Kenneth Branagh is to star in a series of Newsnight-produced dramas about the Iraq war that will question the justification for the invasion.

10 Days to War, described as “part thriller, part political drama”, will run in the BBC Two Newsnight slot during the build-up to the fifth anniversary of the invasion in March. The ten-part series is written by Ronan Bennett, a left-wing dramatist who grew up as a republican activist in Northern Ireland and a critic of the War on Terror.

The films will examine the justification for war and failure of the United Nations and “tell the story of the hunt for weapons of mass destruction”.

Newsnight will follow each ten-minute episode with a discussion. Branagh plays Lieutenant-Colonel Tim Collins, of the Royal Irish Regiment, who made a rousing speech to troops hours before they went into battle. In another film two Labour MPs battle with loyalty and conscience, not to mention the whip, in the crucial House of Commons vote on the war.

Bennett said: “We won’t exploit retrospect or hindsight — each film will tell the story as it was known then to the people it most affected.”

In 2000 David Trimble attempted to prevent the screening of Rebel Heart, a Bennett-scripted BBC drama about the Easter Rising, claiming that it was “hopelessly one-sided”.

Peter Barron, Newsnight editor, said: “The story our viewers have wanted us to revisit more than any other is the run-up to the war. This dramatisation gives us the opportunity to explore the issues and arguments in a way traditional documentary couldn’t. We then plan to question the real players about the events of 2003 on Newsnight.”

Senior British diplomats and generals, as well as the Government, should be held to account for the mistakes made in Iraq after the invasion, Lord Owen, the former Foreign Secretary, told the House of Lords yesterday. He said: “We cannot just go on ignoring what has been done.”

Editor's choice

• Here comes summer: our cultural must-sees
• Friends reunited: Sex and the City
• New country for old men