A sneak peak at Scottish actor David Tennant as Russian defector Alexander Litvinenko has been shared by ITV, recreating the famous photo of the man lying in hospital before his death from poisoning.
The new drama, which is due to launch on ITVX next month - will explore the story of Litvinenko from the perspective of the Metropolitan Police officers who investigated his case, reports the Mirror. The Russian man was found in declining health at University College Hospital in London by the police.
Litvinenko – a former Russian federal security services and KGB officer, and outspoken critic of President Vladimir Putin - died in 2006 after accidentally ingesting a rare radioactive substance. And Scottish Doctor Who star David Tennant will play the man in the new ITV drama.
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His on-screen wife Marina Litvinenko will be portrayed by Russian-American actress Margarita Levieva. ITV said former New Scotland Yard officers Clive Timmons and Brent Hyatt, along with Marina's lawyer Ben Emmerson QC and Litvinenko's family, have supported the production.
Among the other cast members of this series will include Mark Bonnar as Timmons, while fellow police officer Hyatt will be played by Neil Maskell. ITV Studios executive producer Patrick Spence said it's a "privilege" to be working on the series.
He said: "[It's about] a family and a police team who have shown such courage and resilience that it has inspired us all."
Whilst Polly Hill, head of drama at ITV, said the broadcaster is "delighted" by Tennant's casting and that the scripts are "brilliant". She said it will make for a "compelling drama".
A UK public inquiry in 2016 concluded that Litvinenko was deliberately poisoned by Russians Dmitry Kovtun and Andrei Lugovoy. They found that the pair had put Polonium-210 into his drink at the Millennium Hotel in Mayfair.
The report, headed by Sir Robert Owen – a former High Court judge – found the tea poisoning had "probably" been carried out with the approval of the Russian president. Most recently, the European Court of Human Rights ruled in 2021 that Russia was responsible for Litvinenko's killing, as the case was brought forward by his widow.
Russia has always denied any involvement in the death and had refused to comply with international arrest warrants issued for Kovtun and Lugovoi. The inquiry said that the use of the radioactive substance - which could only have been perused from a nuclear reactor - was a "strong indicator" of state involvement.
The inquiry further said that the two men had probably been acting under the direction of the Russian security service the FSB, for which Litvinenko used to work. Possible motives included Litvinenko's work for the British intelligence agencies after he fled Russia.
Other motives included his association with other Russian dissidents and his criticism of the FSB. As reported earlier this year, Kovtun died in June of Covid, according to state-owned Russian news agency Tass.
ITV show Litvinenko will launch on ITVX on December 15.
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