It’s a busy time to be David Tennant. Not only is he returning to Doctor Who for three upcoming specials, leading Steven Moffat drama Inside Man, popping up in The Sandman’s animated ‘A Dream Of A Thousand Cats’ episode and this year’s Chip ’N Dale: Rescue Rangers movie (as Scrooge McDuck no less), but he’s also leading a major new ITV miniseries. Simply titled Litvinenko, it’s a four-part drama about former KGB officer Alexander Litvnenko and his poisoning by the Russian state, with Tennant in the leading role – and the first image (recreating the famous shot of Litvinenko in hospital that was widely circulated on the news) has been released ahead of its arrival later this year on ITV’s upcoming new streaming platform ITVX.
The four-part series comes from Lupin showrunner George Kay, delving into the interviews Litvinenko gave to two police officers in 2006, his claim that his poisoning was directly ordered by Putin, the hunt for the two men that had targeted hm with Polonium-210, and Marina Litvinenko’s fight to be able to name the killers. The series also stars Mark Bonnar, Neil Maskell, and Margarita Levieva, with Jim Field Smith directing.
The show will arrive in December – and will be one of the first series to launch on ITVX, set to replace ITV Hub before the end of the year. The service will have an ad-enabled free tier, as well as being available on an ad-free paid subscription – and will offer live-streaming of events and sports at the same time as they air on ITV.