The Salisbury Poisonings

[JaneJeffer]

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

I just finished the last ep and had a proper weep at the end

I don’t know, I thought they mentioned it at the time that it lasted 50 years. Or it might have been DH telling me. I was bloody terrified at the time.

It was very moving I thought.

Oh that was heartbreaking. So sad. Very, very well done.

And I saw on Twitter today that Pippin (the cat) is alive and well

I'm watching episode 1 on catch up. Did anyone think, when the policeman was touching everything - the light switch, the tap, the milk etc - that it was just like corona virus, where you do all these things unthinkingly and you're actually spreading a terrible disease?

Really good programme.

That was really well done. RIP Dawn.
The little girl playing her daughter was excellent.

Then Professor mentioned the 50 year potency is Ep1. 1 teaspoon can kill thousands was also mentioned around the same time.

I really enjoyed this programme. I must have been under a rock at the time of it happening as I didn't take much notice of it going on.

Had this been a work of fiction, I may have turned it over for seeming so far fetched but knowing it's true made it absolutely fascinating.

I didn't enjoy the first two episodes, but the final one was very good. I am glad they focused on the innocent victims, especially Dawn Sturgess who I thought was portrayed in the media unfairly two years ago, as if she was "just another druggie" and collateral damage. Everyone has a story to tell and hers should be talked about. My heart breaks for her, her daughter and loved ones. She had so much to live for and to get better and this has been stolen from her. I don't think her case should ever be dropped until justice is served. RIP Dawn.

My partner was one of the police officers who had to sit on the 24/7 cordon to stop people going into the buildings. Lots if overtime

getoffyourhighhorse she was er real. A normal H&S person dealing with something extraordinary. Not officially allowed to tell her family about it. More surprising that her husband couldn't take over school pickup duty under the circumstances

I agree with getoffyourhighhorse I did get fed up of the lead constantly breaking down in tears, no man would have been portrayed that way and I was also irritated at the way it was her responsibility to pick her son up etc, why could her husband not have stepped up considering his wife was leading an international incident?, in fact the son was old enough to realise that too, he wasn’t 5 years old he was at secondary school, things like this just reinforce the belief that women are emotional wrecks in the workplace and the family responsibility is all theirs and not the husbands despite the wife holding down a high level job.

I thought her son had special needs - didn't anyone else think that?

Yeah, I was gobsmacked she was still meant to be on school pick up duties. Presumably hubby's job was more important than leading the public health response on an international incident. Hmmm.

@JasperRising

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.

But she was being all cloak and dagger about everything, including the reason she was having to spend so much time at work. Surely telling her family that she was working on the Novichok crisis wouldn't have involved breaking any confidences?

Funny how easy it is to interpret the same scenes differently in TV programmes! I just assumed that obviously her family know she's working on the novichok poisoning and it's a big job because she's the director of public health but thinking about it I don't think she did actually ever tell them that. They must have known that much though.

In the final episode, I interpreted her sneaking out after she took the phone call as her not wanting to spoil their fun with her work. Perhaps being more of a martyr than needed in that instance but I can see why you might do it.

I was there in town on the day it happened. Whole programme has brought it back. Tracey, what an amazing woman. Had she not closed everything down who knows what might have happened.

My worry is, what if there's more? The perfume bottle was sealed so that wasn't the one they used on the door handle. So, where did they chuck the original?

We did go to town a few months after and went to feed the ducks right by there. Everything had been cleaned they said.

Severel hours later, say 14 hours, DS woke up projectile vomiting worst I'd ever seen. Then I passed him over to DH as I felt a raging fever suddenly and almost collapsed. Then DH had to put DS down as he also was collapsing. We both crawled to the bathroom vomited until there was no more, then was fine. Was the weirdest thing ever.

Have no idea what it was. Just very very odd.

Bloody hope they cleaned everything. 50 years is a long time.

I wonder what happened to the houses involved? Who would want to live in a house where there had been a nerve agent, the houses must be unsalable I would have thought.

I'm trying to work out what Dawn Sturgess's family want with an inquiry. It's hard to see what more could come out through one, if there was anything more that could have been done.

Feel desperately sorry for them though - I hope they find closure.

Regarding the perfume bottle being sealed, I'm not sure the police really bought into that. It's the kind of thing a man would say if he were embarrassed about skip-diving.

The flat Dawn Sturgess was taken ill in is currently boarded up and due to be demolished BBC News - Novichok poisoning: Charlie Rowley's flat to be demolished
BBC link.

What about the CID man’s house?

I wonder how the Russians managed to put it on the door handle without ingesting it.

I wonder if Dawn's family want to know how the perfume bottle was left for so long ( the bins were not emptied for months then ?)
or how they were not searched?
I've no idea , but there was a gap of a few months between the first attacks and what sadly happened to Dawn.
There are things we were not told I'm sure.