The powerful new BBC drama Prisoner 951 brings to life the harrowing six-year ordeal of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, exposing what the programme suggests was Britain's inadequate response to her detention in Iran.
A Family Torn Apart
The four-part series, adapted by Stephen Butchard from the couple's forthcoming book A Yard of Sky, opens with Nazanin's bewildering arrival at an Iranian prison in 2016. Narges Rashidi delivers a revelatory performance as the British-Iranian citizen, capturing her confusion and fear as she declares: "My name is Nazanin. I do not know why I am here."
Meanwhile, back in London, her husband Richard Ratcliffe - portrayed with quiet anguish by Joseph Fiennes - prepares their home for her expected return, completely unaware that nearly six years would pass before they would be reunited.
Dual Nightmares: Tehran and London
The drama powerfully contrasts Nazanin's Kafkaesque experience within Iran's unaccountable theocracy with Richard's frustrating battles with a constantly changing British government. As ministers came and went in the post-Brexit chaos, the series suggests Britain appeared distracted and immobilised by the gravity of the situation.
Butchard's script excels in portraying the snatched, long-distance conversations between Nazanin, Richard and their young daughter Gabriella. The blankness of her captors and the casual harshness of her female guards create a chilling backdrop to the family's trauma.
Political Failures and a Historic Debt
The series builds simmering anger around the multimillion-pound arms debt Britain owed Iran since the 1970s, which many believe was the real reason for Nazanin's detention. Though the UK government never acknowledged this connection, the debt was coincidentally paid on the very day of her release in 2022.
Particularly damning is the portrayal of Boris Johnson's 2017 parliamentary statement that Nazanin was "simply teaching people journalism" - a careless remark that directly contradicted her account to Iranian authorities and potentially extended her imprisonment.
The drama also features a darkly comic scene with then Foreign Secretary Liz Truss, who gazes blankly at Richard Ratcliffe's desperate pleas "like a child being shown a confusing card trick."
Defiance in the Face of Powerlessness
While inevitably containing longueurs that reflect the glacial pace of diplomatic efforts, Prisoner 951 emerges as a defiant love story rather than a conventional thriller. It explores how hope can be maintained when the world seems oblivious to your plight.
The series arrives at a precarious political moment in the UK, serving as a powerful reminder of the human cost when international relations turn petty and cynical. Through excellent performances and thoughtful storytelling, it celebrates the resilience of an extended, multinational family determined not to let geopolitical forces destroy their world.
As one prison inmate incredulously remarks of Boris Johnson: "How can this man be important? He looks like he's fallen out of a bush." - a moment that encapsulates the programme's critique of Britain as a "deeply unserious country" during this period.
Prisoner 951 is now available on BBC iPlayer, offering a compelling and timely examination of one family's extraordinary courage in the face of unimaginable circumstances.
