STAR RATING: ***** Brilliant **** Very Good *** Okay ** Poor * Awful
In 2006, Alexander Litvinenko (David Tennant), a former FSB agent who had relocated to London, was poisoned and taken to hospital. Detectives Brent Hyatt (Neil Maskell) and DS Clive Thomas (Mark Bonner) are sent to take his statement, and anything his wife, Marina (Margarita Levieva) has to say, only for Litvinenko to make the claim that his poisoning is the work of Vladimir Putin and the Kremlin. After his death, a seemingly straightforward murder investigation spirals into a saga of diplomatic relations and international espionage.
I can recall in late 2006 when the story of Alexander Litvinenko was in the papers, even if I didn't follow the story closely, but it definitely caught my eye, so I'm surprised I've dragged my heels so much getting round to this four part drama chronicling the events in the immediate aftermath of it happening. With the current sanctions placed by the UK on Russia in the aftermath of the on-going war in Ukraine, it highlights the amount of dirty money from Russia that's been keeping the economy afloat for so long, and just how much of a blind eye that's been turned to Putin's wrongdoing on British soil, and so there's an uncomfortable prescience to this if nothing else.
The story seems to have been recreated quite accurately and believably, without any corny sensationalism, sadly it plays out in a pretty robotic, workmanlike way that doesn't allow the human drama to blossom in quite the way it should. Performances wise, in the lead role, Tennant brings the titular character to life as well as could be hoped for, in a role with inevitably limited screen time, while there's sturdy support from Levieva as his emotionally overwhelmed but strong willed wife, along with Maskell and Bonner as the hard nosed detectives determined to get justice for the Litvinenkos. In the second act, as the murdered man's past becomes more clear, the tone uncomfortably shifts from straight laced drama to something a little more easy going, even if the dark core of the drama remains.
Overall, it's a perfectly serviceable drama, with all the cylinders firing in the right places, just somewhat perfunctory and without that extra energy required to really give it a kick. ***
