The events behind the death of former KGB spy Alexander Litvinenko are set to come to screen, with a reported three-part adaptation from the team behind the award-winning ‘Wolf Hall’.
Litvinenko was murdered by the application of rare radioactive poison polonium in 2006, and the drama will follow the web of intrigue behind the death that lead to a straining of relations between the UK and Russia.
The Observer reports that the script is based on ‘A Very Expensive Poison’ by Luke Harding, who followed the investigation into the murder by Scotland Yard and the Secret Services.
While he was fading in hospital, Litvinenko maintained that the attack had been ordered by the Kremlin, a claim vindicated by a British public inquiry earlier this year, which concluded that Vladimir Putin and his top espionage chief had “probably approved” his murder.
However, Russians continue to deny their part in his death, and Company Pictures boss Judy Counihan remarks that the story is “like a real-life Bond film… this isn’t fiction, however, and that alone is chilling.”
When the inquiry made public its findings, Litvinenko’s widow Marina called for all Russian intelligence agents to be thrown out of the UK, and for further economic sanctions against Moscow.