Gangs Of London actress Narges Rashidi and Shakespeare In Love’s Joseph Fiennes will star a new series that follows the imprisonment of Iranian-British citizen Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe.
The four-part BBC factual drama, Prisoner 951, will tell the story of Mrs Ratcliffe – who was detained and held hostage by the Iranian state for nearly six years.
It will also follow the struggle of her husband Richard Ratcliffe, who went on hunger strike twice while campaigning for his wife’s return.
Rashidi, 45 – best known for playing Lale in the drama series Gangs Of London, as well as for starring in Under The Shadow and The Allegation – will portray Mrs Ratcliffe, while Fiennes, 55 – known for portraying Commander Fred Waterford, a high-ranking government official in The Handmaid’s Tale alongside Elisabeth Moss – will play her husband.
The series will recount the period when Nazanin was arrested on April 3 2016 by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard at Imam Khomeini airport in Tehran after a holiday visit, where she had taken her daughter Gabriella to see her parents, to her release and return to the UK six years later.
First look images shows Rashidi as Mrs Ratcliffe at the airport, moments before her arrest, with another photograph capturing Fiennes as Mr Ratcliffe during one of his hunger strikes.
Prisoner 951 is based on the memoir A Yard of Sky: A Story Of Love, Resistance And Hope, which was written by the couple as a story of their struggle to get political action and Mrs Ratcliffe home.
The series was adapted by Stephen Butchard and directed by Bafta award-winner Philippa Lowthorpe.
Prisoner 951 will launch on BBC iPlayer and BBC One later this year.
