The BBC, Scottish producer STV Studios and writer James Wood are in the research phase and the series has yet to go into production or be greenlit. The series is being developed in consultation with Piper Alpha survivors and family members and is said to be based on these new interviews, ongoing research, the 1990 Cullen Report into the tragedy and Stephen McGinty's book Fire in the Night.
Piper Alpha began production in 1976 about 120 miles northeast of Aberdeen, a Scottish city known as one of the oil capitals of Europe. Twelve years after its opening, the oil rig collapsed following a jet fire, killing 165 passengers and two rescuers. Many bodies were never recovered and the consequences of the disaster are felt to this day. There were 61 survivors.
Piper Alpha remains one of the costliest man-made disasters of all time, equaling the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster in impact on the oil industry. The study took place two years after the disaster and made a host of preventive recommendations for the future, although no charges were filed against the operator Occidental Petroleum.
STV Studios made a BAFTA-winning documentary about the disaster, Piper Alpha: Fire In The Night, about a decade ago and we understand the company is being extremely careful during the investigative process to respect the survivors and their relatives.
Factual dramas are popular at the moment and recent offerings from the BBC include The Sixth Commandment and the Jimmy Savile series The Reckoning, while the corporation is currently making a series about the Grenfell Tower disaster, written by Peter Kosminsky.
ITV, meanwhile, was responsible for the year's biggest factual drama, Mr Bates vs The Post Office, while Netflix is busy with Toxic Town about the tragic Corby poisonings, written by Jack Thorne.
The BBC and STV Studios declined to comment on the Piper Alpha series.
