Acclaimed director Morgan Matthews is to explore the devastating impact of teenage murders on families and communities across Britain in 2009 in a special two-hour film to be shown on BBC Four this winter.

On a par with the scale of his Bafta-winning documentary The Fallen, this documentary (title tbc) will be the BBC’s most ambitious film to date about youth violence.

Speaking at Edinburgh International TV Festival, Richard Klein, Controller, BBC Four, said: “This documentary will pose searching questions about society’s attitudes towards young people, probing blanket terminology such as ‘gang violence’ or ‘gang-related’ so commonly used to describe teenage killings. It will challenge our preconceptions whilst connecting us directly with the tragic consequences of a violent death. I’m very pleased to be able to bring a film on such a thought-provoking subject to BBC Four viewers.”

Filmed over 18 months, it will explore cases of teenagers who lost their lives to violence in 2009. Intimate testimony from those closest to the victims will feature alongside that of the police, witnesses and passers-by, who find themselves caught up in the aftermath of a teenage murder.

Together, these differing perspectives will combine powerfully to reflect the collective impact of a teenage killing on an entire community.