Sky Documentaries has announced The Salisbury Poisonings: A Spy Next Door, a new feature-length documentary exploring the 2018 Novichok poisoning and the covert conflict between Russia and the West. The 90-minute film revisits the moment former Russian intelligence officer Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia collapsed on a park bench in Salisbury in March 2018.
What appeared to be a local emergency quickly became an international crisis after the pair were found to have been poisoned with the nerve agent Novichok. Using Sergei Skripal’s own words, the documentary reconstructs his life as a spy and follows the attack. It also explores the wider story of loyalty and betrayal, placing Skripal’s life against Vladimir Putin’s determination to settle an old score.
The film features interviews with figures directly involved in the response, including former Prime Minister Theresa May, former Home Secretary Amber Rudd, National Security Advisor Sir Mark Sedwill and former MI6 chiefs Sir John Sawers and Sir Richard Dearlove. Counter-terrorism officers Neil Basu and Dean Haydon also appear, alongside former KGB agents and journalist Mark Urban.
Local testimony will remain central to the documentary, with contributions from Salisbury residents, the doctor who treated Sergei and Yulia and Charlie Rowley, who unknowingly gave a discarded bottle containing Novichok to his partner Dawn Sturgess. Sturgess later died, becoming an innocent victim of the attack.
Investigative journalist Christo Grozev also features throughout the film. Grozev, whose work previously appeared in the Academy Award-winning documentary Navalny, helped identify those believed to be responsible and continues to investigate the wider conflict between Russia and the West.
For CultureCues, this looks set to be a detailed account of a case that began on an ordinary street and quickly became an international crisis. With contributions from political figures, intelligence officials and those directly affected in Salisbury, the documentary has the potential to bring both the human cost and the wider espionage story into clear focus. It will be a difficult watch, but an important one.
The Salisbury Poisonings: A Spy Next Door streams on Sky Documentaries and NOW from 4 August.
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