The DARKEST of times

Actors NARGES RASHIDI and JOSEPH FIENNES on going behind the headlines of an extraordinary true story

- WORDS: SEAN MARLAND. PHOTOS: BBC, GETTY

A tireless six-year fight for freedom and justice is at the heart of new BBC1 factual drama Prisoner 951.

The four-part series explores the true story of mum of one Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe (portrayed by Gangs of London’s Narges Rashidi), a British-Iranian dual citizen who was arrested by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard at Tehran Airport on 3 April 2016 as she and her then-22-month-old daughter, Gabriella, were preparing to fly back to London following a holiday to visit family.

As charity project manager Nazanin was sentenced to five years in prison on alleged charges of spying, which she has always denied, her ordeal made headlines across the world, while her British husband, Richard Ratcliffe (The Handmaid’s Tale star Joseph Fiennes), campaigned relentlessly to clear his wife’s name and bring her home.

Written by This City Is Ours creator Stephen Butchard, and directed by award-winning Philippa Lowthorpe (Three Girls, The Crown), the drama will look at how events played out in the media and behind closed doors before Nazanin was eventually released on 16 March 2022.

Here, Narges, 45, and Joseph, 55, tell us that they hope it will be a powerful watch...