David Tennant is the witness to his own murder in ‘Litvinenko’

Tennant plays a former KGB operative, dying in a London hospital, who claims to have been poisoned by Russian operatives in London. Based on the shocking true story of Alexander Litvinenko, the drama showcases his courage in the face of his failing health and the efforts of detectives to track down those responsible for poisoning him with a radioactive substance.

A man sits on a train with headphones in ear

DAVID TENNANT as Alexander Litvinenko.

“This is an international story that should send a shudder down everyone’s spine,” says executive producer Patrick Spence, of the real-life events depicted in four-part series Litvinenko.

The series is a dramatisation of the

death

of Alexander Litvinenko, a former KGB officer and Russian dissident living in England, who was poisoned with polonium-120, a toxic radioactive substance. From his hospital bed Litvinenko, played in the series by David Tennant (Broadchurch, Doctor Who, Good Omens), fought to give police as much information as he could, in the hope that they could find his killers.

A pale, unwell bald man lies in a hospital bed, with sensors attached to his chest.

David Tennant as Alexander Litvinenko. Credit: ITVX / ITV STUDIOS

“Like everyone, I remember seeing that image of Alexander ‘Sasha’ Litvinenko in the hospital bed,” Tennant says. “It all felt so implausible at first, like something from a James Bond film. It didn’t feel like something that happened in the real world. And that alarming, striking image of him was so powerful.

“So I suppose I knew the bare bones of it but really when I went into it there is so much about the story that is extraordinary. The fact he survived as long as he did, which is the only way we managed to find out what it was that eventually killed him. It’s quite implausible that it worked out like it did.

“He should have, as was intended, just slipped away as an unexplained death and we would not be any the wiser. But that in itself then creates bigger questions. You think, ‘How many times has this happened and it’s remained undiscovered?’ It was only his physical tenacity in hanging on as long as he did – and a few quirks of fate that allowed the right people to see the right test results – that allowed us to uncover the full horrors of what this meant.”

Initially, no-one believed Litvinenko’s claims. “Although he was certain he had been poisoned, it seemed so unlikely that he had to convince people he knew what he was talking about. Then they had to start this investigation and all the time there is this ticking clock of a body that is closing down. He is the only witness to his own murder,” Tennant says.

Written by George Kay (creator and showrunner of Lupin), the four-part drama follows the police investigation into the poisoning, and the efforts of Litvinenko’s wife Marina (played by Margarita Levieva) to persuade the British government to name those responsible for her husband’s death.

A woman with short blonde hair, wearing a blue coat, stands beside a railing, head bowed, with a several tall city buildings behind her.

Margarita Levieva as Marina. Credit: ITV Studios

The series was made with the support of Litvinenko’s family, and several of those who took part in the investigation, including former Scotland Yard officers Clive Timmons and Brent Hyatt (played in the drama by Mark Bonnar and Neil Maskell).

It is far from the usual murder mystery – not only Litvinenko’s claims that the Russian state was responsible, and the political implications of that, but the fact that the policeman themselves could be in danger of poisoning.

"If you’re talking pure genre, this is a police investigation story. It’s a murder investigation. But what the murder detectives are dealing with is a man who, at the outset, is still alive. Who walks into a hospital knowing he has been murdered. And then you get the incredible courage of Litvinenko when he dedicates the last hours of his life to giving the police everything he can, in the belief they will pursue it,” says Spence. “And then they are dealing with the most dangerous substance known to man – Polonium. They are having to track it themselves through London at, as they were told quite correctly, huge personal risk. Along with the potential risk to tens of thousands of people.”

A man in a suit sits in a dark office, with the light of a desk lamp reflecting on his face.

Mark Bonnar as DS Clive Timmons. Credit: ITV STUDIOS FOR ITVX

Tennant, too, reflects on Litvinenko’s courage.

“He was clearly a man who had to speak his truth about corruption in Russia and in doing that he was aware he was putting himself in the firing line. And yet he didn’t hesitate and he did it again and again. ... He was appalled and terrified about what was happening to this country he loved. He couldn’t look away and that was why he was ultimately assassinated.

“But it speaks to his extraordinary moral compass. You wonder how you would behave in circumstances like that? Would you have that courage? Would you be that brave? I don’t know that I would. He showed a remarkable clarity of purpose in terms of what he believed was right and what he believed was wrong. Ultimately, it’s why he was killed. But he died with his integrity intact.”

A pale, ill-looking man lies in a hospital bed. A woman sits in a chair by the bed, looking down at her hands.

David Tennant as Alexander Litvinenko and Margarita Levieva as his wife, Marina. Credit: ITV Studios

Tennant is transformed for the scenes filmed in hospital, appearing amazingly like media images of Litvinenko himself. These scenes carried extra weight, he says.

"The veracity of that is very important. That image of him. When people hear his name, that’s the image that comes into most of our minds. Of that wasting body in a hospital bed. We had to get that right...

"It felt incredibly bleak lying there. The act of getting into the bed and getting all of the wires attached, the heart monitor, the hospital gown arranged in the correct way…it was quite a palaver. So at the beginning of a scene I’d get into the bed and I’d just stay there. That was partly the practicalities of it but it also became a choice.

You feel a responsibility to the gravity of the moment you are recreating

"It’s hard when you’re playing a real person. You feel a responsibility to the gravity of the moment you are recreating. Because there’s an element of acting that’s always a little bit silly. It’s make believe, it’s pretend.

“It’s quite a hard to explain and you can sound terribly pretentious but I felt a responsibility not to be larking around. While you are representing that memory, I felt I had to just go to a quiet place. So I would get in the bed and I would just stay there. I would try and find the stillness. It also helped me to concentrate and to find the right headspace. Again, having met Marina, she was very generous and shared a lot of photographs of the family together. You just felt the import of all of those things in that moment and you wanted to be respectful of it as much as anything.”

“Marina is a remarkable human. The person this had made her. … [she] has so fearlessly devoted her life to making sure his death does not go for nothing,” Tennant says.

Tennant says the series is something he’s proud to have done. “There was an enthusiasm from everyone involved in the production at every level that they were telling an important story …We are, hopefully, honouring the memory of Sasha and the life’s work of Marina. That’s what we set out to do.”

This article is based on material supplied by ITV Studios.

See Litvinenko Wednesday nights 9.30pm on SBS from 27 March to 17 April. Episodes will also be available each Wednesday at SBS On Demand.