Preview Screening: The Billion Pound Base – Dismantling Camp Bastion + Q&A

This Channel 4 preview screening will be followed by a Q&A with director Richard Parry, producer Leslie Knott and executive producer Mike Lerner. Chaired by Siobhan Sinnerton, commissioning editor at Channel 4.

For eight years Camp Bastion was the power-house of the British Army’s military operations in Afghanistan. Britain’s biggest overseas base since World War Two has now closed down for good. Channel 4 was given exclusive access to the men and women whose job it was to pack up this giant jigsaw puzzle.

A town the size of Reading with a massive infrastructure – airport, hospital, fast food restaurants – is dismantled bolt by bolt and sent back to the UK. What is left is handed over to the Afghans. But with defences and manpower depleting daily, in the face of a constant threat from the Taliban, it is a dangerous race against time to close this city in the sand.

Directed by Richard Parry produced by Leslie Knott
Duration: 47′
Year: 2014