Litvinenko true story: Cast and director explain how closely ITVX drama follows reality

The drama has been written by Lupin's George Kay, directed by Jim Field Smith and stars David Tennant, Margarita Levieva, Mark Bonnar and Neil Maskell.

Naturally, fans are wondering just how closely the TV series sticks to the true events that inspired it, which occurred 16 years ago, and how much it deviates from the truth for dramatic effect.

Read on for everything you need to know about the true story behind Litvinenko, and how closely the drama sticks to reality.

What is the true story behind Litvinenko?

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, fell ill after being poisoned with polonium-210.

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.

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.

While there, one of the officers, Brian Tapey, claimed members of his team were poisoned "with something like gastroenteritis".

Kovtun died earlier this year in Moscow while Lugovoy is currently still wanted in the UK to stand trial.

Meanwhile, last year, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that Russia was responsible for Litvinenko's murder.

It said: "Noting the [Russian] government’s 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."

Russia has always denied any involvement in Litvinenko's death.

How true is the Litvinenko TV series?

According to Litvinenko's director Jim Field Smith, the ITVX show sticks incredibly closely to the real history it's dramatising, as there was "no need" to add additional dramatic moments.

Speaking exclusively with RadioTimes.com, Smith explained: "It hues incredibly closely to the facts. In many places it’s 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 – a lot of that is verbatim.

"And in fact, Sasha's [Alexander Litvinenko's nickname to loved ones] 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.

"So Sasha’s 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.

"Of 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't want to, because the show was made with the full support of the family and many of the protagonists involved in the story."

Smith added that it was "really important" to honour the work of the show's real-life protagonists, while adding that he personally was "very keen not to sensationalise any of it".

He continued: "I 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.

"You've got a mother and a wife who's lost her husband, a family that's been ripped apart. You've 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.

"So 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."

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 "Itsu on Piccadilly", at "Grosvenor Square, where the hotel was where Sasha was poisoned" and "at the Royal Courts of Justice".

Smith explained: "We were very keen where we could to include as much of the real aspects of the story as possible. There's 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."

Is Litvinenko based on a book?

Litvinenko isn't specifically based on a book, but instead has been more heavily inspired by the 2017 documentary by Richard Kerbaj, called Hunting the KGB Killers.

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

What have the cast of Litvinenko said about playing real-life figures?

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

Bonnar said of his meeting with Timmons: "You've got a kind of split focus when you're talking to somebody that you're going to be playing – because on the one hand, you're 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.

"You're playing them, so you want to kind of be true, and portray them truthfully. I tried to get Clive's walk a little bit in – just things he said as well, and the way he said things was very interesting.

"But also you've got everything that he's saying and the substance of what he's telling – where he was born, where he grew up, what he did when he was a teenager, what happened to him... he's led an incredible life, Clive, apart from the investigation.

"So you've 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."

Meanwhile, Maskell said of meeting Hyatt: "What I found most interesting about Brent was he is one of the only people I think I've ever spoken to who doesn't put himself at the centre of any of it.

"We're all the star of our movie, everyone thinks they're in the middle of the drama and they're the f**king lead. I'm terrible for it, awfully guilty of that... and Brent isn't. When he tells the story, he's the side issue.

"The crime is the story, the people who were involved – Sasha, Marina... 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's this incredible quiet humanity and lack of self-regard. I didn't know that until I spoke to him and it made it even more appealing to play that part."

Read more:

• Litvinenko star says David Tennant is “remarkable” in ITVX drama
• Litvinenko director: Nailing David Tennant's Russian accent was "tricky"
• Litvinenko is a "feat of acting" from David Tennant, says Neil Maskell
• David Tennant explains how he transformed into Litvinenko for drama

Litvinenko aired on ITV1 on Monday 19th June 2023 and will continue across four consecutive nights. The series is also available to stream as a full boxset on ITVX. For more news, interviews and features, visit our Drama hub, or find something to watch now with our TV Guide and Streaming Guide.

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