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This BBC drama tells the harrowing true story of Nazanin Zaghari‑Ratcliffe and her fight for freedom
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- Prisoner 951 premieres on BBC One & BBC iPlayer on 23 November 2025
Prisoner 951 is a powerful four-part BBC factual drama that recounts the true story of Nazanin Zaghari‑Ratcliffe, a British‑Iranian woman arrested in Iran in 2016 on spying charges she adamantly denied, and her husband Richard Ratcliffe, who campaigned for her release.
Starring Narges Rashidi and Joseph Fiennes, the series is written by Stephen Butchard and directed by Philippa Lowthorpe. Based on the forthcoming memoir A Yard of Sky by Nazanin and Richard, the drama spans her arrest at Tehran’s Imam Khomeini Airport, years of imprisonment and hunger strikes, and her eventual release in 2022.
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Prisoner 951 premieres on BBC One and BBC iPlayer on 23 November 2025.
Looking to catch Prisoner 951 for free? Here's how to watch Prisoner 951 for free from anywhere in the world...
How to watch Prisoner 951 for free on BBC iPlayer
The BBC's online streaming site, BBC iPlayer, is streaming Prisoner 951 for free — you can catch all four episodes from November 23.
Prisoner 951 premieres on BBC iPlayer from on Sunday, November 23. Episode 1 will also be shown at 9pm GMT on BBC One on Sunday evening. How to watch BBC iPlayer: Streaming fans who want to catch Prisoner 951 can watch on the BBC website or download the BBC iPlayer app (iOS / Android).All you have to do is sign up and provide your email, date of birth, a UK postcode (e.g. SE1 7PB) and confirm that you have a TV license. OUTSIDE THE UK? Use NordVPN to access BBC iPlayer from anywhere in the world.
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BBC iPlayer is only showing Prisoner 951 for free to UK residents.
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Prisoner 951 – Full episode guide:
▶︎ Episode 1A woman is torn from her baby, accused of crimes she didn’t commit and imprisoned in Iran. In London, her husband refuses to stay silent. So begins a campaign to free her.
▶︎ Episode 2Locked in solitary after her transfer to Evin Prison, a hopeless Nazanin takes drastic action. In London, Richard uncovers the reason for his wife’s abduction.
▶︎ Episode 3Nazanin’s solitary ends, and she finds solace among fellow inmates. In London, a careless comment from an MP risks derailing her case. Richard and Nazanin make an agonising family decision.
▶︎ Episode 4Nazanin, still imprisoned, is heartbroken when her daughter returns to the UK. Richard must learn to be a dad again and decides to go on hunger strike to get his wife home.
Q&A Interview with Joseph Fiennes (Richard Ratcliffe)
What did you learn about Nazanin and Richard’s story?
The big learning for me is waking up to the notion that innocent people - and in this case, an innocent person carrying dual nationality - could be subject to State hostage taking. What we're not aware of are the behind-the-scenes events and issues that invariably can have, as it did in this case, an effect on the private lives of innocent people.
What I found incredible were the wider events that surrounded Nazanin and Richard’s story. So, now I look at the news when someone is accused by a country of spying and consider that it might not be so straightforward. As it relates to this story, what I found extraordinary is the fact that the British MOD had engaged with Iran in manufacturing tanks when I was just born in 1970, and 40 years on that debt had not been settled and paid because of sanctions. When sanctions were lifted that debt was legally due to be paid as The Hague had come to that decision. 40 years on an innocent mother and child, a family, are completely decimated by the actions of a country that has decided to take a citizen as collateral for that debt. It's a story of ordinary people drawn into the horror of an extraordinary situation.
What drew you to the role?
First and foremost, it was Stephen's writing which I felt to be politically engaging. It becomes a thriller of sorts, it's very real, prescient and it's happened in my time. I felt the extraordinary love story that evolves through the series, the love of family members, and between the prisoners who help each other get through horrific events. There's this human drama juxtaposed with the political, we have two stories running alongside each other but they're both joined at the hip by the notion of profound love and by how people get through the darkest of times, that's what drew me in.
The second reason was Philippa, meeting her and knowing her work. When you have extraordinary figureheads in our industry who are leading this kind of subject it becomes really enriching for me to be a part of it.
Did you do any special preparation for this role, like learning a skill or language?
It's interesting to talk about skills, Richard’s skill is certainly auditing, he's a forensic auditor so that's his super skill. I've got a feeling a part of that diligence really put him ahead of most of us in dealing with this extraordinary crisis. On every occasion his phrase would be ‘show me the receipts’, that's his way of getting to the truth.
I didn't have to learn how to audit or go to accountancy school, but I did talk to Richard at length for several hours. As far as research went it was a case of meeting him in person, feeling his spirit, sensing his physicality, hearing first-hand about the events he and his family had to live through; then marrying that to the script and my idea of Richard in the world of our drama.
How was it preparing to film Richard’s hunger strike scenes?
Like all filming, the shooting schedule is never aligned with the timeline of the story, in some circumstances I’ve shot the very end of a film or series on the first day. When we got to the sequence where Richard is on hunger strike, the week before, or the next, we would be into a scene which would invariably be one where he looked much healthier. So, there wasn't a chance to go deep into a loss of weight. During those hunger strike shoot days I had lots of teas and liquids rather than solids but there wasn’t enough time in the schedule to take my body physically through what Richard would have gone through.
What was the most memorable scene to film?
I have to say that what sticks out from me is the sisterhood in the prison, I love those scenes. I'm not in them but I was on location on those days and saw the recreation of the prisons. The set design and that sense of being there was made so vivid and real by the extraordinary talents of our set and costume design teams.
But otherwise, I couldn’t single out a particular scene. The series is about love and family support. We have a British family and a Persian family, although there are huge cultural differences they were all completely the same in the love and support for each other. I felt that the family-related scenes were really integral and I loved being in those showing how that support helped Richard and Nazanin through this awful chapter of their lives.
Read the full interview at bbc.co.uk
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Jacob JonesJacob is a journalist and editor based in the UK. He studied Specialist Sports Journalism at the University of Derby, graduating with First-Class Honours. He has contributed articles to Football League World and previously worked at Yeovil Town Football Club. Jacob’s expertise spans streaming services and sports, with a particular passion for football, cricket, and rugby union.
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