‘We must not forget Dawn and what happened in Salisbury’

MYANNA Buring has said that meeting the family of poisoning victim Dawn Sturgess while she was portraying her in a television drama was “incredibly moving”.

The actress, who stars in The Salisbury Poisonings, said that Ms Sturgess “came from an incredibly warm, beautiful, loving family”.

Buring said she met Ms Sturgess’s parents, sister and daughter during filming of the BBC One series.

She added that she would have “totally understood” if the family had wanted to not meet her, adding that it was “such early days” after her death. But Buring added that “as a nation it is not too early to bring the story back”.

Ms Sturgess died in 2018 in the aftermath of an attack on Sergei and Yulia Skripal after coming into contact with a perfume bottle believed to have been used in the poisoning by Russian spies.

Buring, 40, added that the UK “should not forget what happened”, adding that people should seek to understand why the event took place so that similar incidents can be avoided in the future.

The actress also said that Ms Sturgess had not been accurately portrayed in the media following the incident. She said that the victim of the attack was “a real human being who had real issues that a lot of people in this country face”.

“She was struggling with demons. She was a real human being and we lost her,” she said.

Buring added that it was “incredibly emotional” to consider what Ms Sturgess was going through at the time of the attack, adding that she was “down on her luck”.

“I mean, goodness, we all know someone like that, if that is not ourselves at some points in our lives,” she said.

The actress said it would have been “insensitive” to try to do an impersonation of Ms Sturgess and said she instead tried to “just portray a three-dimensional human being and not worry about being exactly Dawn”.

The Salisbury Poisonings will air on June 14, 15, and 16 on BBC One at 9pm and all episodes will also be available as a boxset on BBC iPlayer after the first episode has aired.

Matt Cardy Members of the military pictured working in the Maltings shopping area in April 2018, close to the bench where Russian former double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were found critically ill in Salisbury. Dawn Sturgess died in the aftermath of the attack on the Skripals after coming into contact with a perfume bottle believed to have been used in the poisoning by Russian spies

BBC MyAnna Buring as Dawn Sturgess in the new drama

Victim Dawn Sturgess