Skripal poisonings given new location

BBC FILMED 50 MILES AWAY

peter.dyke@dailystar.co.uk

BBC chiefs filmed key scenes for The Salisbury Poisonings away from the cathedral city to avoid scaring the locals.

They feared if residents saw Army and police dressed in hazmat suits, they would think the 2018 Novichok nightmare had returned. So they shot footage 50 miles away in Malmesbury, Wilts, last year to avoid any upset.

Director Saul Dibb said: “There was nothing like that on the streets of Salisbury. And when we did film there we were in and out. Most didn’t realise we were there.”

The Salisbury Poisonings will retell the story of how ex-russian military officer and double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were targeted with a Novichok nerve agent. The city was forced into as a result and woman died after contaminated.

Writers Declan Lawn and Adam Patterson have based their series on how Wiltshire’s director of public health Tracy Daszkiewicz (played by Annemarie Duff, far right) coped with the deadly threat.

They did not want to make it “a spy drama” or “a whodunit” and so key poisoning suspects Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov barely get a mention.

Declan said: “In episode three all the characters see their interview on Russian TV.

“They appear only in the way we experienced them, on TV. They are not the focus.”

Mark Addy, left, plays Ross Cassidy, the next-door neighbour of Sergei.

● The drama Sunday at 9pm. lockdown one local becoming starts on

edward.gleave@dailystar.co.uk