Docudramas have been used to portray historical events in the
genre of a contemporary
documentary.
Rebels and Redcoats, for example, covers the
American War of Independence with famous figures like
Samuel Adams being interviewed.
But they have been more effective storytelling events - especially events involving hypothetical disasters or other nasty things that could happen in the future. Using ordinary elements of news reporting to describe a dramatic event makes a story seem closer to us, and thus a lot more scary. Well used cliched techniques include:
The use of faux news flashes.
Fly on the wall coverage of Mister and Mrs Typical living normally before a cataclysm, and struggling to survive in the aftermath. Somehow actors invariably fail to be convincing when imitating people living ordinary lives. May or may not involve romance, but certainly some messy human emotion unnecessarily clouds the plot.
Passionless voiceovers by the narrator describing carnage and destruction (By now, over half the exposed population of Stoke-on-Trent would have succumbed to gangrene...)
Courier font text on the screen, telling us exactly when and where a scene takes place ( WHITE HOUSE SITUATION ROOM 1:24 AM ). Often the text is accompanied with typewriting sounds, even if none of us has heard an electric typewriter in the last 15 years.
Orson Welles 1938 broadcast of War of the Worlds was the first docudrama, and was famous for terrifying an audience who never could have guessed that science fiction can be presented as factual events. Other docudramas worth remembering are:
The War Game: Britain after a nuclear war .
Threads: Britain after another nuclear war.
Smallpox 2002: A terrorist causes a global smallpox pandemic.
Horizon: Dirty Bomb: A radiological weapon is blown up in Trafalgar Square.
War With America: The European Union and NAFTA become military adversaries.
The Day Britain Stopped: A rail strike and a few road accidents causes Britain's traffic to go into gridlock.
Tellingly, the British like making docudramas.