Acclaimed British writer Alan Bleasdale (Boys From The Blackstuff; GBH) returns to the BBC with Laconia, a powerful new two-part drama for BBC Two based on factual accounts of the attack and sinking of RMS Laconia in September 1942.

Produced by talkbackTHAMES (The Apprentice, The Bill, Capturing Mary) and Teamworx for BBC Wales, the 2 x 90-minute drama will explore the human side of the story, which later became known as "The Laconia Incident".

At 10pm on 12 September 1942, German U-Boat U-156 torpedoed and sunk the armed British vessel RMS Laconia.

Believing he had scored one of the greatest military coups of maritime warfare in the Second World War, Lt Commander Werner Hartenstein acted beyond the call of duty – and against orders from the Nazi high command – in undertaking a daring rescue operation when he discovered the ship he had just sunk was in fact carrying large numbers of civilians and thousands of Italian prisoners-of-war.

The extraordinary events which followed saw Hartenstein put out a personal plea for assistance in shepherding Laconia survivors – be they British, Italian or Polish – towards safety.

Cramming 200 individuals onto the top of his surface-level submarine, and draping his gun-decks with Red Cross flags, the story takes a second tragic twist when they were spotted and mistaken for duplicitous enemy subs by US Lieutenant James D Harden's B-24 Liberator bomber.

Given the order to "sink subs" from his superior, Lt Harden's subsequent actions put many original survivors of the Laconia sinking back in peril.

Laconia will take a human look at this epic story which changed the course of maritime warfare forever.

Jane Tranter, Controller, BBC Fiction, says: "Laconia is a powerful and compelling story and we're delighted to be bringing it to BBC Two, along with the esteemed storytelling talents of Alan Bleasdale."

Having started his career as a writer of radio drama for his local station, BBC Radio Merseyside, in 1971, Bleasdale forged a name for himself in the Eighties as a prolific social commentator with dramas like Scully (dramatised on Channel 4 following original broadcasts on BBC Radio) and Boys From The Blackstuff (BBC Television).

His last project for the corporation was The Monocled Mutineer in 1986, which was his first historical piece and a critically-acclaimed representation of the brutalities and reality of the First World War.

Alan Bleasdale comments: "This is an astonishing tale of bravery, humanity, warmth and near madness in the face of facism and the cruelty of war. There have been nightmares along the way but every writer must dream of being given a story such as this."

Roly Keating, Controller, BBC Two, comments: "Alan Bleasdale has written some of the classic pieces of TV drama, including Boys From The Blackstuff on BBC Two, so it is fantastic to be able to bring his hugely ambitious new work to the channel."

Laconia will start filming in Autumn 2008 in Germany and Malta for transmission on BBC Two in 2009.

Laconia is a talkbackTHAMES Production in association with Teamworx and ARD.

The executive producer for talkbackTHAMES is Johnathan Young, the company's Head of Drama, and the executive producer for the BBC is Julie Gardner, Head of Drama, BBC Wales. For Teamworx, the executive producer is Nico Hoffman and the producer is Klaus Zimmermann.

Laconia was commissioned for BBC Two by Jane Tranter and Roly Keating.

Laconia follows in the footsteps of compelling BBC Two dramas including Stuart: A Life Backwards and Filth: The Mary Whitehouse Story, and the forthcoming stage adaptations for television, David Hare's My Zinc Bed starring Uma Thurman, and Caryl Churchill's A Number starring Rhys Ifans and Tom Wilkinson, as well as Peter Moffat's Einstein And Eddington starring David Tennant and Andy Serkis.