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Unless you've been living under a rock or have been avoiding the news entirely for the past 10 years (and, honestly, it would be hard to blame you), then chances are you'll have some knowledge, however fleeting, of the story surrounding Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe.
That is in no small part thanks to the work of her husband Richard, whose tireless and personally brutal campaigning shone a light on Nazanin's plight, which could otherwise have gone so much deeper under the radar.
Now, a BBC drama, Prisoner 951, is set to bring Nazanin's story to even greater prominence and recognition, while also deepening the understanding of those who are only aware of it on a cursory level.
Based in part on Nazanin and Richard's upcoming book, A Yard of Sky, which is set to be released next year, the series is a powerful, unflinching piece of drama, which is at once both deeply upsetting and utterly enraging.
To fill in some of the blanks: in 2016, a British-Iranian citizen, Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe travelled to Iran with her 22-month-old daughter Gabriella to visit her family. Her husband, Richard, stayed at home in the UK.
As the mother and daughter were waiting to board a flight back to the UK, they were arrested at the airport, and Gabriella's passport was confiscated.
Iranian officials accusing Nazanin of leading a "foreign-linked hostile network" and plotting to overthrow the Iranian government. She was sentenced to five years in jail. Nazanin always denied those allegations and said that she was only in Iran to visit her family.
Over the following years, Richard worked to bring her home in any way possible. As he became disillusioned with the political response, he turned to making waves in the press to draw attention to Nazanin's plight.
Both he and Nazanin became convinced that she was a pawn in a decades-old political dispute between the Iranian government and the UK, relating to a debt the latter owed. The UK government has always denied that the two issues were linked, but her freedom, and the freedom of other imprisoned dual nationals, was only secured after the debt was paid. That was six years later, in 2022.
Prisoner 951, which has been written by Stephen Butchard and directed by Philippa Lowthorpe, retells this story in detail, backed up not only by Nazanin and Richard's accounts, but also by extensive research.
It's an interesting prospect, given that the story is still so fresh in recent history. This recency suggests that the intention behind the programme is not necessarily just to make you aware of Nazanin's plight, but to make you understand it, both in greater detail and on an emotional level.
Throughout the first episode, I have to admit that I worried the drama was focusing too keenly on the former, while neglecting the latter. As the piece speedily ran through Nazanin's detainment, the bogus charges she was levelled with and Richard's response to events, everything felt strangely detached. It turned out that was the drama's genius.
Just like Nazanin and Richard themselves, you as a viewer are thrown into a chaotic, confounding situation, where events are escalating at a mile a minute and it's hard to truly reckon with the enormity of what is happening.
Then come the final scenes of the episode. One particular sequence, in which Nazanin is briefly reunited with Gabriella, is so moving, so deeply upsetting and so profoundly human, I'd challenge anyone not to well up.
From there on out, the four-part series is an emotional hurricane, buffeting you from one crisis scenario to another. This is not in any way easy or light watching, nor should it be. The programme reckons with the real horrors that Nazanin and her family faced, as she was repeatedly given false hope only for it to be squashed.
So many of the sequences are utterly infuriating, as she protests her innocence, yet it becomes clearer and clearer the truth really doesn't matter here. There are other factors at play, and she has no agency is securing her own freedom, and reuniting with her daughter and husband.
Nazanin's journey is brought to life wonderfully by Narges Rashidi, in a transformative performance which never breaks the immersion of the viewer.
It's a performance which could so easily have been one-note, given the suffering Nazanin is seen experiencing, but Rashidi manages to make it anything but, layering her portrayal with additional elements of hope, joy and wit.
Thousands of miles away, the other portion of the series, the other side to this coin, is dedicated to Richard's efforts to investigate the real reason for Nazanin's detention, and to spur British politicians into meaningful action.
Like Rashidi, Joseph Fiennes is phenomenal in his role. It's a profoundly un-showy performance, one full of restraint, compassion and perseverance, with Richard's frustration and despair almost always bubbling under the surface rather than being out in the open.
In so many ways, this is a story of duality. There are Nazanin and Richard's dual stories. There are the two emotional levels it's operating at, balanced perfectly between sorrow and fury. And then there's the genre elements, as the series shifts between profound love story and political thriller.
The political narrative is entirely told through Richard and Nazanin's eyes. There are no scenes trying to guess at the conversations the Iranian officials were having privately, nor are there any meeting shown between the British government ministers regarding the situation, without Richard being present.
This is absolutely a wise choice, particularly given the recency of events. It also helps to put us firmly in their shoes – for instance, while work may have been going on with regards to Nazanin's case behind closed doors, from Richard's perspective it appeared as though little to nothing was happening, a state we are made to endure as well.
However, one downside is that it does leave the scenes with real-life British political figures feeling somewhat artificial and incongruous with the rest of the series.
The decision was actively made not to cast and actor to play Boris Johnson, as Butchard explained when speaking with Radio Times magazine. Instead, Johnson appears only in archive footage.
In contrast, there are three politicians and former Government ministers that do feature and are played by actors – Tobias Ellwood, James Cleverly and Liz Truss.
It's tricky knowing what the team should have done here, given that they wanted to showcase examples of the meetings Richard really did have, and the frustration he felt as he kept pushing for greater focus and action.
However, there's no denying that it is jarring seeing Liz Truss brought to life as a character (and a little bit of a caricature), not long after witnessing the real Boris Johnson.
Perhaps there is no right answer for what should have been done here. It's certainly a relief we didn't get Truss and Cleverly turning up to play themselves, like the bizarre sequences featuring Nadhim Zahawi in Mr Bates vs the Post Office. Still, the scenes featuring them do stick out, particularly when the rest of the drama is so engrossing and involving, and feels so real.
The rest of the cast play their parts ably, with strong performances from the likes of Kavé Niku and Behi Djanati-Atai as Nazanin's brother and mother, as well as from the young actors playing Gabriella at various points of her life.
It has to be said none of them get any particularly huge, showcase moments. This really is Nazanin and Richard's stories, as it should be.
The end of the drama does go on to highlight another prisoner and activist, whose journey we have seen glimpses of, but in a way which feels slightly out of the blue and doesn't really feel earned by the series. It's clear what the drama is trying to do here, but unfortunately it doesn't entirely land, given the highly personal route it has taken with the rest of its runtime.
Regardless, these are such minor quibbles in the face of what is a profoundly impactful watch. Prisoner 951 doesn't break any moulds or feature any particularly notable directorial flourishes, but nor should it.
The team behind the series clearly know that in telling a story like this, it is key not to lose focus on the elements that matter. This is a story about resilience, about love, about justice and injustice, but predominantly, it's the story about Nazanin and Richard, two unremarkable people who were forced to become remarkable through horrific circumstance.
In its small, limited way, in the way that any drama can, this series does them justice.
Prisoner 951 will air on BBC One and BBC iPlayer from Sunday 23rd November 2025.
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