PARTYGATE: FIRST LOOK IMAGE FROM CHANNEL 4 FACTUAL DRAMA

As the horrors of Covid unfolded - three national lockdowns, PPE, 40,000 care home deaths, socially distanced funerals, a peak of more than 1,000 dead a day by January 2021 - Downing Street staff kicked back at a string of parties lubricated by quantities of alcohol.

Boris (Jon Culshaw) around the table for his Birthday celebration.

Channel 4 factual drama, Partygate, is centred around two fictional Special Advisors Grace Greenwood (Georgie Henley - The Chronicles of Narnia ) and Annabel D’acre (Ophelia Lovibond - W1A) and based on meticulous research of real events inside Downing Street.

It will tell the inside story in dramatic re-enactments interwoven with news archive footage and documentary interviews, showing the horrors of Covid unfold across the nation, while staff at Number 10 kicked back at a string of parties lubricated by quantities of alcohol.

There will also be a guest appearance of impressionist Jon Culshaw as the voice of former Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, alongside Phil Daniels (Quadrophenia), Rebecca Humphries (Ten Percent), Hugh Skinner (The Windsors), Charlotte Richie (Ghosts).

Also starring are Craig Parkinson (Line of Duty), Tom Durant-Pritchard (The Windsors), Anthony Calf (New Tricks), Alice Lowe (Black Mirror: Bandersnatch), Kimberly Nixon (Fresh Meat), Alice Orr-Ewing (This Is Going to Hurt), Naomi Battrick (Jamestown) and Edwin Flay.

More details will be revealed in due course.