‘I need to report a murder… MINE’: Moment dying Putin critic Alexander Litvinenko told police he had been poisoned is recreated in new trailer for David Tennant ITVX drama that his real-life widow says keeps his ‘voice alive’
- ITVX’s Litvinenko trailer recreates moment he told police he’d been poisoned
- Alexander Litvinenko died in 2006 after ingesting rare radioactive substance
- The Putin’s critic’s widow Marina says his voice still ‘alive’ through dramatisation
The moment dying Vladimir Putin critic Alexander Litvinenko told police he had been poisioned is recreated in the trailer for a new ITVX drama that his real-life widow says keeps his ‘voice alive’.
Former Russian federal security services and KGB officer and outspoken critic of the Russian President, Litvinenko died in agony in November 2006 after ingesting a rare radioactive substance.
The first look into an upcoming ITVX miniseries on the poisoning shows David Tennant transformed into Russian defector Litvinenko, lying in a hospital bed before his death.
The trailer opens with Dr Who star Tennant, playing Litvinenko, telling police officers at the University College Hospital’s intensive care unit – ‘I need to report a murder.’ When they ask him ‘who’s murder,’ he responds ‘mine.’
Litvinenko’s story is being kept in the public eye by the new drama due to air next month, in which Russian-American actress Margarita Levieva will star as his wife.
His real-life widow Marina told the Metro her husband’s name is shown in the dramatisation, in articles and says ‘while Sasha is not physically alive his voice is still alive.’
A trailer for the new ITVX mini-series drama Litvinenko which will air next month
‘I am grateful for what has happened to British society since 2006,’ Ms Litvinenko said.
‘Sasha’s name is still in the memory, it is shown in the dramatisation and in articles.
‘Even with what has happened in Ukraine, people have remembered what Sasha tried to say about Putin and his politics.
‘While Sasha is not physically alive his voice is still alive. Sasha asked me not to be silent, he did not want me to be his voice, and while I was unsure at first, now I know how important it is.’
Marina fought tirelessly to persuade the British Government to publicly name her husband’s killers and acknowledge the role of the Russian State in his murder [pictured in 2018]
The ITVX drama recreates the Litvinenko family – here they feature all together
Alexander Litvinenko is pictured at the Intensive Care Unit of University College Hospital on November 20, 2006
David Tennant as Alexander Litvinenko lying in a hospital bed in University College London
The Litvinenko actor dramatically tells police in the trailer ‘I want to report a murder – mine’
Margarita Levieva as Marina Litvinenko and Stephen Cambell Moore as barrister Ben Emmerson
Mark Bonnar as former New Scotland Yard officer DS Clive Timmons who ITV said helped the production
Ian Cunningham as Dr Nick Gent – the drama is due to air on ITV’s streaming service on 15 December
Ms Litvinenko told the Metro that her husband, who she knows as Sasha, was trying to save the world.
‘In an article he wrote in 2006, just 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’.’
She made the comments as she gathered with loved ones at her husband’s grave in Highgate, north London, to mark 16 years since his death last Wednesday.
Ms Litvinenko, who earlier this year donated blood to injured soldiers in Ukraine, also spoke of the bravery of Ukrainians as they ‘save their nation’.
Litvinenko lying in a hospital bed in his dying days with his wife by his side, in an image from the trailer
Litvinenko will be played by Doctor Who star Tennant, who also stars in TV series Inside Man
Margarita Levieva as Marina Litvinenko and Temirlan Blaev as young Anatoly Litvinenko
Litvinenko’s story is being kept in the public eye by the new drama due to air next month
Mark Ivanir as Alexander Goldfarb, a close friend of Alexander Litvinenko
Barry Sloane as DS Jim Dawson and Neil Maskell as DI Brent Hyatt, who also helped the production
Ms Litvinenko (pictured here is the actress) said her husband, who she knows as Sasha, was trying to save the world
The drama also focuses on the story of Marina, played by Margarita Levieva, Alexander’s fearless, dignified widow [the couple pictured on their wedding day in Moscow, 1994]
The new drama on ITVX, ITV’s streaming service, will explore the story of the Metropolitan Police officers who investigated the case of Litvinenko, who was found in declining health at University College Hospital in London.
ITV said former New Scotland Yard officers Clive Timmons and Brent Hyatt, along with Marina Litvinenko’s lawyer Ben Emmerson QC and the former spy’s family, have helped the production.
Mark Bonnar, of Catastrophe and Quiz fame, will portray Timmons, while Utopia’s Neil Maskell takes on the role of Hyatt.
A UK public inquiry concluded in 2016 that Russians Dmitri Kovtun and Andrei Lugovoi, had deliberately poisoned Litvinenko by putting Polonium-210 into his drink at the Millennium Hotel in Mayfair.
Headed by the former High Court judge Sir Robert Owen, the inquiry found the tea poisoning had ‘probably’ been carried out with the approval of the Russian president.
The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) also ruled last year, following a case brought by the Litvinenko’s widow, that Russia was responsible for his killing.
Russia has always denied any involvement in the death and had refused to comply with international arrest warrants issued for Kovtun and Lugovoi.
Litvinenko will stream exclusively on ITVX this December.
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