The story behind BBC drama The Trick

It’s been 12 years since the University of East Anglia’s Climatic Research Unit was hacked. Twelve years since those stolen emails and documents were crudely misrepresented by climate deniers. And 12 years since a global media storm, which came to be known as Climategate, focused its attention on one man – Professor Phil Jones.

As the BBC prepares to air its landmark dramatisation of those intense months in the spotlight, the real people behind the fictionalised characters in The Trick tell their story. And today’s climate researchers, influenced by the CRU’s trailblazing role, tell us why they’ve picked up the baton to ensure that science remains at the core of humanity’s fight against climate change.   

It is a rainy November in 2009 – the UK’s wettest on record – and thousands of emails and documents have been hacked from the Climatic Research Unit (CRU).

Cherry-picked extracts are being published via climate sceptic blogs in the US in an apparent attempt to derail the imminent COP15 UN climate change conference in Copenhagen. Media and political focus on UEA and its community of pioneering climate scientists is at fever pitch.

“We were bombarded,” says Prof Phil Jones who lives with his wife south of Norwich. “Reporters arrived at our house and even questioned our neighbours. We had vile, threatening and abusive mail and emails from complete strangers.

“Some had death threats to me and my family,” he adds. “It was very shocking and frightening for all of us.

“All my working life it has been very important to me to be a good, ethical scientist. When I was called a fraud or a charlatan, I felt attacked to the very core and I floundered and did not know how to respond. I found it difficult to sleep and relaxed only when watching mindless television or doing jigsaws. I closed down.”

The world reacts

As the world’s media gathered around the columnar form of the CRU, the UEA community united around the scientists.

“UEA did come together,” says Prof Jones. “It had to for the sake of the science – and I got a lot of support.

“I had many very supportive letters, cards and emails from a wide range of people – friends, colleagues and strangers. A letter came from a local school where the pupils sent supportive messages. That was very moving.”

“I think what enabled the University to cope with the strain was staff loyalty to UEA, an extraordinary esprit de corps,” adds Prof Acton. “And it has been great to see how our research has continued to power ahead in the decade since Climategate.”

He remains saddened and surprised at the “pusillanimous behaviour of so much of the British establishment” in the face of the media and political storm. 

“In fact, the part of the establishment that behaved best were the police,” he adds. “I was impressed by the courage and good judgement of DCS Julian Gregory of Norfolk Police who immediately escalated the hacking investigation to Gold status. I remember a visit by two gentlemen from Scotland Yard who earnestly told me they would be using Holmes. I had a momentary sense of time-warp - until they spelled out they meant the Home Office Large Murder Enquiry System (HOLMES).”

Even so, UEA’s then Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Research, Prof Trevor Davies, says it was an isolating experience.

“In particular the Trick evokes the strong sense that we felt rather alone,” he says. “Although parts of the science ‘establishment’ did defend climate science publicly, there was a hesitancy to publicly defend CRU climate research.

“This was perhaps inevitable since it was difficult for many to understand the cunning in the cherry-picking of emails. But the science establishment, more than anywhere else, should have had faith in the scientific method and - in the early days of the 'scandal' - directly attacked the ludicrous claim that a hoax had been perpetrated on the world, over many years, orchestrated by a small group of climate scientists centred in Norwich!"

Into the future

Twelve years on the story behind The Trick continues to inspire young people across the world to pick up the baton from Prof Phil Jones and his colleagues at the CRU - and help the world tackle climate change.

Aayushi Awasthy is a current economics PhD student and host of the climate change podcast 'Why haven't we solved it yet?' She says she knew "research at UEA must be critical if climate deniers wanted to target them.

"When I applied to UEA that was always a part of the story," she adds. "To me, the fact that colleagues and the scientific community mobilised around them was a very powerful story of hope and resilience."

"Research output here is not driven by competition, but instead by a genuine curiosity that is supported within and between research groups," adds Elise Droste, an environmental science PhD student who last year travelled to the Arctic as part of the MOSAiC expedition. "People are interested in each other’s science and work, which is apparent during, for example, the various weekly seminars given by professors, postdocs, and PhD students.

"This personal aspect is what inspires me to work at the School of Environmental Sciences and it’s the inclusiveness that makes me feel like I’m contributing to UEA’s efforts around climate science with my little nugget of research."

Prof Davies feels sufficient time has passed for the scars of those most affected, including the “immensely brave” Phil and Ruth Jones, to have healed. And for UEA to overcome reservations about “re-opening it all again”. 

“The Trick is being broadcast at an important time – just before COP26 and following years of extreme weather events ravaging the globe," says Prof Davies. "A personal hope is that it will help viewers understand the importance of a strong outcome from Glasgow. It is the strength of public opinion which drives most politicians to action.”

“I would like all politicians to go into COP26 with open hearts and open minds,” says Prof Jones. “as they can make a powerful and meaningful response to the difficulties the world faces and change the future for our children and grandchildren.”