Chilling mockumentary made by the BBC in 2003.

It's September 2003 and there has been a major rail crash in Scotland. Unsurprisingly, this is the straw that breaks the camels back, and the rail unions strike. No freight. No passenger services. Nothing. Nowhere. The trains remain in their depots, severely hindering transport. All the traffic that would/should be on rails is on the motorways, causing widespread chaos. Fate being what it is, this would be an opportune moment for a tanker to overturn. And one does. There are incredible tailbacks, redirections meant to ease congestion redirect into each other and Britain falls into gridlock. Flights are all being sent to Heathrow airport since there is no capacity at Luton or Stansted, and a monumental slipup occurs-a flight controller redirects a Czech Airways jet into a British Airways plane. The two collide, airplane parts are scattered for miles around, and Britain is plunged into a post-9/11 state.

In style, this programme is a lot like nuclear war drama Threads-basing itself on facts and possibilities, nothing more, to give an extremely unsettling account of a country gone mad. It also highlights just how amazingly crappy Britain's transport network is, and how these faults combined could cause a major catastrophe. Sadly, as this was a one off, it looks like it won't be repeated-this is a shame, as the production values are extremely high-the BBC even went to the trouble of asking ITN and Sky to make mock news reports with the real newsreaders, a nice touch which added extra authenticity to this fantastic programme.

Happy fun update!: You can see the whole thing in Real Video at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/th e_day_britain_stopped/default.stm , along with plenty of commentary.