Prisoner 951 This is a powerful four-part BBC factual drama telling the true story of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a British-Iranian woman arrested in Iran in 2016 on espionage charges, which she vehemently denies, and her husband. Richard Ratcliffewho advocated for her release.
Starring Narges Rashidi and Joseph Fiennes, the series is written by Stephen Butchard and directed by Philippa Lowthorpe. Based on a future memoir Courtyard of Heaven Nazanin and Richard's drama spans her arrest at Tehran's Imam Khomeini Airport, years of imprisonment and hunger strike, and her eventual release in 2022.
Prisoner 951 premieres at BBC One And BBC iPlayer on November 23, 2025.
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How to watch Prisoner 951 for free on BBC iPlayer
The BBC's online streaming site, BBC iPlayer, provides streaming. Prisoner 951 free – all four episodes can be watched from November 23.
How to watch Prisoner 951 on BBC iPlayer from anywhere in the world
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Prisoner 951 – Complete Episode Guide:
▶︎ Episode 1
The woman was torn from her child, accused of crimes she did not commit, and imprisoned in Iran. In London, her husband refuses to remain silent. Thus begins the campaign for her release.
▶︎ Episode 2
Locked in solitary confinement after being transferred to Evin Prison, a hopeless Nazanin takes drastic measures. In London, Richard learns the reason for his wife's kidnapping.
▶︎ Episode 3
Nazanina's loneliness ends and she finds solace among her cellmates. In London, an MP's careless comment risks derailing her case. Richard and Nazanin make a painful family decision.
▶︎ Episode 4
Nazanin, still in prison, is heartbroken when her daughter returns to the UK. Richard must learn to be a father again and decides to go on a hunger strike to bring his wife home.
Q&A Interview with Joseph Fiennes (Richard Ratcliffe)
What have you learned about Nazanin and Richard's story?
The big lesson for me was realizing that innocent people—and in this case, innocent dual citizens—can become the target of government hostage-taking. What we don't know are the behind-the-scenes events and issues that can invariably have, as they did in this case, impact the private lives of innocent people.
What I found incredible were the wider events surrounding the story of Nazanin and Richard. So now I watch the news when a country accuses someone of being a spy, and I think that things may not be so clear cut. Regarding this story, what I found unusual was the fact that the British Ministry of Defense was collaborating with Iran to produce tanks when I was just born in 1970, and for 40 years this debt was not repaid and paid due to sanctions. When the sanctions were lifted, this debt legally had to be paid, since The Hague had come to that decision. 40 years of the life of an innocent mother and child, a family, are completely destroyed by the actions of a country that decided to take a citizen as collateral for this debt. This is the story of ordinary people caught in the horror of an emergency.
What attracted you to this role?
First of all, it was Stephen's writing that I found politically compelling. It becomes a kind of thriller, very real, prophetic, and it happened in my time. I felt the extraordinary love story that develops throughout the series, the love between family members and between prisoners who help each other survive horrific events. It's a human drama juxtaposed with a political one, we have two stories running next to each other, but both are connected by the idea of deep love and how people survive the darkest times, that's what attracted me.
The second reason was that Philippa knew her and knew her work. When we have great leaders in our industry who are spearheading these kinds of topics, it becomes really rewarding for me to be a part of it.
Did you do any special training for this role, such as learning a skill or language?
It's interesting to talk about skills, Richard's skill is definitely auditing, he's a forensic auditor so that's his super skill. I have a feeling that some of that diligence actually put him ahead of most of us in dealing with this extraordinary crisis. In each case, his phrase was: “Show me the receipts,” this is his way of getting to the bottom of the truth.
I didn't have to learn to audit or go to accounting school, but I still had a long conversation with Richard for several hours. As for the research, it was an opportunity to meet him in person, to feel his spirit, to feel his physicality, to hear first-hand about the events that he and his family had to endure; then combined that with the script and my idea of Richard in the world of our drama.
How did they prepare for filming Richard's hunger strike scenes?
As with all filming, the shooting schedule never coincides with the chronology of the story: in some cases, I shot the very end of a film or series on the first day. When we got to the scene where Richard goes on hunger strike, the week before or the next, we would get to a scene where he invariably looked much healthier. So, it was not possible to go deeper into losing weight. During those fasting days I drank a lot of tea and liquids rather than solid food, but there wasn't enough time in the schedule to physically go through what Richard would have gone through.
What scene in the film was most memorable?
I have to say that what I remember most was the sisterhood in prison, I love those scenes. I don’t take part in them, but I was on location in those days and saw the reconstruction of prisons. The set design and sense of presence were made so vivid and real by the outstanding talents of our set and costume design team.
But other than that, I couldn't pick out any particular scene. A series about love and family support. We have a British family and a Persian family, although there are huge cultural differences, they were all exactly the same in loving and supporting each other. I felt like the family scenes were really integral and I loved being a part of them, showing how that support helped Richard and Nazanin get through this terrible chapter in their lives.
Read the full interview on the website bbc.co.uk
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