{"id":27218,"date":"2022-12-15T11:00:55","date_gmt":"2022-12-15T10:00:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.radiotimes.com\/?p=1754831"},"modified":"2022-12-15T13:44:19","modified_gmt":"2022-12-15T12:44:19","slug":"litvinenko-true-story-cast-and-director-explain-how-closely-itvx-drama-follows-reality","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/rss_feed\/litvinenko-true-story-cast-and-director-explain-how-closely-itvx-drama-follows-reality\/","title":{"rendered":"Litvinenko true story: Cast and director explain how closely ITVX drama follows reality"},"content":{"rendered":"

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By James Hibbs\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Thursday, 15 December 2022 at 12:00 am<\/p>

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New ITVX<\/a> drama Litvinenko<\/a> is now available to stream in full, and it tells the true story of the poisoning of a former Russian intelligence officer in 2006.<\/p>\n

The drama has been written by George Kay<\/a>, directed by Jim Field Smith and stars David Tennant, Margarita Levieva, Mark Bonnar and Neil Maskell.<\/p>\n

As the events dramatised occurred just 16 years ago, and are still very memorable for a lot of people, just how closely does the new series follow what really happened, and how much does it deviate from the truth for dramatic effect?<\/p>\n

Read on for everything you need to know about the true story behind Litvinenko, and how closely the drama sticks to reality.<\/p>\n

What is the true story behind Litvinenko?<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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David Tennant as Alexander Litvinenko and Margarita Levieva as his wife Marina in Litvinenko.<\/span><\/figcaption> ITV Studios for ITVX<\/i><\/span><\/div>\n

The story depicted in Litvinenko is firmly based in reality. On 1st November 2006, Alexander Litvinenko, a former Russian intelligence officer who had fled to the UK in 2000 and become a prominent critic of Vladimir Putin<\/a>, fell ill after being poisoned with polonium-210.<\/p>\n

While in hospital under the pseudonym Edwin Redwald Carter he was interviewed by DI Brent Hyatt and DS Chris Hoar, explaining his own belief that he was poisoned at the wish of Vladimir Putin himself. Litvinenko died on 23rd November.<\/p>\n

An intensive police investigation subsequently ensued, which included officers being sent to Moscow to interview the men believed to be responsible, Andrey Lugovoy and Dmitry Kovtun<\/a>.<\/p>\n

While there, one of the officers, Brian Tapey, claimed members of his team were poisoned \u201cwith something like gastroenteritis\u201d<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Kovtun died earlier this year<\/a> in Moscow while Lugovoy is currently still wanted<\/a> in the UK to stand trial.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, last year, the European Court of Human Rights ruled<\/a> that Russia was responsible for Litvinenko\u2019s murder.<\/p>\n

It said: \u201cNoting the [Russian] government\u2019s failure to displace the prima facie evidence of state involvement, the court cannot but conclude that Mr Litvinenko was poisoned by Mr Lugovoy and Mr Kovtun acting as agents of the respondent state.\u201d<\/p>\n

Russia has always denied any involvement in Litvinenko\u2019s death.<\/p>\n

Is Litvinenko based on a book?<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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Barry Sloane as DS Jim Dawson and Neil Maskell as DI Brent Hyatt in Litvinenko.<\/span><\/figcaption> ITV<\/i><\/span><\/div>\n

Litvinenko isn\u2019t specifically based on a book, but instead has been more heavily inspired by the 2017 documentary by Richard Kerbaj, called Hunting the KGB Killers<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The documentary was told from a police perspective, while also including interviews with Marina and Anatatoly Litvinenko, which inspired writer George Kay to do the same. Kerbaj is a co-producer on Litvinenko, so was also involved in the dramatisation.<\/p>\n

How closely does Litvinenko stick to real history?<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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Mark Ivanir as Alexander Goldfarb in Litvinenko.<\/span><\/figcaption> ITV studios for ITVX<\/i><\/span><\/div>\n

According to Litvinenko\u2019s director Jim Field Smith, the ITVX show sticks incredibly closely to the real history it\u2019s dramatising, as there was \u201cno need\u201d to add additional dramatic moments.<\/p>\n

Speaking exclusively with RadioTimes.com<\/a>, Smith explained: \u201cIt hues incredibly closely to the facts. In many places it\u2019s actually verbatim, particularly in terms of anything that relates to the testimony, either with the detectives that interviewed him or in the Royal Courts of Justice where the inquiry happens in episode 4 \u2013 a lot of that is verbatim.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd in fact, Sasha\u2019s [Alexander Litvinenko\u2019s nickname to loved ones<\/em>] words were read out verbatim as part of the trial, because he was this sort of witness of his own murder. And George made it a key part of episode 4, that Sasha is sort of temporarily brought back to life by the police detectives by evoking his words verbatim in the witness box in the inquiry.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo Sasha\u2019s ghost is sort of present throughout the inquiry and, as much as is physically possible given that the man sadly was assassinated, he does in a way still present at the inquiry. So it was really important for us to sort of stay close to that.<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course, the truth itself was the strangest thing and the need to veer from that or embellish that, firstly there was no need for it, and secondly we didn\u2019t want to, because the show was made with the full support of the family and many of the protagonists involved in the story.\u201d<\/p>\n

Smith added that it was \u201creally important\u201d to honour the work of the show\u2019s real-life protagonists, while adding that he personally was \u201cvery keen not to sensationalise any of it\u201d.<\/p>\n

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Margarita Levieva as Marina Litvinenko and James Esler as Anatoly Litvinenko.<\/span><\/figcaption> ITV Studios for ITVX<\/i><\/span><\/div>\n

He continued: \u201cI think it would be easy to lean really far into some of the details of it, of the sort of ripped from the headlines Cold War story. I was keen, as George had done with how he had approached the scripts, for it to be told with the perspective of ultimately the humans at the centre of the story.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ve got a mother and a wife who\u2019s lost her husband, a family that\u2019s been ripped apart. You\u2019ve got British cops who are, in this instance, real people, decent people, hardworking people, incredibly diligent people who conducted one of the most fastidious police investigations in modern history.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo it was really important for us to show that and not get carried away with the things that it might be easy to get carried away with.\u201d<\/p>\n

To achieve this level of accuracy, Smith also revealed that the team shot in many of the actual locations where parts of the real story took place, including in the \u201cItsu on Piccadilly\u201d, at \u201cGrosvenor Square, where the hotel was where Sasha was poisoned\u201d and \u201cat the Royal Courts of Justice\u201d.<\/p>\n

Smith explained: \u201cWe were very keen where we could to include as much of the real aspects of the story as possible. There\u2019s real contemporaneous news footage, for example, in the show. And so we often had to recreate the stuff around that footage in order for it to match. It a painstaking exercise in a lot of aspects.\u201d<\/p>

What have the cast of Litvinenko said about playing real-life figures?<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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Mark Bonnar as DS Clive Timmons and Neil Maskell as DI Brent Hyatt in Litvinenko.<\/span><\/figcaption> ITV Studios for ITVX<\/i><\/span><\/div>\n

Mark Bonnar and Neil Maskell, who play police officers DS Clive Timmons and DI Brent Hyatt respectively, both spoke exclusively with RadioTimes.com<\/strong> about meeting their real-life counterparts in preparation for starring in the drama.<\/span><\/p>\n

Bonnar said of his meeting with Timmons: \u201cYou\u2019ve got a kind of split focus when you\u2019re talking to somebody that you\u2019re going to be playing \u2013 because on the one hand, you\u2019re going to be playing them so half of your mind is watching them, watching what they do, any little thing that they give away that you might be able to nick, at a base level. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re playing them, so you want to kind of be true, and portray them truthfully. <\/span>I tried to get Clive\u2019s walk a little bit in \u2013 just things he said as well, and the way he said things was very interesting. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cBut also you\u2019ve got everything that he\u2019s saying and the substance of what he\u2019s telling \u2013 where he was born, where he grew up, what he did when he was a teenager, what happened to him\u2026 he\u2019s led an incredible life, Clive, apart from the investigation. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cSo you\u2019ve got a split focus, trying to take all these details in and store them somewhere, but also physically and vocally as well, trying to get a little handle on the man himself.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Maskell said of meeting Hyatt: \u201cWhat I found most interesting about Brent was he is one of the only people I think I\u2019ve ever spoken to who doesn\u2019t put himself at the centre of any of it.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re all the star of our movie, everyone thinks they\u2019re in the middle of the drama and they\u2019re the f**king lead. I\u2019m terrible for it, awfully guilty of that\u2026 and Brent isn\u2019t. When he tells the story, he\u2019s the side issue. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe crime is the story, the people who were involved \u2013 Sasha, Marina\u2026 when he talks about the way his work has impacted his relationship with his wife, his wife is the star of the movie and the way that it affects her, and it\u2019s this incredible quiet humanity and lack of self-regard. I didn\u2019t know that until I spoke to him and it made it even more appealing to play that part.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Read more:<\/strong><\/p>\n