Fire in the Night

Piper Alpha was an oil platform in the North Sea. It was the largest and the oldest on that field. On the night of 6 July 1988 it exploded. A hundred and sixty seven men died. Sixty one came out alive. The documentary goes back over that night. It sets out the events that led to the explosion in order. Rescuers speak. So do some of the men who survived, many of whom had to jump into the sea. The film follows what came after as well, the physical marks and the psychological ones, and what all of it has meant for the people who lived through it. Stephen McGinty wrote the film. It premiered at the Edinburgh Film Festival and took the audience award there, and it won a Scottish BAFTA for best single documentary. The ninety three minute film went out on BBC2 on the twenty fifth anniversary of the disaster, a British production Anthony Wonke finished in 2013.