Jimmy McGovern working on Reg Keys drama for BBC

Jimmy McGovern is writing a new drama for the BBC about Reg Keys, the former paramedic who lost his son in the Iraq War and then stood against Tony Blair in the 2005 election.

The Radio Times reports that the drama - with the working title Reg - is likely to air on BBC2 in 2016, assuming it gets the formal green light.

Jimmy McGovern

Liverpudlian screenwriter McGovern, who recently penned a controversial BBC1 film about the law of Common Enterprise, has got to know Keys, who continues to fight for justice for his son Lance Corporal Tom Keys, who was killed in Majar al-Kabir in 2003.

McGovern said: "They were badly equipped as well. They went to a hellhole with 50 rounds each and no radio, that’s why they were killed.

"I think he could even accept that if they weren’t there on a lie. But when it’s both, when they were there on a lie and they are badly equipped and are sent to a hellhole on nothing, it’s tough for a man to take I think. But he is a fascinating man I think.

“I liked that notion of an ordinary man taking on the British Prime Minister. It’s just wonderful it happened that way. A lot of people will point out that that’s the strength of Britain. But I think that’s baloney. It’s the strength of Reg Keys. He did it against the odds. He did it in spite of the system not through the system."

McGovern was speaking at the launch of the sixth series of his BBC1 daytime drama series Moving On, which he continues to work on as storyline editor.

Next year his new eight-part series Banished is due to air on BBC2.