yorkshire television's "first tuesday" documentary strand had long been considering making a programme on the stalker inquiry and the so-called shoot-to-kill allegations. kosminsky, who had producer-directed the documentaries "" (1987), "" (1988) and "afghantsi" (1988) for the strand, was keen to take the subject on. however, kosminsky found that there was nobody he could talk to on-camera: "they were either dead, disappeared or not allowed to talk to us." many serving or past officers were silenced by the official secrets act. "the only thing to shoot was a few guilty buildings, there really was nothing." although kosminsky distrusted "faction", and had told the press he "hated" this "evil form", he began to think of putting the research that had been gathered into a drama format, to make best use of the contacts that had been achieved.