By Isabelle Casey
Copyright hellomagazine
If you love a heart-stopping drama, then this new series might be one to add to your watch list. On Wednesday, the BBC revealed a number of first-look photos from brand new drama Prisoner 951. The programme, which is out later this year, stars Gangs of London star Narges Rashidi and The Handmaid’s Tale actor Joseph Fiennes. It follows the true story of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a British-Iranian citizen who was imprisoned and held hostage by the Iranian state for six years, and her husband Richard Ratcliffe, who campaigned for justice and her return.
According to the Beeb, the new show covers Nazanin and Richard’s ordeal which captured the world’s attention, from Nazanin’s arrest at Imam Khomeini International Airport in Tehran, to her release and return to the UK six years later. Prisoner 951 is based on the forthcoming book, A Yard of Sky, written by Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and Richard Ratcliffe. See the first-look images below.
Nazanin’s powerful story
In 2023, Nazanin opened up about how much books transformed her life while being detained in Iran during her key notes speech at the Booker Prize in 2023. “I spent nine months in solitary confinement with very little access to anything. Being claustrophobic, solitary was a horrific experience. After five months my family could bring me books. When the guard opened the door and handed over the books to me, I felt liberated; I could read books, they could take me to another world, and that could transform my life,” she said.
“Dr Thorne by Anthony Trollope was the first book I read. The fact that a story written in the 19th century can speak to you across time and space, throwing you into another world hundreds of years later, is phenomenal. This story of power, money and politics was so captivating that whilst reading it, I did not take any notice of the crying and banging on the door going on in other cells.” She continued. Among the books she read in prison were War and Peace, something that reminded her of watching TV on the sofa with her husand, the Handmaid’s Tale, which was given to her cellmate and The Return, which all became part of a secret library in the general ward where she was held.
“Books helped me to take refuge in the world of others when I was incapable of making one of my own. They salvaged me by being one of the very few tools I had, together with imagination, to escape the Evin walls without physically moving. When we left, we all bequeathed books to the secret library in the ward to keep our stories alive for others to come, just like those who left their books for us to survive,” she concluded.
