Was there ever an act of alleged state sponsored murder as outrageous as 'The Salisbury Poisonings'?
The unleashing of the nerve agent Novichok on the former Russian General turned double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in March 2018 in the English cathedral city of Salisbury shocked many people around the world.
Claiming the life of a civilian with no connection whatsoever to the Skripals, Dawn Sturgess, it was a reckless attack that could have killed so many more people.
And it also forced parts of the city to go into lockdown.
Russia was accused by the then British Prime Minister Theresa May and most of the international community of directing the chemical attack.
While he denounced Sergei Skripal as a scumbag and a traitor, Russian President Vladimir Putin angrily denied Kremlin involvement.
BBC1's three-part drama, 'The Salisbury Poisonings' looks at the human cost of the attack, focusing on the people of Salisbury who became unwittingly involved in what was a major international incident,
Penned by Northern Ireland journalists Declan Lawn and Adam Patterson, the miniseries begins with the Skripals convulsing on a park bench after being exposed to the nerve agent.
Passers-by watch in disbelief and then concern as the father and daughter vomit and slump on the bench, with a police officer summoned and then an ambulance.
Not long afterwards, Rafe Spall's Detective Sergeant Nick Bailey turns up on the scene and is told by a fellow officer that something feels "a bit off" about the incident.
Earlier suspicions that It was a drug overdose don't seem to square up - given the two people involved.
On discovering back in his police station that Sergei Skripal was part of a spy swap, Bailey heads to the victims' house and conducts a search while wearing PPE.
However he soon starts to feel ill afterwards - sweating profusely, with tiny pupils in his eyes.
Bailey goes to hospital and is told initially by a doctor that it is probably just a virus and he should rest.
Not long afterwards, however, he collapses in his family home and is rushed to hospital with his wife, Annabel Scholey's Sarah by his side.
Meanwhile Ann Marie Duff's director of public health for the local council, Tracy Daszkiewicz is drafted in to advise the police.
Shocked to learn that a nerve agent has been used, she orders the removal of the park bench and a massive tracing exercise of anyone who may have come into contact with the Skripals.
Much to the concern of local traders, parts of the town centre are also shut down and the neighbourhood where the targets lived is swamped initially with media and then soldiers and police as the house is examined.
As suspicions of Russia's involvement grow, Daszkiewicz has to address briefing rooms packed with officials and also battle Whitehall mandarins who question the optics of shutting down parts of the city.
Luckily, she has the support of Nigel Lindsay's Deputy Chief Constable Paul Mills, Darren Boyd's Superintendent Dave Minty and Jonathan Slinger's Professor Tim Atkins.
Mark Addy's Ross Cassidy and his wife Mo, played by Clare Burt, also find themselves in the media spotlight as close friends and neighbours of the Skripals.
Ross is interviewed by intelligence officers and voices concerns expressed to him by Sergei that he was tailed by his enemies on a recent trip back from the airport.
Meanwhile MyAnna Buring's Dawn Sturgess is trying to get her life back on track, living in sheltered accommodation and trying to reconnect with her family - her mum, Stella Gonet's Caroline, her sister Melanie Gutteridge's Claire and get father, Ron Cook's Stan whose relationship with her is the most strained.
Battling an addiction to alcohol, she is in a relationship with Johnny Harris' Charlie Rowley who likes to scavenge with her around skips and bins for anything that might be of value - a pastime that will have devastating consequences for them both.
Lawn and Patterson bring journalistic rigour to the story, with the help of the experienced TV and film director Saul Bibb.
However a drama like 'The Salisbury Poisonings' requires more than attention to detail.
It needs heart. It needs characters that audiences can believe in.
Fortunately Lawn and Patterson are more than up to the task.
Wisely, they focus not on the shady and callous world of espionage but on the physical and emotional toll exacted on ordinary people who become embroiled in the attack on the Skripals.
Bailey's physical and mental deterioration is impressively conveyed.
His descent into delirium in his hospital is horrific to witness but even when he comes through the other side, we aee he is racked with understandable fear, panic and guilt.
Dawn Sturgess and Charlie Rowley's descent into illness after they are exposed to Novichok three months later in Anesbury is swifter and even more terrifying.
On learning that Dawn and Charlie have been poisoned by the same nerve agent as in the initial incident in Salisbury, the Sturgess family are shellshocked.
Stan is also racked with guilt about his initial reaction to the news about his estranged daughter.
There's a heart crushing scene at the funeral, as a grief stricken Charlie is included in the family circle by Stan and also Dawn's daughter.
Dawn's death affects Tracy Daszkiewicz who has fought hard to protect the public.
She also has to wrestle with the guilt of having to put a public health emergency ahead of her own family life.
The Cassidys also suffer.
Having developed a strong friendship with Sergei and Yulia, who Mo says was like a daughter to her, they are desperate to see them in hospital.
Lawn and Patterson's journalistic eye and attention to detail also gives certain scenes a real sense of authenticity.
This is especially the case where Daszkiewicz is bustled into packed briefings with police and puic health chiefs, meetings with angry and fearful residents in the Skripals' cul de sac or town halls with furious traders.
But not even they nor Saul Bibb could have imagined when 'The Salisbury Poisonings' went into production that it would have been screened during a pandemic.
That collective experience gives the drama an even greater resonance than it may have had in normal pre Covid-19 circumstances.
After months of lockdown across the world, audiences will inevitably see parallels with the Coronavirus outbreak from the potential of transmission from ordinary objects and severe effects on people who become contaminated to the use of PPE, the tracing of those potentially infected and the dramatic shutdown of Salisbury.
Working from an assured and well researched script, the cast deliver believable performances.
Duff is excellent as Daszkiewicz, recalling Emily Watson's performance as tge nuclear physicist who was also on top of her game in Craig Mazin's 'Chernobyl'.
Spall is also effective as Nick Bailey, particularly as he comes to terms with the physical and emotional toll exacted on him as a family man and as a cop.
Cook, Gonet, Addy, Burt, Scholey, Boyd and Lindsay also deliver strong, committed performances.
However the most heartbreaking turns come from Harris and Buring as two vulnerable people who accidentally stray into danger.
Lawn and Patterson's compassion for these characters - particularly Dawn Sturgess whose memory the series is dedicated to - shines through,
In a 'Schindler's List' style ending, we get to see the real people who are portrayed onscreen and also video footage of the real Dawn dancing with her child.
The writers make their point forcibly and they make it well.
Dawn Sturgess was not collateral damage in sone vendetta rooted in Russia.
She was a mother, a daughter and a partner who deserved the chance to get her life on track.
The fact that she didn't isn't a shame.
It's an outrage and it should disturb us all.
('The Salisbury Poisonings' aired on BBC1 from June 14-16, 2020)
Comments
Post a Comment