Channel 4’s The Experiment tests whether Nazi-era ideas devaluing disabled people could sway British public
A brand-new documentary releasing tonight, Wednesday 21 October, will run a social test to see if average Brits can be swayed into believing Nazi ideology about disabled by presenting it as a ‘progressive’ policy.
Channel 4 have recently become the home of the most insane shows on British TV, whether it’s Virgin Island showing people losing their virginity or Handcuffed following up their season one of handcuffing an adult film star to a ‘prude’ with attaching Katie Price to Suella Braverman.
The Experiment may take the cake though as the most shocking TV show that the free-to-watch broadcaster are airing.
The concept for the Channel 4 doc is simple albeit bonkers, as it runs an experiment in which they see whether your average British person can be convinced by a Nazi-era policy about disabled people.
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They will be ‘tricked’ by having it presented as a progressive policy about fixing the ‘broken’ social care system.
The documentary centres around a fictional SegriLife House, a residential facility purporting to offer a ‘radical model of supported living’.
It appears on face value to be a ‘compassionate and practical solution’ per Channel 4, although the underlying ideals of it are disturbing and inspired by Nazi policy.
It will feature disabled and neurodivergent actors with real everyday people being given tours of the facility and seeing the way the real-life people interact with the fictional facility.
The doc promises to examine how the ‘segregation, devaluing, and systemic extermination of disabled people by the Nazi regime’ happened, with actor Mat Fraser and presenter and disability rights activist Sophie Morgan visiting a former Nazi killing centre in Austria.
The Nazi regime killed between 250,000-300,000 people with mental and physical disabilities in concentration camps between 1939 and 1945 as part of their T4 programme. Prior to this though the regime killed as many as 360,000 based off a 1933 law that allowed for the ‘forced sterilisation’ of people they considered to be ‘unfit’.
This broad definition ranged from epilepsy to alcoholism.
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.
“Through the fantastic dedication of our disabled actors and the production team who brought the disturbing world of SegriLife to life, we were able to put that question to the test.”
They added that it is ‘extremely disturbing times for the disabled community’, adding that disability rights are under threat both in the UK and world-wide.
The pair went on to finally add: “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 tonight on Channel 4 at 10pm.
Topics: Channel 4, History, TV and Film, TV, Documentaries
Michael Slavin