Writer stands firm over Kelly drama

Peter Kosminsky, writer and director of Channel 4 film The
Government Inspector, says he stands by the controversial depiction of
Andrew Gilligan in his film, despite the ex-BBC journalist’s rejection
of the way he was portrayed.

The film, broadcast on Thursday
night, showed Gilligan altering his notes weeks after his meeting with
government weapons inspector David Kelly, whose death prompted the
Hutton Inquiry. Gilligan has adamantly rejected these claims.

Kosminsky
said: “Gilligan says that the Hutton Inquiry proved he had not changed
his notes, because he was not found to be in the wrong but the relevant
point in Lord Hutton’s report actually says that Lord Hutton was unable
to come to a judgement on what Gilligan said about the two versions of
notes on his computer.

“Gilligan is missing the point when he
says his records of Kelly’s quotes have subsequently been confirmed
because they were also said to BBC journalist Susan Watts,” Kosminsky
added.

“In the film we didn’t say that the quotes weren’t true.
We made the specific point that in the last week of June and the first
week of July, Gilligan changed his notes. We didn’t go into why he may
have changed them.”

While making the film, Kosminsky commissioned
a computer crime expert, Professor Neil Barrett to look at the evidence
from Gilligan’s computer that was made publicly available during the
Hutton Inquiry. Kosminsky claims that Professor Barrett says there is
no other explanation for the different versions of notes on Gilligan’s
computer, other than that he had changed them at a later date than he
said he did.