There is such a thing as a story being too close to home, even if you are a news-hungry journalist.
When the poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko grabbed the world’s attention, my house — next door — was put behind a police line for weeks on end and I had journalists knocking on my door, often people I had worked with.
I knew Alexander a little. We’d been to dinner at his house where he astounded my husband and me with stories about his time in the Russian secret services.
The last time we’d chatted, four weeks before he died, he and his wife Marina had popped over with some flowers for my new-born first son. In his still heavy accent he vowed, “I will teach him Russian.”
A few days later, we saw him being taken away in an ambulance with suspected food poisoning.
It is hard to describe what it was like seeing a preview for Litvinenko, the new TV drama about his death and the fight both the police and Marina had to get some sort of justice. I’ve stayed in touch with Marina over the years and she is an incredible woman.
Due to be screened on new free-streaming channel ITVX from 15 December, the four-part drama is chilling and moving. Alexander — Sasha to his friends — was in the UK because of his connection to oligarch Boris Berezovsky (another Russian who died mysteriously).
He told me Putin had ordered him to kill Berezovsky. Instead, he warned the tycoon to escape.
Alexander is played brilliantly by David Tennant but, for me, one of the real stars is Russian-American Jewish actress Margarita Levieva, who plays Marina with uncanny precision. Margarita tells me she immediately felt she understood this story in a way many others couldn’t. She fled Russia with her mother because of the antisemitism they faced there.
“I remember hearing what happened to Sasha and, unfortunately, the idea of Putin killing people who got in his way was not new. It was devastating and heartbreaking because it reminded me, once again, of the place that I had come from.”
gregory’s big year
It is an exciting year for young actor Gregory Mann. Shortly after the London launch of his huge Netflix feature film Pinocchio, it was time for him to take the spotlight in a very different way — at his barmitzvah.
And then he was off around the world to promote his film. The star-studded cast also includes Ewan McGregor, Christoph Waltz, Cate Blanchett, Tilda Swinton and David Bradley.
Jews in the News
MANY will empathise: Spider-Man actor Andrew Garfield has talked about “releasing myself from the societal obligation of procreating by the time I’m 40”.
The 39-year-old actor is still single but was recently linked to not just one but two of the Britain’s most popular young actresses – Normal People’s Daisy Edgar-Jones and Bridgerton’s Phoebe Dynevor. With so much choice, you can see why he may have struggled to settle down.
I was lucky enough to host the Q&A for Fauda star Lior Raz and his co-writer Avi Issacharoff for the charity Magen David Adom. The eagerly awaited fourth series of the show is due back on Netflix on 20 January.
Raz revealed that writing the show had helped him with the PTSD that still affected him from his time serving in the unit that inspired the series.
