David Tennant on Litvinenko: “Putin wanted to make sure this story was never told”

Alexander Litvinenko saw the impending horror, but no one listened to him.

Known to his family and friends as “Sasha,” a former Federal Security Service (FSB) agent allegedly fatally poisoned by Russian spies in London in 2006, has warned of dire consequences if President Vladimir Putin ignores the threat.

“In an article he wrote in 2006,” Litvinenko’s widow Marina says, “a few days before he was fatally poisoned, Sasha wrote: ‘If you don’t stop this monster, he will start a war and millions of people will die. . “Now it’s finally happening.” Sixteen years after Litvinenko’s last warning, the Russian president launched an unwarranted invasion of Ukraine.

Litvinenko, who exposed Russian corruption before fleeing his homeland with Marina and her young son Anatoly in 2000, was just as prescient in his deathbed message addressed directly to the president: around the world, Mr. Putin, will ring in your ears for the rest of your life. May God forgive you for what you have done not only for me, but also for your beloved Russia and its people.”

This deathbed statement, read by a close friend on the doorstep of University College Hospital shortly after the former Russian spy’s death, is one of many chilling moments. Litvinenko, a new four-part drama that launches on the ITVX streaming platform on Thursday. Written Wolf Showrunner George Kay tells the drama not only about the murder, but also about the subsequent relentless struggle of his widow for justice for him.

“This story seems important on a geopolitical level,” said David Tennant, who plays the lead. Litvinenkoplay with rare intensity. “This reveals the horrifying truth about what this gangster, who turns out to have all this power, was trying to do. It also shows a beautiful victory – and I use this word intentionally – i.e. Putin intended to ensure that this story was never told. So it seems like the most important thing we can do is tell this story over and over again, because that’s how Putin loses.”

The first episode begins with Alexander and Marina toasting that they have just become British citizens. Later that night, Alexander was hospitalized after he started vomiting blood.

Litvinenko, hospitalized for his own safety under the pseudonym Edwin Carter, urged the officer: “I must report the murder.”

– Whose murder?

“My.”

At first, no one believes him, but after 16 days, Marina finally persuades Detective Brent Hyatt (Neil Maskell) to visit him at UC.

Litvinenko soon convinces the initially skeptical Hyatt that he is telling the truth. Using his knowledge as the former deputy head of the seventh department of the FSB, where his job was to organize the assassinations of “enemies of the Russian state”, Litvinenko informs Hyatt that he has only three or four days to live. “Detective, I’ll tell you my story before it’s too late.” This is a potentially unique example of someone being a living witness to their own murder.

In the next three days before Litvinenko’s death, Hyatt took statements from him for 16 hours. A former FSB agent describes how he was killed at the Millennium Hotel in Grosvenor Square after drinking three sips of iced tea poisoned with polonium-210, the deadliest substance known to man.

The murder victim then names her alleged killers as Russian agents Andrei Lugovoi and Dmitry Kovtun, suggesting that they may have been following Putin’s orders.

During this period, the family publishes a famous photo of the hairless Litvinenko, which is connected to a series of monitors.

Leaning against pillows in a green hospital gown, he looks into the camera scared and frightened. In a very short time, the photograph, which has become an icon during this time, appeared on the front pages of all the newspapers in the world (except, of course, Russia).

Margarita Levieva, who played Marina, was born in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg) and lived in Russia until she emigrated to the United States at the age of 11. She says the murder of Litvinenko fits perfectly into her image of the Russian president. “It didn’t surprise me,” she says, “because I grew up there. I knew this guy and I knew what he was capable of.”

For Marina, the reason she wanted to film the drama was simple. “I just knew this was a really important story that needed to be preserved.”

This highlights, she adds, “what Sasha was trying to do, and he couldn’t figure it out because he died. In this drama, his voice will still live on and his message will finally be heard.”

With all its international ramifications Litvinenko It is also a very personal and heartbreaking love story about a devoted couple who are brutally separated.

“The story that people might not know or miss is the human side,” said Jim Field Smith, the drama’s director. “That’s what we were really trying to bring to the fore.”

In this regard, it was extremely important that the drama received the approval and cooperation of Marina and Anatoly. “This story affects every day of our lives,” says Tennant. And yet: “As soon as you meet Marina, you feel that you carry not only the meaning of this story as a fable for our time, but also the history of the family and the history of the couple. It was very precious and very delicate.”

Ultimately, the focus is on Litvineko it is Marina’s relentless pursuit of justice for her murdered husband. For the past 16 years, she has refused to give up despite being constantly held back by successive British governments that seem to put business interests ahead of human rights.

“Unfortunately,” Smith sighs, “just as there are bandits in Russia, so in this country. The UK government sometimes felt unable to investigate because it believed that, say, larger interests were at stake.”

He adds that the “unwavering” determination of Marina and her team of lawyers, and the “impeccable” performance of the Metropolitan Police ensured that the British government could no longer shirk the case. “It became inevitable that there would be an investigation and they could no longer ignore the perfectly obvious truth.”

In a revelation that should surprise no one, Marina says that understanding British politicians over the past 16 years has been extremely difficult. “I tried to talk to politicians all the time. I never expected that I would have such a great experience with the judiciary and politicians! First it was the Labor Party and then the Conservatives. I just realized that everyone has their own plans.

Then: “In 2010 and 2011, people started telling me: “Marina, they are not sure that you will eventually achieve justice, because the political climate is different.” I just couldn’t believe it. How is that possible?”

But she eventually convinced the UK government to hold a public inquiry in 2016. It ruled that the murder of Litvinenko was carried out by Lugovoi and Kovtun, probably with Putin’s approval.

Subsequently, on 21 September 2021, the European Court of Human Rights concluded that there was “strong prima facie evidence” that Lugovoy and Kovtun were Litvinenko’s killers. But all attempts to extradite the two suspects, who are charged in this country, have not been successful.

“I talked to many politicians,” says Marina. “I have respect for some and a lot of criticism of others. But I think they need to see this drama. What is happening now in Ukraine should change the political mood. You can no longer strike a balance between commercial interests and human life alone. This approach must stop because human life and human rights are the values ​​of democracy. It is a checkpoint for democracy in the world.”

When inspired Marina has only one wish Litvinenko, it would be that it pushes viewers to fight for their cause. “I have heard many times how this story has helped people fight for their own reasons.”

Despite this, she concludes, “It’s not just a political story, it’s not just a crime story, it’s a human story. This is a love story. This is a story of hope.”