Synopsis
After the horror of Hiroshima came the anti-communist paranoia of 50’s which left Robert Oppenheimer isolated and reviled amongst the US scientific community.

Outline
After the initial euphoria of beating the Nazis in the race to build the bomb, came the shocking reality of Hiroshima. The brilliant Robert Oppenheimer scion of one of America’s elite families found himself lionised and reviled in equal measure. The political Right saw him as the saviour of Western Democracy, however even he now referred to himself as the destroyer of nations.

As a new paranoia now beset post war America – winning the arms race became the new billion dollar imperative. The new menace was Communism, and those with lobbying power at the Pentagon were not going to let us forget it. The leaders of the nation’s nuclear arms programme had to be vetted and proven to be free of any left-leaning tendency; and despite Oppenheimer’s seemingly flawless credentials, he more than anyone came under impossibly close scrutiny by McCarthy’s inquisitors. In an effort to keep control of an agency riddled with monomaniacs like Edward Teller (the model for Dr Strangelove) it was only a matter of time before Oppenheimer began to offer up those close to him.

Nemesis focuses on Oppenheimer’s desperate attempts at damage limitation, as one by one he sacrifices his most accomplished colleagues, sure in the knowledge that once the process of betrayal has begun, there is no stopping it.

Cast
Colin Stinton as Oppenheimer, Amanda Donohoe as Frances. The rest of the cast are:
Julian Wadham, Andrew Sachs, Paul Freeman and Nathan Osgood