The shocking true story of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe's six-year imprisonment in Iran has been brought to life in a powerful new BBC drama titled Prisoner 951, featuring compelling performances from Narges Rashidi and Joseph Fiennes.
From Family Holiday to State Hostage-Taking
In April 2016, British-Iranian dual national Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe was arrested at Tehran Airport while preparing to return home to the UK after visiting family with her two-year-old daughter. What began as a routine family trip rapidly descended into what actor Joseph Fiennes describes as "state hostage-taking" that would span six agonising years.
Zaghari-Ratcliffe faced extraordinary allegations including spying for MI6, attempting to overthrow the Iranian regime, and "empowering women" during interrogations. These charges appeared particularly dubious given her actual employment with the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of the news agency.
Narges Rashidi, who portrays Nazanin in the drama and was born in Iran before moving to Germany aged seven, confirms the Iranian diaspora immediately recognised the falsity of these claims. "We were all very aware that there was no truth to the made-up reasons they said she was being held," Rashidi states.
The Relentless Campaign for Freedom
While Nazanin fought for survival in Tehran's Evin Prison, her husband Richard Ratcliffe launched an extraordinary campaign for her release back in London. Within 100 days of her detention, Ratcliffe had organised press conferences, amassed 780,000 signatures on a petition, and delivered a letter directly to then-Prime Minister David Cameron.
Joseph Fiennes, who plays Richard Ratcliffe, studied the character extensively, even meeting with the real-life subject. "He's a forensic accountant. The tenacity, where you get to the place of 'Show me the bloody receipt', is in his DNA," Fiennes observes about Ratcliffe's determined nature.
The drama reveals how Ratcliffe's faith in British institutions gradually eroded as he encountered what Fiennes describes as "a military industrial complex at play here that's not transparent." Throughout Nazanin's imprisonment, Richard would engage with five different foreign secretaries: Boris Johnson, Jeremy Hunt, Dominic Raab, Liz Truss, and James Cleverly.
Bringing Harrowing Reality to Screen
The four-part drama captures the profound human cost of this geopolitical ordeal. Rashidi immersed herself in research, studying available footage including the heartbreaking reunion between Nazanin and her daughter, and even discovering brief airport footage of the actual arrest.
"To me, that is a very different Nazanin to six years later," Rashidi reflects on the early days of imprisonment. "I saw somebody extremely petrified and extremely soft, not knowing what is happening to her. I met her strength later, after this whole ordeal."
One of the drama's most moving scenes recreates the moment when Nazanin's brother held two mobile phones together, enabling the separated couple to speak for the first time since her arrest. The production's original working title was appropriately "Love Story," reflecting how their bond and love for their daughter became essential survival tools.
The Real Reason Behind the Ordeal
While the Iranian authorities presented various fabricated charges, the actual reason for Zaghari-Ratcliffe's detention was a long-standing financial dispute between the UK and Iran. Britain owed Iran approximately £400 million from a failed 1970s arms deal for Chieftain tanks that were never delivered.
Richard Ratcliffe had been publicly highlighting this connection since 2018, though the British government maintained diplomatic silence. The resolution finally came in March 2022 when Foreign Secretary Liz Truss announced the debt repayment, coinciding with Zaghari-Ratcliffe's release the same day.
Fiennes reflects on the broader implications: "You wonder whether there are others who don't have her visibility, who don't have her sense of confidence, and whose families are in Iran and can't say anything. I imagine there are poor souls out there who are going through this and have spent decades in prison."
For Rashidi, portraying this story carried personal significance: "Growing up in the diaspora always comes with the guilt of having certain freedoms. Every time I get the chance to shine a light on those struggles, humanise them, show the real people and their real emotions, that is a gift."
Prisoner 951 premieres on BBC One and iPlayer from 23rd November, offering British audiences a powerful dramatisation of one of recent history's most troubling cases of state hostage-taking.
