Skip to content
Litvinenko, centered around the murder of Alexander Litvinenko (David Tennant – Doctor Who: Edge of Reality), is another drama which begins by stating that some names have been changed, with some scenes and characters being created for dramatisation, as also seen on another of ITVX’s recent new offerings, A Spy Among Us.
We first see our lead heading home, on the bus, seemingly fine, but after dinner on November 1st 2006, he starts coughing up blood and vomiting…
Once in hospital and visited by the cops, he tells DI Brent Hyatt (Neil Maskell – Intergalactic) the words which sound like they’ve been ripped straight out of 1988’s D.O.A. when Dennis Quaid does exactly the same thing: “I want to report a murder… mine”, albeit stumbling into a police station to deliver the short speech. And yes, I know that film is a remake, but I don’t know whether the original began the same way.
Either way, he states he knows roughly how many days it will take him to die. I was guessing this was because he’s seen it done before, but for more on that, you’ll need to watch it. However, the police don’t really believe him, and the hospital can’t work out whether or not he really has been poisoned.
At the time, Litvinenko was a former FSB officer, the Deputy Head of Section 7, with the job being to kill enemies of the Russian State, but he refused and wrote a book exposing this practice, and Putin didn’t like it up ‘im!
So far, I’ve only seen the first two episodes, which is what was available for review, but while the opener was pretty engaging, the second episode is quite slow going, as cops sit at computers, stand around chatting and so on, trying to crunch the numbers. Sadly, we know Putin has still yet to get his comeuppance for all manner of unspeakable war crimes, not least the invasion of Ukraine. I so hope he gets his sooner rather than later.
But about the drama, and since there’s just four episodes in total, I’ll catch the other two when this streams from November 15th, but based on what I’ve seen so far, I can’t see it ramping up a gear.
Also, the preview I saw had no subtitles, so it was difficult to get into the dialogue occasionally when it’s English spoken in cod-Russian accents, not least Mr Tennant’s rather lacking attempt, almost matching his Cockney in Doctor Who.
UPDATE: I did watch the final 2 episodes, but it was slow going.
Litvinenko streams on ITVX from December 15th. You can pre-order it on DVD, ahead of its release on December 26th.
Director: Jim Field Smith
Producer: Chris May
Writer: George Kay
Cast:
Alexander Litvinenko: David Tennant
Marina Litvinenko: Margarita Levieva
DS Clive Timmons: Mark Bonnar
DI Brent Hyatt: Neil Maskell
DS Jim Dawson: Barry Sloane
DAC Peter Clarke: Daniel Ryan
DCI Duncan Ball: Richard Pepper
Dr. Onome George: Estella Daniels
Awe: Richie Lawrie
Justine Adams: Sarah Naudi
Oscar Enrique: Greg Kolpakchi
Andrei Lugovoy: Radoslaw Kaim
Pat Troop: Maggie Evans
ICU Nurse: Kimberley Sterling
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.