe. Patrick Spence, Head of Drama for BBC Northern Ireland, said: "Northern Ireland is a society emerging from conflict. We wanted to develop and produce a single film, which, in a responsible way, marks part of that transition.
"We have done this by recording powerful personal testimonies of the two individuals whose lives have been determined by the Troubles."
Filming will begin at the end of May for five weeks on location in Belfast.
