Channel 4 commissions feature drama on torture written by Guy Hibbert.

The ethical questions facing an MI5 officer involved in the war on terror will underpin a Channel 4 feature-length single drama written by Guy Hibbert.

Complicit will see the Five Minutes of Heaven and Omagh writer investigate the moral dilemmas the main character Edward faces around the use of torture.

The drama takes place in the Middle East against the backdrop of the Arab Spring.

It is one of only two single dramas planned for C4 this year and will be broadcast in late 2012.

The film will be produced by Manyriversfilms, which has previously made documentaries and dramas on terrorism including Car Bomb for the BBC and documentary series The Cult of The Suicide Bomber.

The producer Kevin Toolis flagged up the government’s Gibson inquiry into the action of security services.

Manyriversfilms said Complicit would “tell us something about ourselves and British society”.

C4 chief creative officer Jay Hunt ordered the drama and said it “shows us a hidden world we think we know in an entirely original way, and goes straight to the core of one of the greatest dilemmas of our age”.

This story was first published by Broadcast.