EXCLUSIVE: CNN will debut The Salisbury Poisonings: A Spy Next Door from BAFTA-winning filmmaker Dan Vernon on Sunday, July 12 at 8pm ET/PT. The CNN Films doc will launch on the CNN app the following day, and you can watch a trailer above.
The doc is an account of the 2018 Novichok nerve agent attack that transformed a quiet English city into the epicenter of a geopolitical crisis. The incident saw former Russian military officer and British intelligence services double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia poisoned in Salisbury, England. The British government accused Russia of orchestrating the attempted assassination.
The Salisbury Poisonings: A Spy Next Door comes from Passion Pictures and was made for CNN Films in association with Propagate Content and West Buttermilk. It pieces together the chain of events through first-hand testimony from senior intelligence officials, counterterrorism leaders, journalists and victims whose lives were forever changed.
Also included are interviews with former UK Prime Minister Theresa May, former Home Secretary Amber Rudd, former MI6 chiefs Richard Dearlove and John Sawers, former National Security Adviser Mark Sedwill, former Head of Counter Terrorism Policing Neil Basu and an exclusive interview with Charlie Rowley, the partner of victim Dawn Sturgess, who died as a result of the poisoning. It also features exclusive scenes with investigative journalist Christo Grozev, who was behind the Academy Award-winning CNN film Navalny.
Director Dan Vernon said: “While the film tells the dramatic story of the assassination attempt and the investigation, it is ultimately about people, from the two men whose intertwined fates reveal a Russia wrestling with its past and future, to the residents of Salisbury, a cathedral city unexpectedly thrust onto the global stage. What fascinated me most was how an event that unfolded in a small corner of the UK became an international crisis, exposing fault lines that continue to impact our world”
“At its heart, this is a story about how a small community found itself at the center of an international crisis, capturing both the human impact felt on the streets of Salisbury and the global consequences that followed,” said Amy Entelis, executive vice president of talent, CNN Originals and creative development for CNN Worldwide.
Hamish Fergusson, executive producer for Passion said the “unprecedented access and direct testimony from those at the heart of the response” sheds “new light on a pivotal moment that foreshadowed the geopolitical tensions shaping our world today.”
“What makes this story so extraordinary is the collision of worlds — a Kremlin assassination plot playing out on the streets of an ordinary English town, with consequences that reached from a suburban doorstep to the highest levels of government,” added Howard T. Owen, Co-CEO of Propagate Content.
Vernon is the director of the film, which was developed by and is produced by Alex Brisland. Executive producers are Kari Lia, Fergusson, David Moulton and Andrew Ruhemann for Passion; Amy Entelis and Roxanna Sherwood for CNN Films; Ben Silverman and Owens for Propagate Content; and James Packer for West Buttermilk.
The doc made its world premiere at the CPH:DOX Documentary Film Festival in Copenhagen and will have its North American premiere at the DC/DOX Film Festival and its UK premiere at Sheffield DocFest, which begins today.
It marks the fourth collaboration between Passion and CNN Films, coming after Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story from 2024, Lady Boss: The Jackie Collins Story from 2021, and the Emmy- nominated Legion of Brothers from 2017. CNN Films and Propagate recently partnered on I’m Chevy Chase and You’re Not, which premiered earlier this year and is available to stream now on CNN and HBO Max.
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