Litvinenko

Largely because its arguments have already been persuasively made, and also because there’s been no real justice for the murder of its subject, Litvinenko runs out of steam before it reaches its destination. Still, thanks to a collection of sturdy performances and a clear-sighted recitation of the evidence, it lays bare Putin’s willingness to go to extreme measures to achieve his ends.

It's where the show leans into the emotional core of those affected by this awful crime that episodes 2 and 4, the lesser chapters, shine brightest, rather than in their more traditional police procedural or court room trappings. ... Unfortunately this does make episode 4, which dramatises Marina Litvinenko's years-long legal battle for justice, the weakest of the bunch.

Litvinenko is sensitive and tactful, almost to a fault. But in a world where complex questions about Anglo-Russian relations dominate discussions in the corridors of power, it has little to add other than slack-jawed amazement.

They’re decent, salt-of-the-earth coppers who vow to ensure justice is done, and it’s instructive to see how the investigation was conducted, but they’re marooned in a drama involving dull court testimony and endless scenes of people in hazmat suits.

Unfortunately, in execution, Litvinenko is a middling miniseries that is sporadically interesting though ultimately never comes together, even as it grasps at something more. For all its committed performances, it is a work whose dramatic elements are too haphazardly and hurriedly sketched to leave an impact.

Well, it’s presently dryly and chronologically and truthfully, which happens to be the least compelling way to tell this story. The second episode, smarting a little from Tennant’s abrupt arrival and then absence, loses all momentum.