By Basant El-Faramawy
Channel 4 will air a standalone documentary tonight that invites members of the public to tour a fake residential facility for disabled people, unaware that its protocols are modeled on Nazi-era policies toward disabled people in 1930s and 1940s Germany.
The Experiment Format
The programme, titled The Experiment, presents a fictional supported-living home called SegriLife House. Disabled and neurodivergent actors portray residents while visitors believe they are observing a real, radical model of care. The facility’s messaging and policies draw directly on Nazi propaganda and the language used to justify the systematic segregation, forced sterilisation and extermination of disabled people under the Aktion T4 programme.
Testing Modern Susceptibility
Hosted by actor Mat Fraser and disability rights activist Sophie Morgan, the documentary films the visitors’ reactions as the hosts watch from behind the scenes. Fraser and Morgan said they 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 – especially at a time when disability rights are under threat in the UK and globally.
Historical Site Visit
The documentary also follows Fraser and Morgan to Austria’s Hartheim Castle and Museum, a former Nazi killing centre where hundreds of thousands of disabled people were murdered, to tell the stories of the victims.
Hosts’ Personal Connections
Fraser was born with phocomelia after his mother took thalidomide during pregnancy and began his career with the Graeae Theatre Company before appearing in series such as American Horror Story: Freak Show and Netflix’s Kaos. Morgan was paralysed from the waist down at age 18 after a road accident and made her television debut on BBC Two’s Beyond Boundaries, later presenting documentaries including Licence to Kill and Dispatches.
Broadcast Information
The Experiment airs tonight at 10pm on Channel 4.
