Channel 4 tonight airs The Experiment, a one-off documentary that the broadcaster says sets out to ask whether the British public can be swayed by Nazi-era ideas about people with disabilities when those ideas are repackaged as modern, progressive care.
The 95-minute film is fronted by actor and writer Mat Fraser and presenter and disability rights activist Sophie Morgan, and the broadcaster has described it as a "complex, emotional and often harrowing film".
At the centre of the documentary is SegriLife House, a residential facility presented to visitors as a radical new model of supported living, complete with professional branding, corporate messaging and glossy promotional materials. It appears to offer a compassionate, cost-effective answer to the expense of helping disabled adults live and work independently. The catch is that SegriLife is not real.
In an exclusive clip shared with Radio Times ahead of its release, Fraser guides audiences on what to expect from the feature-length documentary.
In a voiceover, Fraser can be heard saying: "To test how pervasive some of these views are, we've staged a provocative social experiment recreating the worst kind of disabled institution filled with actors, repackaging Nazi ideology as new, progressive and compassionate."
Morgan then adds: "We want to find out just how susceptible the public is to the same kind of arguments the Nazis used around the cost of disabled people to the taxpayer. With economic pressures raging, could we be in danger of repeating history?"
You can watch the full clip above.
In the documentary, disabled and neurodivergent actors play the residents, with behind-the-scenes guidance from Access All Areas and the Graeae Theatre Company. Members of the public are invited to meet them and tour the facilities, where routines are built around community, independence and wellbeing.
The ideas underpinning SegriLife, however, are drawn from the Nazi regime's segregation, devaluing and systematic extermination of disabled people.
As the public explores SegriLife, every interaction is filmed and visitors are asked for their views, while Fraser and Morgan watch from backstage. The pair also travel to Hartheim Castle in Austria, one of six killing centres used in the Nazis' Aktion T4 programme and now a memorial and learning centre.
Fraser has acted on stage and screen for more than 30 years, and is perhaps best known to television audiences as Paul the Illustrated Seal in American Horror Story: Freak Show. Morgan has presented Channel 4's live Paralympics coverage, alongside work on strands including Dispatches and Unreported World.
In a joint statement, Morgan and Fraser said: "It was important for us to finally bring the catastrophic history of Aktion T4 and the Nazis' persecution of disabled people to our television screens, but more importantly we wanted to test whether the British public could be persuaded by similar propaganda today, to believe that disabled people are disposable, or less deserving of a place in society.
"These are extremely disturbing times for our community, with disability rights under threat in the UK and around the world. It is reminiscent of a time many of us would rather forget, but this programme shows that the chances of repeating the past are far higher than we think.
"Peering behind the veil of the public perception of disability isn't for the faint-hearted, but this is essential viewing."
The Experiment airs on Wednesday 21 October at 10pm on Channel 4.
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