ITV lines up controversial Hitler drama

Adolf Hitler: his relationship with niece has always puzzled historians

ITV is courting controversy with a new drama about Adolf Hitler's close relationship with his niece, who was found shot dead in his Munich apartment in 1931.

Uncle Adolf will dramatise the future dictator's relationship with Geli Raubal, who was half his age, during his rise to power in the late 1920s and early 1930s.

But the project is certain to be controversial. A recent attempt by the BBC to dramatise Hitler's early life was scrapped in December after the BBC's US co-production partner, News Corp-owned cable channel FX, pulled out following criticism of the drama in the American media.

ITV's drama controller, Nick Elliott, has four candidates in mind to play Hitler and is planning to cast the role imminently.

George Faber, who will executive produce Uncle Adolf, said his first choice for the part was comedian Steve Coogan.

"Steve Coogan was a suggestion. There is a strong tradition of comedians playing Hitler, but Nick Elliott didn't bite on that idea," said Mr Faber, who is making Uncle Adolf through his independent production outfit, Company Television.

Robert Carlyle, who was due to play the German dictator in the scrapped BBC drama, is another possible candidate.

"Uncle Adolf will be told in flashback from Hitler's Berlin bunker in 1945, when his mistress Eva Braun has come to claim her man," Mr Faber added.

"But she has never forgiven him for his relationship with his niece, Geli. Hitler was probably closer to her than he was to anyone in his life," he added.

Hitler's relationship with Braun only began after Raubal's death, but there has been speculation that the memory of his niece cast a long shadow over the rest of his life.

"This is a story about Hitler's relationship with Eva and this young niece of his. There was a lot of sexual jealously from Eva," Mr Elliott said.

Raubal, the daughter of Hitler's half-sister Angela, met him when her mother became his housekeeper in 1927.

She was then a 19-year-old student, 20 years Hitler's junior, but for the next four years the pair were inseparable and in 1929 he gave Raubal her own room in his Munich apartment.

The exact nature of Hitler's relationship with Raubal and whether they were lovers has always been something of a mystery to historians.

The verdict on Raubal's death in September 1931 - 14 months before Hitler became chancellor of Germany - was suicide.

But ever since the circumstances surrounding her death have been the subject of rumour and gossip, with one theory being that Raubal died following a lover's quarrel with her uncle and another suggestion being that he had her killed.

"A lot of people have speculated that maybe Hitler had her killed because she was getting too close to him," Mr Elliott said.

Uncle Adolf will be a two-hour drama for ITV1 and is being written by Nigel Williams, whose novels Fortysomething and The Wimbledon Poisoner have both been adapted for TV.