The BBC is to make a drama documentary about the death of Mark Duggan, the Tottenham man fatally shot by police in 2011, which aims to portray the “man behind the gangster sterotype”.
The 60-minute film has the working title Lawfully Killed, a reference to the verdict of the inquest into Duggan’s death handed down last year, when a jury found that he had been unarmed, after throwing away a firearm, but lawfully shot twice by a police marksman.
The BBC has placed an advertisement for a young actor to star as Duggan, whose death sparked some of the worst rioting seen in Britain in years, with the casting call stating that the docudrama will challenge his portrayal by the media.
“Mark Duggan was not the notorious gunman the press have portrayed him to be; neither was he, as his family readily accept, ‘an angel’,” it says. “In this film we will try to find the man behind the gangster stereotype and understand the challenges he faced as a young black man from Tottenham’s Broadwater Farm Estate, an area which has lived in a state of semi-permanent siege since the murder of PC Keith Blakelock in 1985.”
The wording of the casting call has attracted criticism with the Daily Mail suggesting that the BBC intends to challenge the verdict of the inquest.
“Surely the challenge for the BBC is to agree with a jury’s 2014 findings?” said the newspaper.
The BBC denies that the film has a specific agenda and will take in all points of view.
“The film will tell the story from a 360 degree point of view, looking at the 24 hours leading up to the shooting, telling the story from multiple perspectives and asking questions that remain surrounding Mark’s death,” said a BBC spokeswoman.
The BBC added that the film is yet to be given an official title. It is also seeking an actor to play Kevin Hutchinson who is serving 11 years for supplying Duggan with a firearm. The film will include interviews with friends and relatives, as well as the police.
Filming is due to start next month under director Jaimie D’Cruz, who made the award-winning art documentary Exit Through the Gift Shop with graffiti artist Banksy.
In March, the Independent Police Complaints Commission cleared armed officers of any wrongdoing saying it was likely that he was in the process of throwing away a handgun when he was shot.
In a 500-page report, the IPCC called for urgent improvements in the accountability of undercover firearms operations after finding that a lack of audio or video material “made it difficult and on occasions impossible, to know with absolute certainty what happened”.
An inquest jury returned a lawful killing verdict in January 2014, sparking outrage from his family, after hearing that the police marksman, who fired the two bullets in rapid succession, which hit Duggan in the upper chest and right arm, had the honestly held belief he was an “imminent threat to life”.
The suspected member of the Tottenham Man Dem gang was shot twice on 4 August 2011 in Tottenham, north London, after 11 specialist firearms officers stopped the minicab he was in on suspicion that he had an illegal firearm. While no gun was found on him, a handgun in a sock was discovered on grassland about four metres (14ft) from his body.
