(May Contain Spoilers)
I was recommended to watch this mini-series as it was based on the TRUE events about...you guessed it…the poisonings that happened in Sailsbury! I remember this being on the news and being quite big at the time, but I didn’t really understand what was going on, I just remember it involved Russian spies. I thought the series was a great British investigative drama and reflected the authenticity of the scenario, however there was a lack of dramatising the situation for TV and I personally think this could have been added. A sense of panic, but for me the series had little builds and then anti-climaxed into nothing.
The mini series follows Tracy Daszkiewicz (Anne Marie-Duff) - who has now been called upon to help with COVID 19 as she did a great job of bringing these poisonings under control - Tracy is the head of Health and Wellbeing at Public Health England. The series starts with two random people being sick on a bench and the police being called to this scene and at this point nothing was being treated as very suspicious until one police person figured out they were Russian Spies! The police go into the victims house, who are critically ill in hospital, and go through their belongings, this is when DS Nick Bailey (Rafe Spall) becomes infected by the contagion. It is figured out that it is Novichok, which is a substance that can stay on a surface for 50 years and if on contact with, will shut off your brain and organs, killing you.
Tracy is called in to help with the investigation and how to stop the spread and so they shut down most of Sailsbury. Once it looks like it has been cleared up and they found the source to be on the front door handle everything starts going back to normal. A month later Dawn Sturgess (MyAnna Buring) gets hold of a perfume from the public bins and sprays it on herself, this bottle was full of Novichok which resulted in her subsequent death. At the end of the series the people who the mini series is based on appear, which is a nice touch, however, I didn’t think most of the actors looked liked them! Tense, Panic and Investigative.
Watch the Mini-Series now on BBC iPlayer.
Comments