A group of politicians, writers and comedians including Stewart Lee and Ian Rankin will join forces at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival to read all 2.6 million words of The Chilcot Report.
The mammoth investigation into Tony Blair’s 2003 invasion of Iraq will take two weeks to read, with the challenge beginning on 8 August and continuing for 24 hours until it finishes a whole fortnight later.
It is estimated that 120 words from the report will be read every minute – with the whole thing being performed in a garden shed where four people can watch it being performed every hour.
The project, called Iraq Out and Loud, is the brainchild of comedians Omid Djailili and Bob Slayer.
Discussing the project, Slayer said: “Producing this is going to be a truly mammoth undertaking, however I know I would totally regret not doing it much more than actually doing it.”
Inspector Rebus author Ian Rankin, who will be reading a passage of the report, added: “I was on my holidays when the Chilcot Report was published, so this is my best chance to get to read at least some of it. It’s either that or wait for the film.”
The Chilcot report was published earlier this month, and concluded that Tony Blair had “wholly inadequate plans” in dealing with the aftermath of the invasion of Iraq.
Tickets for the challenge go on sale on Monday.