The Salisbury Poisonings

[JaneJeffer]

Why hasn't the police officer twigged he's been poisoned yet?

Watched them all back to back last night. Excellent dramatised real life. I work on multiagency incident response and they really got the atmosphere/working relationship between the uniformed Sevices and the civvy experts down well.

I'm really enjoying this as a dramatisation. I like Anne-Marie Duff in most things though. Looking forward to tonight!

I've only read about half the thread as I caught a spoiler and haven't watched the last one yet. I watched the first 2 last night and would have stayed up for the third if I'd realised it was on I-player! I remember the incident, but I had no idea it was as serious and scary as this! I don't know if the media played it down or I just didn't pay attention. I also thought Porten Down was in Wales (confused with Portmerion maybe!!)

I just read this in my local paper (I live in Salisbury and have done for almost 50 years) as Nick Baileys wife has come in for a lot of flack. Or, I say his wife, it's actually how a writer has written and an actress has portrayed his wife, as it is a drama and not a 100% factual docudrama about the events.

www.salisburyjournal.co.uk/news/18519915.ds-nick-bailey-tweets-reaction-salisbury-poisonings/

The Novichok poisoning was a scary time. Salisbury has a really eerie feeling about it as we didn't know where the poison had come from so didn't know where it had been spread. When it was starting to calm down, we had a Hilarious couple trying to boost their insta presence I believe, when he pretended to be ill with it in one of our restaurants.
I haven't watched the programme yet, but I think I will do as its has had some praise. I just thought it was a bit too early for it have been made.

Really enjoyed it. Looking forward to the next episode.

I met Anne Marie Duff two years ago at the Olivier Awards... Just after she did Desert Island Discs... I held the door open as she came in and told her how much I'd enjoyed listening...She replied "Thanks love!".

longtompot I suppose a dramatisation of real events will always have unintended consequences for those being portrayed.

I wonder how much the people portrayed in this were consulted?

At the beginning it said it was the story of the people involved in their words. I won’t spoil the end, but yes it’s their story.

We don’t live too far from Salisbury. DH job is in some way related to this sort of thing. We watched the news constantly when it was unfolding. It was so surreal. It could have been so so much worse.

His wife - Annabel Scholey - is the middle sister from The Split, isn't she? It was really bugging me to think what I'd seen her in before till halfway through the second episode!

I was convinced the cat was going to be dead! The cat did end up dead though. When it was mentioned in news reports at the time they were very cagey about what happened to it. I take it this hasn't shed any light on that (haven't yet watched it - was a bit worried it might go into detail about the cat and it would upset me).

@ageingdisgracefully this article which I mentioned earlier www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/writersroom/entries/e23ee45a-a9c7-4962-b424-24155a3199ff talks about how they wrote the programme and input from the people involved.

It does start with a summary of how the events play out so don't read if you think it might spoil remaining episodes for you!

It is an interesting read.

@longtompot i saw the journ's post too, poor people don't need shit from Joe public! We as a city came together didn't we 💜

Interesting drama...comes under the truth is stranger than fiction category! I like the women's characters in this (mainly Ann Marie Duff's and Nick Bailey's wife) as it shows the strength they had to draw on at this difficult time. I thought they both handled things amazingly well.

Apparently the drama was meant to be broadcast on BBC2 until coronavirus happened. You can see why.

Did anyone else find it shocking in the 2nd episode that the leak was categorised as 'low risk' to public health? I'm not sure if that is assessed based on risk to the country as a whole or not. To me, there seemed to be a pretty high risk if you lived or worked in Salisbury.

@curlyrebel I had no idea about the 50 years bit until this, i don't remember us being told

I didn't know where Sailsbury is
I don't live in the UK. I intended to look it up.
This morning, clearing out a room I came across a wall map of Europe.
Lo and behold, the only 2 cities marked on it in England were London and Salisbury !!!!!
No Liverpool, Manchester, York or Newcastle.

A simply extraordinary coincidence.

The fifty year thing was scary. I had no idea.
Who makes this stuff? It doesn't bear thinking about.

I m shocked that the policeman's wife and children didn't become poorly too.
They were so lucky there !

I didn't really understand the stuff about Tracy Whatsit not being able to tell her family anything about what she was doing. They must have seen the news, they knew what her job was, they must surely have been had at least some idea?

Enjoying this. Anne Marie Duff is such a strong lead actor.

Maybe the govt wanted it kept quiet at first?
Not to scare people? No idea really.

'didn't really understand the stuff about Tracy Whatsit not being able to tell her family anything about what she was doing. They must have seen the news, they knew what her job was, '

Yes it did seem odd. I find Duff irritating in this, just a bit wet and bumbling.

I assume they knew she was working on the health scare in Salisbury. But all the stuff about 50years survival of poison, difficulty of testing, extent of spread through Salisbury, fears over the water courses, the exact details of the medical effect, who else was attending briefings. I am assuming some of that was classified and not something she could discuss. So she knows her decisions could be part of determining whether lots of people live or die but can't talk about that with her husband.

She does spend a lot of time in that area where no internet connected devices are allowed and having briefings where the folders and papers have to be left behind (presumably to be securely destroyed)

I’ve really enjoyed this so far. Great cast and it’s been interesting angle that the public health director has been the main character as usually it would be from the police or intelligence service.

Loved it and cried absolute buckets at Dawn's funeral and at the end when they showed real footage of her and her daughter dancing