[respirators hissing]
[dramatic music]
[dramatic music continues]
- Acute radiation syndrome.
That's the term the coroner will use on his report.
Just after the bit where he calls this
the most dangerous post-mortem
ever undertaken in the western world.
You'll need a lead coffin is the other thing.
For the radiation.
- So polonium poisoning?
- Essentially.
Pharyngeal damage,
confirming the fact it was ingested orally.
Liver and kidneys were worse affected,
but all his organs suffered severe atrophy
resulting in an almost total state of internal, you know...
- No.
- Well,
sludge.
- Right.
Thank you.
So what did they do it with?
[dramatic music]
- Sorry?
- What did they use to administer it?
Or was it a bottle?
Some sort of food stuff or...
Probably none of our business.
Sorry.
- No, no, it's okay.
It's more than okay.
Thank you.
[Geiger counter clicking]
[speaking foreign language]
- A guilty man would never do that.
- No.
- Not unless he's got a sick mind.
- Exactly.
- So, like I said, we're gonna change the locks
and the landline number.
Not because anything to worry about,
it's more just for peace of mind.
- Thank you, thank you, thank you very much.
- And the name of the landlord?
- Boris Berezovsky, he's a friend of the family.
- They can't get to you here. Mrs. Litvinenko.
- He's right.
The people who did it are thousands of miles away.
[horns honking]
- Olly, how long 'til we get to the hotel?
[speaking foreign language]
[phone beeping]
- Nearly there.
- Oh, hang on, wrong phone.
Right our contact is Ingrid Campbell.
She wants to meet at noon tomorrow.
- Funny place to keep your mobile.
- No, we've all got one.
It's everything on these.
Find two numbers saved in the contacts.
One's mine, the other's each other's.
That's all we'll ever need.
Yeah, Campbell's gonna introduce us
to someone from the prosecutor's office.
- And they'll connect us with Lugovoy and Kovtun?
- Maybe.
- Or at least someone who will.
- Maybe, not necessarily.
- Right.
- Well we do know where they are.
Well, how we gonna know they'll talk?
- We don't.
- You said the Russians had agreed to cooperate.
- They have.
Whatever that means.
Look, we are here in their country
asking for their help to prove
that their people killed someone on our patch.
And we've got no guarantees of getting anything.
We're here purely and simply because there's a chance.
Okay?
[dramatic music]
- [Jim] Olly was saying they've got all kinds here.
They've got Top Shop, Body Shop, they've got M&S.
He's been here before.
- [Tarpey] It's globalization.
- Yeah but those are all the things that we've given them.
I mean, you tell me one thing
the Russians have put on our high street.
- What, apart from polonium you mean?
You know, state sponsored assassination
coming soon to a high street near you.
That's proper globalization.
[speaking foreign language]
Hmm.
[phone line crackling]
[phone ringing]
Hello?
- [Jim] My burner's not working.
Nor's Gadney's.
- Nor's mine.
- [Jim] You think it's them?
- Oh, it's probably us.
Us and our shitty phones.
- [Jim] I didn't like the look
of that bloke who checked this in.
- Well, the Russian prosecutor knows we're here
but that's it.
Anyone else, this whole trip's totally under the radar.
You get some kip.
- Moscow, MI6, radiation.
Strip it all away and what we've got
is something that everyone in this room
has worked on dozens of times before,
a murder.
We've got victim, crime scene, we've even got suspects.
But what we don't have is a weapon.
That's what's missing.
You know we've got Colonel Mustard, the ballroom,
but using what, we don't know.
- Yeah, we do though, don't we?
It's polonium-210.
- No, no, no.
You see, hat's what I've been thinking.
But polonium's not the weapon.
Polonium is just the thing that killed him
after they put it in his tea.
- But we can link polonium to Lugovoy and Kovtun
because of the plane.
- Yeah, but is that enough?
That plane has been in and out of Russia,
the home of polonium, since this happened.
What's to stop the Russians attributing
polonium we found on the plane
to any other person on that plane
who's come into contact with it?
Look, we all agree that polonium was in the tea.
What we need to do is find the item or items
that the polonium was held in
and we need to link that to these two,
Dmitry Kovtun and, most importantly, Andrey Lugovoy.
That way, anything they tell Tarpey and the team in Moscow
can be directly contradicted.
Think of it this way,
if polonium-210 is the bullet,
what we need to find is the gun.
- I want to lead on the weapon search.
Or whatever we're calling it.
You had Tarpey lead on Moscow,
despite him not knowing the case.
I can see how you arrived at that decision,
you two go way back and he's trusted and what have you
but I made a personal promise to Marina Litvinenko and-
- Great.
I was gonna ask you anyway,
Martin Svensson.
- [Brent] Who?
- He's the manager of the Millennium Motel.
Give him a ring.
Tell him we're paying him another visit.
[dramatic music]
[speaking foreign language]
[door buzzing]
- Ms. Campbell. - You're early.
- Sorry. - No, it's good.
The Russian prosecutor got here an hour ago.
All the usual cliches apply I'm afraid.
If you're early, they're earlier.
If you're on time, they'll keep you waiting.
Your phones don't work but is it them or is it you?
- And.
- I'm sorry.
- Which is it?
- Them, probably.
As my predecessor used to say,
if they'd included mind games in the Moscow Olympics,
they'd have swept the board.
Gentlemen, Nika Privalova from the prosecutor's office.
[speaking foreign language]
- Then let's do it in English.
You want to interview Andrey Lugovoy y Dmitri Kovtun, da?
- That is correct.
And we thank you for your help in this.
- You have list of questions?
- Well, there are certain things
we'll be looking to talk to them about, certainly.
- You need list of questions.
You give questions to me.
After this, we arrange.
- So you know where they are?
- Yes.
- And we can definitely talk to them?
- Lugovoy, yes, no problem.
- And Kovtun?
- Kovtun
Yes.
But Kovtun, you have to be very fast.
Kovtun is serious.
- How do you mean, serious?
- Kovtun is sick.
From polonium.
- Just to be clear,
you're saying that Kovtun has also been poisoned?
- Yes.
- As in, he's ingested some polonium accidentally?
- No. [dramatic music]
Kovtun is a victim of poison.
- By whom?
By Lugovoy?
- No.
By Alexander Litvinenko.
- Number four, describe the reasons
for your meetings with Litvinenko
in October, November this year.
Number five,
can you give an account for your movements
on the afternoon of November 1st?
- All right, that's the one.
That's the one we definitely need to ask.
That's our best chance to trip them up.
- Yeah.
[keypad beeping]
- So the plan is to meet Privalova,
give her the questions and following in convoy
to the hospital to see Dmitri Kovtun.
You need to make a phone call.
- Yeah.
- The one on the right, the red phone.
That's secure. [dramatic music]
- Thank you.
- Nice one, this is huge.
Just remember Tarpey, it's worth nothing
unless it's on tape.
- I know you know.
It's just good to remind ourselves of these things.
Right, good man.
Kovtun, they're interviewing him tonight.
Finally we're getting somewhere.
- Certainly sir, if you don't mind waiting.
- Guess they want me to wait in the bar.
- This is the one.
This was the table.
- So this was Litvinenko's seat?
- No, this is.
You're in Lugovoy's.
He was sitting where you are.
Confident, relaxed.
Eyes on the door, waiting.
Then I'd have come in, hurried in,
'cause you brought the meeting forward.
Sat down to find the tea already here.
Already ordered.
Already getting cold.
- So why drink it?
You knew the risks, you didn't consume anything
you hadn't bought yourself
at your lunch with Scaramella a few hours before.
So why, why,
in here, did you drink?
- Cause you're my boss.
- No Lugovoy wasn't Litvinenko's boss.
- Not boss but, you know, superior.
An alpha male.
You exert a certain level of social control over others.
Men your own age.
And when you ask people to do things, they tend to do them.
- Are we still talking about Lugovoy, Brent?
- Can I get you gentlemen a drink?
- No, thank you. - I'll have...
We're actually waiting for someone.
In fact, here he is look.
[horn sounding]
- [Tarpey] You all right?
- Well if he has been poisoned, he's in the right place.
Hospital No. 6 is where
they treated the victims of Chernobyl.
Oh, she also told me that, under Russian law,
all police interviews must be completed by 10:00 PM.
- Why is that even a rule?
- Get in Tarps. - Fine.
- Can't get through tonight, we'll come back tomorrow.
- Not an option either.
His health's getting worse apparently.
They're making it very clear this is a one off.
You're lucky to be seeing you at all.
- Come on!
They wanna help or not?
It's nearly seven.
Cutting it a bit fine.
Could you ask him
how long it's gonna take to get there please?
[speaking foreign language]
- 20 minutes, apparently.
[speaking foreign language]
- What?
What does that mean?
- Every guest has one glass and one cup in their room
to make tea or coffee or whatever they like.
- And these are the same cups and glasses
you use in the restaurant?
- Same as restaurant, same as Pine Bar.
- So, how many are we talking?
- And these are just a clean ones?
Well, you asked for it Brent.
Let's get cracking.
- It's taking forever.
This is a joke.
20 minutes?
It's been two hours!
[speaking foreign language]
- It's just up ahead.
Okay, listen.
Obviously they're running the clock out on us
so, when we get in there, we're not gonna ask any questions,
we're not gonna complain about delays.
That'll only cause more delays.
So we just do as we're told and we get on with it.
- Apparently the hospital
are providing hazmat suits for you.
- Okay.
- I thought this was supposed to be under the radar.
[indistinct shouting]
Ignore them.
Let's push past the bullshit
and get this done.
[speaking foreign language] [dramatic music]
- Here.
You change.
But please, keep these outside.
- We need to record the interview.
- We will record, it's all prepared.
- Okay.
Then, after it's finished,
we're gonna need a copy of the tape.
- [Privalova] No problem.
- I need your guarantee on that.
- No problem.
But please, only two persons inside the interview.
- Two.
- [Privalova] Two, it's a rule.
- Whose rule, whose rule is that now?
- Tarps.
Remember what you said.
- Okay.
Then, in that case,
it will be DC Oliver Gadney for his Russian
and myself, DI Brian Tarpey.
Thank you.
Fast as we can boys.
[indistinct muttering]
- [Jim] Questions.
- Thanks.
Right, let's get in there.
- Gentlemen, this is Dmitry Kovtun.
This is Dmitri Kovtun?
- This is Dmitri Kovtun.
- [Olly] Okay.
[speaking foreign language]
- If it was green tea,
we can rule out the espresso cups and the milk jugs.
And the sugar bowls and the sauce are unlikely
to have had any direct contact with any liquid, right?
So what does that leave?
- Tea pots, cups?
- Does this mean we must stop using these items?
- It would be wise.
- But we have been using them all this time.
- He's got a point.
The poisoning took place when?
November 1st?
And what's the date today?
- December 5th.
- So during all that time, this stuff's been in constant use
and every time a cup gets used, it gets washed?
So, even if that's once a day,
they'll still all have been put through
an industrial strength dishwasher
over 30 times since the poisoning took place.
And nobody who has drunk from any of these cups
has suffered any ill effects?
- That we know of.
- I'm thinking the chances of us
getting any kind of reading here are,
well, ludicrously small.
Feels like a waste of time.
I'm sorry.
[speaking foreign language]
- [Jim] What a total waste of time.
- It's the bandages I don't get.
- What the hell have bandages
got to do with polonium poisoning?
- Well, Privalova says she'll get us the tapes.
She gave me her word, whatever that means.
Says she'll keep us up to date on Lugovoy.
- Oh, who's playing him, Al Pacino?
Lugovoy's the important one.
He's the killer.
I mean there.
Physically there, at the table, making it happen.
If we can get him, and I mean the real him,
we get a statement, they can't stop us using it.
For all their f-ing about
they can't stop us doing that and using it against him.
They just can't.
[Tarpey groaning] [dramatic music]
- You alright mate?
- What you want?
You want a beer or a water or something?
- I'm fine.
You guys carry on.
I'll...
Just get hold of Clive.
All right mate, sleep well.
[Tarpey vomiting]
- [Radio] We'll be examining the impact
of Mr. Litvinenko's death on relations with Russia.
Britain's former ambassador to Moscow
tells us the political relationship
between Russia and the West is at its lowest point
since the collapse of the Soviet Union.
- Can you leave that?
- It's a table, it's not a desk.
Last time I checked.
- I work from home Brent.
- I know.
- We don't have an office.
- No we don't, we could.
- That's the nursery.
- Yeah but it's not a nursery is it?
- We said while there's a chance it might be,
even if it's only a tiny chance, we should wait.
- Yes, while-
- As long as it takes.
That's what we said.
You promised.
- [TV] Absolutely, yes.
But I mean as President Putin himself said yesterday,
so far, there isn't any...
- Everything all right?
- I've been trying to get a hold of Brian.
[phone line beeping]
- Just give me a sec.
[dramatic music]
[knocking]
Tarps!
Tarps, it's me mate, it's time to get up.
All right?
- [Ingrid] It won't be polonium.
- [Tarpey] Yeah, you still think it was deliberate.
- If it was, it's just their way
of putting the shits up you.
- Well, without oversharing, it did the direct opposite.
I can tell you.
Thank you.
Anyway, why were you at the hotel in the first place?
- I couldn't reach you by phone.
- Why were you trying to ring me?
- Because Privalova's contacted me.
She's been in touch with Lugovoy.
- And?
- [Ingrid] He'll see you later on today.
Apparently he's very keen to help.
[dramatic music]
- I've gotta get back to the hotel,
start prepping the questions.
First, I need to use the red phone.
[phone ringing]
- Timmons.
- We've got him, Lugovoy.
He's talking to us five, our time.
The interview with Kovtum was a complete farce.
He turned up covered in bandages.
I'm not sure it was even him.
- How's this any different?
- He's asked to speak to us.
- Oh right.
Well, you know what to do.
Get down there and get him
on everything that happened that day.
And what else?
- Get it all on tape.
Exactly.
- On it guv.
- It's about to go public
that we're treating this as a murder inquiry.
- But we're not.
- Internally we have been.
- Yeah, but externally we're not.
We made sure not to do that
because it would damage our chances in Moscow.
- I know.
- We're asking for their help, Peter.
We're not accusing them, well, not officially.
- Clive, I know.
- My lot are about to question Lugovoy
without knowing the rest of the world
thinks they're there under false pretenses.
I mean, who announced this?
- [Peter] Nobody, it's a leak.
- From who?
Not everyone wants us doing this.
- Like who?
- Does it matter?
The fact is it's going out on the news this afternoon.
- Is it?
How do you know?
- Because ITN just called me for confirmation.
- Friggin...
[phone ringing]
[phoneline beeping]
Tarpey's burner number.
- Burners are broken.
- What a...
I need the number of the Hotel Belorusskaya Duncan.
Give me a minute.
- The last email I sent you, the hotel number's on there.
- Right.
- [Tarpey] Sorry.
- Feeling better? - Yeah.
Lugovoy,
he's on.
- We think they've got Lugovoy but
only if the media don't screw it up.
[phone ringing]
[speaking foreign language]
- Yeah, Brian Tarpey please, room 614.
Failing that, Jim Dawson or...
Gadney? - Oliver Gadney.
- I'm sorry.
I'm afraid none of those guests are currently with us.
Is there anything else I can help you with?
- No, no.
Thank you.
- Have you got a minute?
- You know what?
Suddenly I do.
- "The chances of us finding our weapon
or getting any kind of a reading are ludicrously small."
That's the phrase the woman from the HPA used.
Then I was thinking, ludicrously small,
it's not zero, is it?
And sometimes, sometimes in life,
just because the chances of a positive outcome are small
or take time does not mean it's not worth trying, does it?
- Okay.
But let's have them start with the teapots.
The green tea was served in a pot, that's what he told you.
And there ain't as many of those.
- Guv, it's starting.
- [TV] At around noon today,
the Taliban in Southern Helmand province.
- Now, it was being treated as a suspicious death.
But in the last half hour, Scotland Yard have confirmed
that they are now treating the poisoning
of Alexander Litvinenko as murder.
- There you go, you see
Russians ain't gonna like that.
Brent, dind me that teapot.
- The interview is off. - Off?
What do you mean off?
- You said, "Unexplained death."
- It is unexplained.
- Now you're saying murder.
- We're not calling it that.
- Yes, you.
British government.
- Even if we did think that, it makes no difference.
Not to Lugovoy.
- Mr. Lugovoy does not do interview.
- Mr. Lugovoy denies murder, yeah?
- Of course.
- Mr. Lugovoy is friend of Litvinenko?
- Yes.
- Then what difference does it make
what the British government calls it?
What anyone calls it?
He can tell us what happened.
He can set us straight.
Or has he got something to hide?
- Okay, you get changed.
And wait.
And please, two people only.
- No, this time I need three.
- If police wants to talk to the patient, two only.
- We didn't ask him.
- It is a rule. - He asked us.
We're gonna need a copy of that tape.
- You will have.
[speaking foreign language]
- He recalls little about the meeting.
Not very memorable.
- That's not true is it Mr. Lugovoy?
- I mean, this is the meeting
where you were poisoned by Alexander Litvinenko.
[speaking foreign language]
- You arranged the meeting.
[speaking foreign language]
- You ordered tea in advance.
[speaking foreign language]
- He sat down, he drank it.
[speaking foreign language]
- Yet, somehow, he's the one who's ended up poisoning you.
And with the most lethal substance known to man.
[speaking foreign language]
- [Tarpey] A substance only available in Russia.
[speaking foreign language]
- Where he hadn't been for six years.
[speaking foreign language]
- I mean, I could think of more
forgettable encounters.
[speaking foreign language]
- [Olly] He maintains it came from Sasha.
That Sasha requested the meeting,
that polonium does nothing to him.
[speaking foreign language]
- [Olly] Next question.
- You could ask him why it's taken a month
for polonium to take effect.
- Here's a question,
why, if he's gonna be like this,
did he ask to meet with us in the first place?
- I came here because I wanted to wish you
good luck with your inquiry.
Trust me, Brian, you're going to need it.
- [Tarpey] That's one lie after another.
- He didn't deny buying the tea.
That's another thing.
I mean, you know, he pretty much denied everything else.
- And he also got a time wrong.
He said they got back to the hotel at four.
- [Jim] When it was off past three.
- And those were the 30 minutes
they used to get the polonium ready.
- Yep, old Lugovoy's really put his foot in it.
- Privalova's got the tapes.
They've also done transcripts, you can have those today.
- The catch being...
- No catch.
Just one stipulation.
They want you to collect them from their officers,
hand them over officially and mark
the end of the visit and so on.
Which I thought sounded reasonable.
So, if we're open to that chaps,
you could be on a plane home early evening.
[dramatic music]
[speaking foreign language]
- Just keep moving.
[speaking foreign language]
- You ever get the feeling you're being followed?
- On behalf of the Prosecutor General
of the Russian Federation,
tapes of your conversation,
transcripts from your conversation.
Is there anything more we can do to assist your inquiry?
- No.
- Thank you gents.
- Look.
The photographers, every last one of them have gone.
- They wanted it all on record
how helpful they've all been.
[dramatic music]
- What's goodbye again?
[speaking foreign language]
- Yeah
that.
- [Tippon] Well, welcome back fellas.
- So who do you want first, Kovtun or Lugovoy?
- Well, according to you, Kovtun wasn't even Kovtun.
So let's have Lugovoy.
- Yeah.
Claimed he'd been poisoned then strolls in there
like he'd just been watching the Monaco grand prix.
- Okay.
- Press play.
- It's playing. - Oh.
[silence]
[chuckling]
- There's always a bit of blank, start of the tape.
- [Tippon] Oh is there?
- Usually yeah, before it...
- Right. - You know?
- How much blank we talking?
- Try forwarding it a bit.
[silence]
It's...
Excuse me.
- At least we have the transcript.
- Yeah, it means nothing.
You could have written it for all anyone knows.
Listen, you did what I asked.
You went there, you got the interviews,
you got the tapes like I asked you.
And think of it this way,
that blank tape proves they're guilty.
Proves we're on the right track.
Otherwise why would they do it?
- Yeah. - Now you go home.
Get yourself some rest mate.
Alight?
[dramatic music] - Yeah.
Thanks.
[thunder rolling]
[bells tolling]
- You went to Moscow.
- We went.
It was a productive trip.
We all now agree who's responsible.
I wish I had better news.
- Do you know this man?
Boris Berezovsky.
He turned his back on Russia.
He helped Sasha.
He help Anatoly and me.
Today he tell me,
"Marina, they murder your husband.
They call you, they try to frighten you.
They go back to Russia.
They're never coming back.
To get justice, it is almost impossible.
Maybe it's time to join your country.
Sasha give you and your wife a better life.
Go forward and enjoy, for Sasha."
[dramatic music]
- And what did you say to that?
- I think about it.
Of course.
I think about it
and then I say, "No,
we keep fighting.
There is chance, even tiny chance.
This is what we do for Sasha."
[machine beeping]
[dramatic music]
[gentle music]