Hat Trick Productions is making a one-off drama for BBC2 based on the true-life attempt by Auschwitz inmates to put God on trial.

God on Trial will be set over a single day in which the concentration camp prisoners test their faith by putting God in the dock for turning his back on the Jewish people in their hour of need. Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel, who witnessed the trial, used the story as the basis of his book, The Trial of God.

The 90-minute drama is former Coronation Street and Brookside screenwriter Frank Cottrell Boyce's first TV project in 10 years. A frequent collaborator with Michael Winterbottom on films such as 24 Hour Party People and A Cock and Bull Story, Cottrell Boyce has also adapted his own novel Millions for Danny Boyle.

The cast includes Swedish-born actor Stellen Starsgard, whose Hollywood credits include the Pirates of the Caribbean movies and Good Will Hunting, and Stephen Dillane, who has followed his 2001 starring role in BBC series The Cazalets with roles in movies The Hours and King Arthur.

Hat Trick begins filming on the drama in March. Fantabulosa! director Andy de Emmony will direct, with Gemma Rogers, whose credits include Wedding Belles, as producer.

Hat Trick head of drama Mark Redhead, who will executive produce, said he had had the project in mind for more than 20 years, but believed the issues it raises have become more relevant in recent years. "It wrestles with the question that is always asked during wartime: how can there be so much suffering in the world?" he says. "With the attacks of September 11 and the Iraq war, religion is now centre-stage in ways that it simply hadn't been in my lifetime."

Hat Trick has employed a rabbi to consult on the script, which Redhead said aimed to raise challenging philosophical issues.

BBC fiction controller Jane Tranter and BBC Scotland head of drama Anne Mensah commissioned the drama, which is expected to air at the end of next year.

©Hat Trick Productions / BBC Television.