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Christopher Garnett, chief executive of GNER, the train company involved in the Hatfield crash, has also accused Sir David of manipulating his source material. He had agreed to be interviewed by the play’s director, Max Stafford-Clark, but had been dismayed to find his words taken out of context.

Mr Garnett is quoted in the play as reacting with relief to the news that the Hatfield crash was caused by a broken rail rather than a train fault. His character says: “My God! I thought, ‘Thank Christ it’s not us.’ ” A spokesman for Mr Garnett said: “His words were very selectively edited to show a narrow, commercially self- interested character. It was unfair because Mr Garnett went on to talk about the huge welfare and counselling effort that GNER embarked upon.”

Mr Garnett says that he has attempted several times to contact Mr Stafford-Clark to complain but his calls have been ignored.

Sir David admitted at a recent discussion with the audience at the National that he altered and edited the words of several characters. He allowed the crash victims to see and approve the changes he had made but did not refer back to other people interviewed.

He also admitted that, far from plainly presenting a series of interviews, he was the unseen hand behind every scene. “I thought the story was so shocking I didn’t want to get in the way. But it’s an illusion. I’m all over it.”

Sir David has previously described the play as a “painful parable about the badness of British government”. He reserves particular venom for what he describes as “a cowardly Labour government” which attacked rail privatisation when in Opposition but failed to reverse it when in power.

John Prescott, the Deputy Prime Minister, is the villain of the play. Sir David told the audience he had deliberately excluded politicians from his round of interviews “because, frankly, they can’t ascend to the level of truthfulness that’s needed for this play. There’s no point going to John Prescott because I know what he would tell me in advance.”

HOW THOSE CLOSE TO THE DISASTERS SAW THE PLAY

• Louise Christian, lawyer for victims of the Ladbroke Grove and Southall crashes, appears in the play as “A Campaigning Solicitor”.

  “I spent four hours with David Hare in two meetings. It’s marvellous that he tells it from the point of view of the bereaved families, who became incredibly well informed about the rail industry. You don’t have to be left-wing to think that the way in which the railways were privatised was mad.”

• Gerald Corbett, former Railtrack chief executive, also portrayed by Hare.

  “It was a pretty powerful play and David Hare, who spoke to me for half an hour, introduced huge drama through the crashes. But the fact is that under privatisation there have been fewer crashes.

  “The real problems have been the extra billions in public subsidy and the increase in train delays, but they are not interesting in dramatic terms.

  “I agree with Hare that the politicians made a difficult situation worse. John Prescott bad-mouthed the industry and the lack of political support after the crashes made it a nightmare to manage.”

• Michael Portillo, a Cabinet minister when the Conservatives privatised the railways, reviewed the play for the New Statesman.

  “Hare’s play reveals uncomfortable truths. He shows how John Major adopted a privatisation plan that few even in government believed could work. As one of the play’s characters says, it’s analogous to a restaurant where the cooks, waiters and washers-up have different employers.

  “As the play moved from initial humour to sustained anguish, I don’t suppose that mine was the only dry throat in the theatre, or that only former Tory ministers were having difficulty swallowing.”

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