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When Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe was taken into custody in Iran in 2016, the full picture wasn’t clear the cause of her detention – however after 100 days, we had the contours. Her partner Richard Ratcliffe, organized a media briefing. He gathered 780,000 names on a campaign for her freedom, and delivered a letter demanding the same thing from the then Prime Minister David Cameron. As later revealed, was after private discussions with the Foreign Office in which government staff maintained that the safest approach, both for Nazanin’s return and the well-being of her relatives in Iran, was to keep quiet and let negotiations proceed.

“It represented governmental hostage-taking,” notes the actor Joseph Fiennes, who acts as Richard Ratcliffe in the BBC’s four-part drama the show Prisoner 951. “It clearly goes on, and ordinary citizens and loved ones are completely disrupted and scarred permanently. After portraying this account, I regard people charged with crimes with wrongdoing, and I am skeptical.”

In July 2016, it was plain that a serious mistake had been made. A dual national, Nazanin was imprisoned on accusations of spying, away from her little girl. Authorities alleged of attempting to overthrow the Iranian regime, of working for MI6, “empowering women” (in a questioning session) and obtaining funds unlawfully. The allegations appeared fabricated. She was employed by the press outlet Reuters – though not in its reporting department, rather its philanthropic wing – and she had valid reasons in Iran, bringing her child to visit her parents.

Were the allegations appeared questionable to an general viewers, it caused more worry even more in the Iranian diaspora, as Rashidi, who plays Nazanin and was a native of Khorramabad in Iran (moving to Germany when she was seven) attests. “It was widely understood that there was no truth to the made-up reasons they said she was being held.”

Yet Britain was newly post-Brexit, and the next day that letter went to Cameron, Theresa May became as leader. Media attention only had eyes for governmental upheaval, and Boris Johnson unexpectedly became foreign secretary, leading to disastrous outcomes. Likely the peak of public awareness the couple received during that time was when Johnson made his egregious remarks the subsequent year, that she’d been “instructing individuals in journalism, as I understand it”, which was incorrect and lent weight to the Iranian state’s fabricated claims, further endangering her.

Notwithstanding the data and sporadic discussion, which Ratcliffe diligently fought to keep alive while Nazanin fought to preserve her hope, the emotional truth of this detention is profoundly alarming to see brought to life in Prisoner 951. Rashidi, known for another drama, bears a striking resemblance to Zaghari-Ratcliffe it’s astonishing. She says that’s all testament to her dialect coach: her real English-speaking accent is transatlantic and she resides in Los Angeles.

Rashidi viewed all materials: conversations featuring Zaghari-Ratcliffe, and the emotional yet restrained return to her daughter. Additionally, surprising footage available: inexplicably the occasion of Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s arrest at the airfield has appeared on the internet. “A little tiny bit of footage; she did not know that she was being filmed.”

In the drama, she is on a tightrope, suspended between the certainty of her blamelessness and the apprehension that, if you can be arrested over no reason, what is the limit? Looking back, that she would be in detention for half a decade, it is profoundly upsetting to see these events unfold in the emotions on her face. Her battle not to lose control; her vain effort to resist the chaos of government authority. “From my perspective,” Rashidi says, “this is a distinct Nazanin to the later period. I saw somebody utterly terrified and extremely soft, not knowing the events unfolding to her. I saw her resilience subsequently, following this complete trial.”

The actor “enjoyed the opportunity of sitting with Richard”, he says. “This isn’t always possible with the person you’re playing, and he’s a forensic accountant. The determination, where you get to the place of ‘Show me the {bloody receipt|actual proof|concrete evidence’, is innate to him.” It becomes a heartbreaking experience too, as this traditionally minded individual gradually then quickly becomes disillusioned in the authorities he relied on: specialists, bureaucrats, the state, other conventional people. “He felt the British government would handle the matter, but this proved incorrect. He was repeatedly deceived, given untruths continuously.”

Ratcliffe dealt with five foreign secretaries during the period of his wife’s imprisonment: multiple appointees. Both individuals would always be the lowest priority on the diplomat’s schedule once they assumed office, and by the time they reviewed the case, their tenure was up. Within the series, it requires time for Ratcliffe to see that “an arms trade apparatus operating here,” Fiennes says, “and it functions secretly. It works behind official channels, and these are individuals that became entangled in it.”

A segment in which Ratcliffe storms into the office of Cleverly (he then held the position for the MENA region), “and just rants at him. He completely loses composure. He’s unkempt. He’s on a prolonged fast, he’s at rock bottom. But it takes a lot for him to arrive there. {He’s not liberated|He isn