BBC announces new true story drama from makers of The Salisbury Poisonings
The BBC has confirmed a new drama from the makers of The Salisbury Poisonings.
The four-part show will focus on the real-life story of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a British Iranian citizen who was detained in Iran for six years.
The currently-untitled series will also focus on Nazanin's husband Richard Ratcliffe, who tirelessly campaigned for her freedom. It's based on the couple's forthcoming book A Yard of Sky: A Story of Love, Resistance and Hope.
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Zaghari-Ratcliffe was detained in Iran in 2016 on spying charges, which she denied, and was freed and returned to the UK in 2022 amid a long-standing campaign for her release.
The series will cover "the period from the day Nazanin was arrested at the airport in Tehran to her release and return to the UK six years later".
Dancing Ledge Productions (the production company which made BBC drama The Salisbury Poisonings) will make the drama.
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"Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and Richard Ratcliffe's extraordinary experiences captured everyone's hearts," a BBC spokesperson said.
"Their journey is one of despair, courage and hope, spanning two countries and six years, and ultimately, it's a story of how this family, who were forced apart by international events, were finally reunited."
The Salisbury Poisonings originally aired on BBC One in June 2020. It told the true story of the 2018 Novichok poisonings of Sergei and Yulia Skripal in Salisbury, and the subsequent major incident response and investigation.
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The cast includes Anne-Marie Duff, who spoke at the time about how her character Tracy Daszkiewicz – the then-director of public health and safety at Wiltshire Council – and other women's efforts to contain the incident went unrecognised at the time.
"As a woman, I can't help but think...lots of men in suits were recognised, and she wasn’t," she said.
"And I just felt that [co-creators] Adam [Patterson] and Declan [Lawn's] script, the way that they do just swell her in so much integrity was amazing and a real gift and also she gets to testify, she gets to exist inside of that scenario."
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