{"id":26549,"date":"2022-12-03T09:00:40","date_gmt":"2022-12-03T08:00:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.radiotimes.com\/?p=1749834"},"modified":"2022-12-03T10:27:50","modified_gmt":"2022-12-03T09:27:50","slug":"david-tennant-intense-litvinenko-was-a-story-that-had-to-be-told","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/rss_feed\/david-tennant-intense-litvinenko-was-a-story-that-had-to-be-told\/","title":{"rendered":"David Tennant: \u201cIntense\u201d Litvinenko was \u201ca story that had to be told\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

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By Patrick Cremona\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Saturday, 03 December 2022 at 12:00 am<\/p>

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ITVX drama Litvinenko<\/a> will arrive on the new streaming platform later this month, and star David Tennant has detailed how it\u2019s \u201ca story that had to be told\u201d.<\/p>\n

The three-parter dramatises the 2006 investigation into former KGB officer Alexander Litvinenko\u2019s poisoning and death, and speaking at a Q&A ahead of its release, the Doctor Who<\/a> star explained how he vividly remembers the true story unfolding at the time.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI remember being appalled and bewildered and shocked and confused by the news story, like the rest of the world was,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd then to read the way that George [Kay] had written the script and told the story was captivating and compelling.\u201d<\/p>

He added that it was crucial to get the blessing of Litvinenko\u2019s surviving family, and explained how meeting his widow Marina opened his eyes to just how vitally important it was to approach the series in the right way.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a story that has repercussions every day that we live through, you\u2019re very aware of that,\u201d he added. \u201cOnce you meet Marina, you feel you\u2019re not only carrying the importance of this story as a fable for our times, as a signifier for things that the world needs to be alerted to, you\u2019re also carrying the story of a family and the story of a couple and that felt very precious and very delicate.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s something that we were all acutely aware of the whole time\u2026 it means so much to us Marina and [Alexander\u2019s son] Anatoly give us their blessing, That\u2019s the one thing we\u2019ve all craved, because this is a hugely important story for the world, [but] it\u2019s also the story of a family and that\u2019s something that was with us every minute on set.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"""\"<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>
David Tennant as Alexander Litvinenko in Litvinenko.<\/span><\/figcaption> ITV<\/i><\/span><\/div>\n

Tennant also explained how filming the interviews that Litvinenko carried out from his hospital bed was \u201cvery intense\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cJim [Field Smith, director] helped us by giving us space and allowing us to inhabit that moment, as much as you ever can,\u201d he said. \u201cA film set by its very nature is an artificial construct, but you do all you can to try and get past that.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I was in the bed, I tended to stay in the bed, and the crew were very respectful about sort of being\u2026 not at a distance, very much connected to the action, but being very respectful of the sorts of processes everyone needed to go through, because it did feel very intimate.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\u200cAdditional reporting by Morgan Jeffery.<\/em><\/p>\n

Litvinenko arrives on ITVX as a full boxset on Thursday 15th December.<\/strong><\/p>\n

For more news, interviews and features, visit our Drama<\/a>\u00a0hub, or find something to watch now with our\u00a0TV Guide<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Streaming Guide<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The latest issue of Radio Times magazine is on sale\u00a0<\/strong>now \u2013\u00a0subscribe now<\/a>. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to the\u00a0Radio Times View From My Sofa podcast<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div> <\/body><\/html>\n

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By Patrick Cremona Published: Saturday, 03 December 2022 at 12:00 am ITVX drama Litvinenko will arrive on the new streaming platform later this month, and star David Tennant has detailed how it\u2019s \u201ca story that had to be told\u201d. The three-parter dramatises the 2006 investigation into former KGB officer Alexander Litvinenko\u2019s poisoning and death, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":26550,"template":"","categories":[1,5],"acf":[],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/12\/david-tennant-intense-litvinenko-was-a-story-that-had-to-be-told.jpg",8256,6192,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/12\/david-tennant-intense-litvinenko-was-a-story-that-had-to-be-told.jpg",150,113,false],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/12\/david-tennant-intense-litvinenko-was-a-story-that-had-to-be-told-300x225.jpg",300,225,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/12\/david-tennant-intense-litvinenko-was-a-story-that-had-to-be-told-768x576.jpg",768,576,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/12\/david-tennant-intense-litvinenko-was-a-story-that-had-to-be-told-1024x768.jpg",800,600,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/12\/david-tennant-intense-litvinenko-was-a-story-that-had-to-be-told.jpg",1536,1152,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/12\/david-tennant-intense-litvinenko-was-a-story-that-had-to-be-told.jpg",2048,1536,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"By Patrick Cremona Published: Saturday, 03 December 2022 at 12:00 am ITVX drama Litvinenko will arrive on the new streaming platform later this month, and star David Tennant has detailed how it\u2019s \u201ca story that had to be told\u201d. The three-parter dramatises the 2006 investigation into former KGB officer Alexander Litvinenko\u2019s poisoning and death, and…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/26549"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26550"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26549"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26549"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}