'Litvinenko's Trailer Offers a First Look at David Tennant as the Doomed Russian Dissident

Many people are probably passingly familiar with the story of British-naturalised Russian defector Alexander Valterovich Litvinenko, who was allegedly killed by radiation poisoning by the Russian government.

Litvinenko fled Russia with his family to the U.K. in 2000 after publicly accusing his superiors of, among other things, ordering the assassination of Russian oligarch Boris Berezovsky. In London, he worked as a journalist and consultant for the British intelligence services, writing several books and sharing information about the Russian mafia in Europe.

In November of 2006, Litvinenko was poisoned and hospitalized, passing away later that month as the first confirmed victim of lethal polonium-210-induced acute radiation syndrome. (Polonium-210 is a highly radioactive and, therefore, extremely toxic isotope, and traces were subsequently found at more than 40 locations in and out of London after he was poisoned.) His public deathbed accusations that Russian President Vladimir Putin was behind his poisoning kicked off a media firestorm and worldwide speculation.