David Tennant to play poisoned Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko in new ITV drama

DAVID Tennant is to play former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko in a new ITV drama.

The dissident, a prominent critic of Russian president Vladimir Putin, was poisoned with a radioactive substance in London in 2006 and died several weeks later.

The UK has blamed Moscow for the killing.

The drama, Litvinenko, tells how widow Marina sought to persuade the British Government to name the killers.

It will also focus on the police officers who worked to prove who was responsible.

Screenwriter George Kay said: “Alexander Litvinenko was a living witness to his own murder.

“He spent his dying days entrusting the Metropolitan Police with the details of what happened.

“It took those police and his remarkable widow Marina Litvinenko a decade to have those claims ratified.”