When I first heard of the proposed mini-series 'House of Saddam' I was suspicious. Why would the BBC/HBO, UK/America, want to make a drama series about Saddam Hussein? I wondered what the hidden agenda might be. Were they trying to cash in on the demonisation of Saddam - already Enemy Number 1 as far as the Western media were concerned? Whose "version" of history was this going to be? After meeting Alex Holmes I soon realised that this drama series would be different. Not a lesson in the history of Iraq, not about condemnation or praise, it was to be about understanding a tightly knit group of people whose lives orbited around their sun, Saddam Hussein. The perspective was going to be from inside the inner circles and family, looking out. It would be an attempt to go behind closed doors and shed light upon the man himself. That really interested me so I spent the next 2 ½ years researching and script editing the 'House of Saddam' mini-series.

I had been to Iraq in 2003 working on a documentary series for British & Arabic TV. There, I conducted harrowing interviews with the Iraqi people. I met grieving families of all faiths and political persuasions at the Free Prisoners Association, who were searching for their missing loved ones. I stood at the mass graves of Hilla and saw the remains of Saddam's victims - shreds of clothing, prayer beads, a child's shoe. There were thousands missing, thousands tortured, countless thousands dead. The atrocities the Iraqi people have endured as a result of this man's rule are well documented, but after Saddam their suffering has continued. Some Iraqis I know even wish him back. So who was he? What formed his character and drove him? Here was an opportunity to present a different perspective and to try to understand the most important question... WHY he did what he did. I don't know if I found an answer but I certainly understand more about Saddam the man as a result of looking at events through his eyes. What would you have done if Hussein Kamel fled into the arms of the CIA with Iraq's weapons' secrets?

Initially Saddam Hussein had an admirable vision of a strong and modern Iraq and he worked hard to create it. He built hospitals and schools. The Iraqi people were well fed and well educated. Even UNESCO praised his literacy programs. He was a supporter of women's rights. Yet behind these successes the fear and the terror existed, growing like a cancer as time went by. Ultimately his own paranoia and brutality eroded away everything he had accomplished.

What emerged from the research and interviews was a portrait of a man full of contradictions. After executing his best friend Adnan Hamdani he went to visit his friend's widow to offer his condolences. There were tears of sorrow in his eyes. He modelled himself upon past dictators, studied Stalin, and yet wrote romantic novels, which he published anonymously. And despite his bloody reign he went to the gallows like an innocent man, full of Bedouin honor, head held high, reciting the Qur'an.

The Iraqi people I interviewed were also full of contradictions; they both hated and admired Saddam simultaneously and in equal measure. But looking into his past one can begin to understand where the admiration came from. Saddam grew up in poverty, illiterate, and fatherless in Al Awja, a backwater of Tikrit. To be fatherless within Arab or tribal Bedouin society cannot be under-estimated. It meant to have no status or future. Who could have predicted that this barefoot boy would become the ruler of Iraq and change the course of world history? He single-mindedly forged his journey with sheer determination and willpower and it is clear that his childhood shaped his character. Refusing to endure regular beatings from his cruel stepfather, Saddam ran away from home at the age of eight and an uncle took him in. At school he was further humiliated by having to learn to read and write with children half his age. But he quickly taught himself both and rose through the ranks, determined to prove his worth. His need for status and power came from a start in life where he was deprived of everything. Once he had that power he began to reinvent himself into the hero he had wanted to become. In the end he believed his own mythology as the terrified individuals around him reinforced it. And the circle completed itself; he ended up hiding on a farm, only miles from the place of his birth.

This mini-series presents a more human image than the Western media usually portrays. As a result, we better understand not just Saddam the politician and tactician, but Saddam the father and husband. Those who met him were always amazed at how respectful and caring he was; he loved children; he never broke a promise; his charisma had all the ladies swooning. Humanising him is not a denial of his crimes and I don't think we were 'easy' on him. The facts exist and his crimes are documented in the series. However, this approach gives us a wider viewpoint, the chance to ponder different questions, and to learn more perhaps about the nature of dictatorship itself. Sadly, Saddam's rule is an example of many regimes still in operation today.