- 3 weeks ago
Category
📺
TVTranscript
00:08Police emergency.
00:09Can I get the police officers and an ambulance?
00:12There's a mull thing, please.
00:13OK, what's happened?
00:15There are two people on the bench.
00:17He is very upset, but not saying anything,
00:20and she looks semi-conscious.
00:22OK, what town is this in?
00:24This is in Salisbury.
00:26What are you doing there?
00:26OK, sir.
00:30We need urgent medical help.
00:37We were the first police officers at the scene.
00:43The first thing I saw was a white female,
00:47aged in her 30s.
00:50She looked like she was fitting.
00:52You know, she had gritted teeth,
00:54she had a lot of saliva coming out of her mouth.
00:58I noticed a male in his 60s on the bench,
01:04sat upright with his hands sort of here,
01:08and he was rigid.
01:10His pupils were tiny.
01:12They were like pinpricks.
01:14I was thinking, what's happened?
01:16Who are these people?
01:18I checked his trouser pocket
01:20and located a wallet that had a driving license.
01:23His name was Sergei Skripal.
01:28But at the time, I had absolutely no idea
01:31about who he really was.
01:34Or what that meant.
01:42The evil one that was in the case is
01:43but the evil one is the only one that died.
01:43The evil one has ever been innocent.
01:54There were two little things.
01:55The evil one has to be taken away.
01:55The evil two that might have been innocent.
02:1312 now the aftermath of the beast from the east and storm emma is taking its toll still in many
02:19parts of the uk we're on to the big thor but it's been affecting the idea is to raise 1
02:25.5 million
02:26pounds to buy a second mri scanner for salisbury district hospital and help us explain a little
02:32bit more about the campaign i still can't quite believe that this could happen in sleepy salisbury
02:48how little did i know how that day would end up panning out
02:56i was at home having sunday lunch and i got a phone call from my registrar
03:03he said steve we've got two overdose patients coming in would you mind coming in to give me a
03:09hand so i got in my car and drove to the hospital
03:18on a bad day if the cows are crossing the farm that can take 25 minutes on a good day
03:2415 minutes
03:30i got there just as these two patients came in
03:36they'd been inconstant they'd been vomiting their clothes were in a hell of a state
03:43she was the more and well of the two she was unconscious she had a very very low heart rate
03:49of the order of 30 to 40. she was sweating profusely her breathing was being carried out for her
03:56it was absolutely apparent she needed to go to intensive care pretty quickly
04:05the other patient was unconscious but he was exhibiting a very very strange posture
04:10that i i'd never seen before he was sitting up like a statue
04:17i was beginning to question whether or not this was possibly something other than a drug overdose
04:24if they'd come from a house my first thought would have been carbon monoxide poisoning
04:29but the story had been that they'd be found on this park bench in the open air something had
04:34happened to them and we just didn't know but i thought if she continues to deteriorate
04:41she was going to die in the next few hours
04:50but then one of the police constables that had come in with the ambulance crew googled
04:55sergey skripal
04:58and that's when all the alarm bells started to go off
05:04there were articles about him saying he was arrested in russia
05:09for spying for british intelligence so he was effectively a british double agent
05:17and here he was now apparently living in salisbury
05:22and that's when i realized that actually there could be far more to this than first met the eye
05:29this might be a state-sponsored poisoning attempt
05:35because russia's never really moved away from their cultural practices
05:51these are vladimir putin's first steps on the international diplomatic stage
05:55since assuming the huge powers and challenges of the russian president
05:59the uk is poised to become russia's largest foreign investor
06:02with bp and shell agreeing major deals to open up the world's biggest gas resistance
06:21welcome
06:31welcome
06:50please
07:01As the senior detective and officer in charge that night, I still feel responsibility for
07:07what happened and it's an undeniable fact that Salisbury changed me.
07:13But it helps me to be able to talk about it.
07:20So, I was sat at home with my wife, we were watching a crime drama.
07:26It was the second part, so it's the exciting bit, when my phone rang and I knew that that
07:32wasn't going to be a good news call because he wouldn't phone at half nine on a Sunday
07:37night unless something bad had happened.
07:40And he said, there is something unusual Ben, he said, and you won't believe it.
07:44And I said, go on.
07:46And he said, the dad is a Russian spy.
07:50And I was like, okay, I'm going into work then.
08:02I started to think, could it really be a Russian spy living in Wiltshire because our systems
08:08were saying there wasn't one?
08:10But the Southwest counter-terrorism intelligence unit can check systems that may not be available
08:17to us locally.
08:19And they came back that night and said that there wasn't a Russian spy.
08:26And, of course, that wasn't true.
08:30But the approach I took was to work on the assumption that he was.
08:34So, I phoned Nick Bailey, who was the sergeant on duty that afternoon, to search Sergei's home
08:43address because there could be another casualty.
09:00When we got to the house, Nick and myself put on protective clothing, primarily to protect the scene from us.
09:10We had the white suits that you've probably seen on TV, we had goggles, face masks, and over shoes.
09:18When we got to the front door, Nick and I were stood next to each other.
09:24And I asked Nick to check the handle, so he gave it a good yank.
09:31We opened it and went in.
09:38It was very cold outside, the central heating was turned right up, and immediately our goggles steamed up.
09:47So, whilst it's not, you know, best practice, the reality was the only way around that was to keep raising
09:52and lowering our goggles
09:54and wipe our foreheads.
09:57And, of course, wearing gloves.
10:03In the kitchen, there was evidence that they'd been cooking some sort of pasta dish.
10:09That was interesting because had it been the pasta that had been poisoned.
10:14When we got to his study, we came across various pieces of sort of military memorabilia.
10:22So, that perhaps corroborated that he'd been in the Russian army.
10:28But, thankfully, there was no one in there, which is the most important thing.
10:33And at the end of it, we went back to Salisbury Police Station.
10:39Round about five o'clock-ish in the morning, a different officer who'd been on scene duty, guarding Sergey's house,
10:46came into the police station and said that he wasn't feeling well.
10:51And one of his eyes was pinpricked, and one of his eyes was fully dilated.
10:58I got that sinking feeling.
11:01None of this is right, this is very, very wrong.
11:13It is clear for everyone that, in spite of the differences that existed before,
11:19today we need to act jointly.
11:22Thank you. Lovely noise.
11:31A state of emergency has been declared in Georgia after opposition supporters seized control of parliament in what appears to
11:38be a coup.
11:39The Georgians made it very clear they'd simply had enough of the wily old statesman's misrule and corruption.
11:53Viktor Yushchenko gave the speech.
11:55Ukraine, he said, is now a democratic society.
12:38The Georgians made it very clear the language,
12:50you could look back with hindsight and say well this was all obvious we should have been prepared
12:55for it the reality was we weren't prepared enough he was on nobody's radar as a potential threat
13:01I mean clearly Wilshire police and counterterrorism policing didn't even know he existed and lived
13:06there but I remember everything about that day in my new detail when I walk into the office on the
13:17fifth floor of New Scotland Yard Southwest counterterrorism intelligence unit on the phone
13:22to explain that we have an ex-Russian colonel considered traitor and spy who's in a coma in
13:30Salisbury Hospital alongside his daughter and they're not expected to survive so I'm thinking
13:38this happened the day before this is clearly a job for counterterrorism policing you're a bit late to
13:45the party this point nobody knows what it is a doctor in the hospital said it looks like some kind
13:53of
13:53chemical poisoning but he's an ex-Russian intelligence officer and anyone who has been problematic for
14:01Russia will be on Putin's headless by his own public statements traitors should sleep with one eye open
14:18so the public would be going don't be ridiculous it's obvious the Russians did it you can't think
14:22like that the minute you think like that you start dismissing every other line of inquiry and that's
14:27fatal for a senior investigating officer but this doesn't look right so we need to react to that
14:4410,000 people working counterterrorism policing and we have a car tray of highly trained people who are able to
14:51mobilize very quickly
14:53and a billion pound intelligence machine with some of the most sophisticated capabilities in the world
14:59the world my concern was we were all unbelievably knackered
15:06we'd been through so much in 2017
15:21in that year deal with five terrorist attacks
15:27westminster london bridge
15:29manchester arena
15:34then finsbury park
15:38and parsons green
15:44over a thousand were physically or mentally damaged for life
15:48and 36 people were murdered on my watch
15:51and you feel incredibly responsible
15:55so i was thinking
15:57if it's russia
15:58salisbury might escalate into something
16:02huge
16:03wiltshire police are the smallest force in the country
16:07how are they going to cope with this
16:08they're not
16:09they're going to need help
16:10we know we're going to be under the microscope of a prime minister
16:14you know you're potentially going to be under international scrutiny and the glare of publicity
16:19there's nothing more stressful than that
16:21we've got two people who are gravely ill
16:23you're wondering whether this is going to turn into a murder
16:26so all of that's going through your head
16:31where are we going to be capable of pivoting towards this new threat
16:36in the face of
16:38what looks like a hostile act of war
17:24what can you tell me about what happens here at portendown
17:29and there is no other facility in the northern kingdom that's capable of doing the things that
17:32we can do here and some of those i can't talk about
17:36but what i can say is that here at the defense science and technology laboratories
17:42we handle and create the most hazardous and dangerous materials that are that are known
17:50in order to protect people if those materials are used against them
18:01i got a telephone call
18:04there are two individuals who are very unwell in salisbury
18:08they weren't responding in the expected way to the treatments that they had been given
18:15but then i was told that one of them was russian
18:28there are countries that have developed chemicals and poisons as weapons clearly the united kingdom
18:36stopped that some considerable time ago but some countries kept developing
18:43and russia is believed to be one of those countries
18:46i started to think we need to get hold of blood samples to do tests
18:52to work out whether or not there are any highly hazardous pathogens
18:57or highly poisonous chemicals in the blood
19:00and to get that information into the hands of the doctors to try to save life
19:05but i remember thinking is this the tip of a very large iceberg
19:22the president of the united states
19:29bulgaria estonia latvia lithuania
19:38romania slovakia and slovenia
19:47these seven nations were captives to an empire
19:52they endured bitter tyranny they struggled for independence
20:24the first line of my job description
20:27is to improve and protect the house of my population
20:30i've worked on pandemic flus
20:33done food poisoning a few times
20:37never eat the pate would be my advice
20:39it's always the pate
20:42but i still grapple with the fact that this happened
20:48you realize how close to the surface it actually still is
20:53it's it's you bury things don't you
21:04i was driving into work got a phone call to say that two people had been taken poorly
21:12all i was told was that their health presentation was critical and we needed to have a strategic
21:19meeting at the headquarters
21:22as soon as i walked in the room i knew it certainly isn't going to be a normal monday
21:31there were so many organizations in there police are there the fire service are there the ambulance
21:37the military we've got scientists the hospital the council people from government
21:44the fact that that group had come together so vastly so quickly um makes you think well what is this
21:53the hospital shared with us how poorly sergey and julia were the police showed us the parts
22:00of town that were cordoned off so where the bench was and sergey's home which is a little
22:06cul-de-sac my job as the director of public health was to try and understand where was the exposure
22:13and how many people could potentially have been exposed but not knowing what the contaminant is
22:21makes it harder to put out that burning bridge
22:26how do we identify these individuals and get to them before it spreads and more people become
22:49poorly from this
22:50some news coming into us from salisbury district hospital
22:55which says it's currently dealing with a major incident involving some casualties
23:01fewer than 10 but a number of casualties they're saying um and a small part of the accident and
23:07emergency department there the police turned up
23:14everyone was asking you know why there aren't police with submachine guns outside the icu everything
23:20was being checked and searched and it was all over the news that a major incident declared at
23:28spring
23:32there were these individuals in level four hazmat suits dealing with the park bench decontaminating it
23:41and some of the nursing stuff coming on shift you know some of their family members said things
23:46like well will you be wearing one of those when you get to work and no they won't be they
23:51were just
23:52wearing single-use gloves and a little plastic pinafore and that's it that's it
24:02we are spending the whole time beside the patient supporting all these failing organ systems supporting
24:08the breathing supporting the circulation supporting the kidneys preventing them from having seizures
24:14trying to keep these patients alive
24:17i was aware that we might be at risk because any contamination was now likely to be in the intensive
24:24care unit i kept checking my pulse to see if it was slow desperately desperately wanted to know what
24:32the issue they'd been poisoned with and wondering if somebody's done this deliberately are they going
24:40to do this somewhere else they can do this in central london
24:57we have a breaking story tonight former russian spies in a critical condition in hospital in salisbury
25:03along with a woman in her 30s
25:09the bbc was told that one of those is a 66 year old man called sergey skirpel now counterterrorism
25:16police in britain are handling this case yet they're not yet calling it terrorism or an assassination
25:21attempt instead they say it's unusual circumstances
25:28as it became clear that this was a really serious instance
25:33i started to worry about whether or not i was going to get ill
25:38or whether or not i was contagious and i hadn't had much sleep so i probably wasn't thinking straight
25:44my wife and my daughter had gone out to school um later that day they were going to come home
25:49and i didn't know if they were safe to come home
25:53i phoned nick bailey the sergeant who searched sergey's home address with me
25:59and uh said how you feeling and he went oh i feel awful
26:06as the day went on nick became increasingly uh poorly and started to hallucinate
26:13and ended up in intensive care we didn't know whether or not he was going to survive
26:24i drove down to see my family who lived the next county along and my sister had just had a
26:29baby
26:30her daughter was only two months old she was tiny i was holding um the baby when i got a
26:38call
26:38saying come back in bring all of your kit everything that you touched and i thought there's
26:44a contamination issue and i'm holding a two-month-old baby my heart dropped and i felt sick panics at
26:51him
27:00so
27:16We start looking at what we call victimology.
27:19You want the fullest picture of the victim.
27:22Now that's who they are, where they come from,
27:25but it's also everyone they've known,
27:28everyone they've talked to, who they've been communicating with.
27:31Where they've been, because at some point,
27:34the person who's tried to kill them will cross with that point
27:36and the motive will become apparent.
27:41And the £2 billion intelligence machine that sits behind you
27:45when you're doing an investigation
27:46gives you access to everything that's ever been known
27:50in British history about Sergei Skruppel and his family.
27:58We've discovered that the background history on Sergei
28:01is very unusual.
28:04Ex-colonel inside a high-level military covert intelligence unit
28:10called the GRU,
28:12which is deployed by the Russians overseas
28:16to conduct covert operations.
28:19That unit would not operate without the sanction
28:23of the highest levels of the Russian government
28:26to the very top.
28:30But he was considered a traitor by Russia,
28:34arrested and imprisoned in Russia,
28:40and then eventually traded in a spy swap.
28:44And he decided to live in Salisbury.
28:47It's very John le Carré.
28:52We found out his neighbours had become close friends.
28:55He'd lived there for years.
28:56So his neighbours were able to say,
28:57well, he's disclosed to us that, you know,
28:59his military and his diplomatic background.
29:03And he talked about, well, and Putin knows who I am.
29:10So he wasn't shy about talking about his history,
29:15which might be considered a security lapse
29:18for somebody of his experience.
29:20Very little is known about Yulia
29:22other than that she was his daughter.
29:25But friends helped Sergei collect Yulia
29:27from the airport the day before.
29:29So finding out what plane she was on meant
29:32we could then start tracking Yulia's movements
29:34all the way back to Russia.
29:37We were trying to keep as open-minded as possible
29:42because we have two people in a coma
29:43who can't tell us anything.
30:02I was sitting in the office at Newsnight.
30:05The editor of the day walked over and said,
30:08have you seen this story about Salisbury
30:11and Sergei Skripal?
30:13And I was very shocked
30:17because I'm the only journalist
30:20who's ever actually met him.
30:23So when the Sergei Skripal spy swap happened,
30:27I was naturally really curious.
30:30I wanted to interview him
30:32to try and understand as much as I could
30:34about espionage between Russia and the West
30:39and to see was he willing to talk about
30:42the circumstances of how he'd started
30:44working for Great Britain.
30:50I discovered that Skripal was on the electoral register
30:54in Salisbury.
30:56So it was a summer's day
30:58and I'd driven down from London to his home.
31:03I'm always aware my phone may be tracked,
31:07so I put my phone on airplane mode.
31:13He came to the door.
31:15I commented on the fact that there was no CCTV camera
31:19or anything like that,
31:20but he had rejected surveillance technology around his house.
31:30He didn't really want to give an interview.
31:33He didn't want to cause trouble for his family.
31:37At the same time,
31:38he kind of wanted people to know his story.
31:43So I got my notebook out
31:57Sergei told me that in the mid-1990s,
32:01he was posted as a colonel
32:03in Russian military intelligence,
32:05first to Malta and then to Madrid,
32:08where his job was recruiting spies
32:13and trying to get them
32:15to produce meaningful intelligence.
32:19But little did he realise,
32:21at the same time,
32:22MI6 had been looking at him
32:25as a possible asset
32:26for British intelligence.
32:33The pitch happened in a park.
32:37Sergei was quite amused
32:39about how nervous
32:41the MI6 guy looked
32:44when finally he'd popped the question.
32:50And Sergei said yes.
32:52He agreed to work
32:53for British intelligence for money.
32:58So the first thing that Sergei did
33:00was to create a large picture
33:03on several joined-up pieces of paper,
33:06an entire organogram
33:08of the Russian military intelligence organisation,
33:12along with the names
33:14of all the principal bosses.
33:17And he also told them
33:19that they had their own moles
33:21working for Russian intelligence.
33:26So this thing landed
33:28like an absolute bombshell.
33:31But, clearly, in Russian eyes,
33:33this was treachery.
33:35So, sitting in the office,
33:37I thought,
33:39oh, my God,
33:40this guy and his daughter
33:41are now going to die.
33:54Tonight's main news,
33:55it's been revealed
33:56that the former Russian agent,
33:57Alexander Litvinenko,
33:58who died last night,
33:59had traces of radioactive
34:01polonium-210 in his body.
34:03Tonight's searches
34:04are ongoing at the hotel
34:05and the restaurant
34:06Mr Litvinenko visited
34:08before his death.
34:12But whoever it was
34:13who killed him
34:14had access to the materials,
34:16had the expertise
34:17to carry it out,
34:18and, more tellingly,
34:19the stealth to do it
34:20without leaving
34:21an immediate trace.
34:25The death of a man
34:26is always a tragedy.
34:30And I bring my blessings
34:32to the close of Mr Litvinenko
34:35and his family.
35:03I got a phone call.
35:05And I recall
35:08listening to what
35:09the person on the telephone
35:11was telling me
35:12and my blood simply ran cold.
35:19He said the blood results
35:21from Sergei and Yulia
35:23showed the presence
35:24of a nerve agent.
35:28But because of the sensitivity,
35:30they wouldn't tell me
35:31the name down the telephone.
35:34So a person in an emergency
35:36response vehicle
35:38came to tell me
35:40it was Novichok.
35:47I knew what we were going
35:48to have to deal with
35:49had simply escalated.
35:58Novichok is one of the most
35:59potent and toxic poisons
36:03potent and toxic poisons
36:04that there is.
36:05The minimum lethal dose,
36:07you're talking a grain of sand,
36:10it's very sticky.
36:12Imagine a very liquidy honey.
36:14And in fact,
36:15you cannot get it
36:16off of most materials.
36:18It's difficult to detect
36:20because it doesn't
36:22produce a vapor.
36:24To be able to make it
36:26requires a lot of knowledge
36:27and a highly skilled chemist.
36:30And it's associated
36:32with Russia.
36:35I couldn't understand
36:36how somebody could be
36:38so reckless
36:39as to use something
36:41that hazardous
36:42in an urban population.
36:46where has it come from?
36:48Is there any more out there?
36:50I was in a situation
36:52that I have never been in
36:53on a scale
36:54that I was not ready for.
37:11To try and stop it
37:12from spreading,
37:13one of the key things
37:13you have to do
37:14is understand
37:15where Sergei and Yulia have been.
37:18Counter-terrorism police
37:20had started to map
37:21where they'd gone
37:22using CCTV.
37:25So from that original scene
37:27where Sergei and Yulia
37:29were first found
37:30on the bench,
37:32we could work out
37:33where Sergei
37:34had parked his car.
37:36We know from there
37:38they've taken a walk
37:39around the park.
37:41We know that they've
37:42visited a pond.
37:45We know they then
37:46walked to a pub
37:47and we know that
37:47they've stayed there
37:48for a drink.
37:51They then walk to
37:52a restaurant
37:53where they eat.
37:56We know what table
37:57they've sat at.
37:58We know what time
38:00they leave.
38:04And from there
38:05we know they've become
38:06poorly on the bench.
38:09But up until
38:10they're on the bench
38:11they're well.
38:14So they could have
38:15become contaminated
38:16at any point.
38:20We know Salisbury
38:21town filled up
38:22quite a lot
38:22on Sunday afternoon.
38:23So if they were
38:25contaminated for the
38:26whole of this walk
38:26around,
38:27how many people
38:28around them
38:29are at risk?
38:32You know,
38:33you think about
38:33the people that
38:34have been in the
38:34restaurant at the
38:35same time
38:35or the bar
38:36at the same time.
38:39But then
38:40as we were
38:41working through
38:41the timeline
38:42one of the
38:43places that
38:44was shared
38:44with us
38:45was the river
38:46and there
38:48was an image
38:49on CCTV
38:50of Sergei
38:51and Yulia
38:52feeding ducks.
38:57But the CCTV
38:58also shows
39:00Sergei
39:00sharing bread
39:01with children
39:02who were then
39:03feeding the ducks.
39:07So have
39:08they been
39:08affected?
39:10We have to
39:11get the children
39:12checked.
39:13But how do
39:14we find them?
39:16Of course,
39:17we knew
39:18what the
39:18substance was
39:19and how
39:20dangerous it
39:20was.
39:21The fact that
39:22it was a
39:22synthetic
39:23chemical.
39:24So, you know,
39:25you do think,
39:26you know,
39:27how can anybody
39:28survive it?
39:29So you are
39:30worried.
39:31And there's
39:32just the
39:33recklessness of it.
39:34You know,
39:35how does it
39:36happen?
39:37And how does
39:38it happen here?
39:41It's just
39:42a sense of
39:43disbelief.
39:46We need to
39:47shut down
39:47or contain
39:48those other
39:49areas so
39:50no further
39:51people are
39:51exposed.
39:53But where the
39:53risks were
39:54and what needed
39:55to be responded
39:55to was shifting
39:56all the time,
39:57almost hourly.
40:03we'd been in
40:03that room
40:04in this sort
40:05of bubble,
40:06I suppose.
40:10And I remember
40:11getting home
40:11and my husband
40:12was sat in the lounge
40:13and he had the
40:14news on.
40:16It was
40:16extraordinary
40:17the way the
40:18news was coming
40:19through,
40:20this very sort
40:20of fragmented
40:23half-fax.
40:25That's all
40:26people had
40:27at that point.
40:28It was at that
40:29moment that I
40:30thought,
40:31wow,
40:32the whole world
40:32is talking about
40:33this.
40:35God,
40:35this is enormous.
40:53When Horton
40:54Dan come back,
40:55I'm saying it's
40:56called Novichok
40:57and it was
40:57designed by
40:58Russia.
41:00That's the point,
41:01I think,
41:01where everyone
41:01thought,
41:01oh my God.
41:03This is a
41:04chemical nerve
41:05agent.
41:06developed for
41:07military purposes
41:07by a state.
41:09That hadn't
41:10happened on
41:10European soil
41:11since World War
41:12II.
41:12What do you
41:13do?
41:19Cobra is
41:20held in a
41:21top-secret
41:21environment
41:22in a bunker
41:23underground
41:23with a lot
41:24of security
41:25to get into
41:25it.
41:26No
41:26electronics.
41:28All the
41:28papers are
41:29classified.
41:29You don't
41:30take anything
41:31out of the
41:31room.
41:32Clearly,
41:32what you're
41:32trying to
41:33avoid is
41:33your enemies
41:34eavesdropping
41:35on your
41:36conversations.
41:38And in that
41:39meeting will be
41:39the heads of
41:40the intelligence
41:41agencies,
41:42the most
41:42serious level
41:43of military,
41:44all the
41:44most senior
41:44ministers,
41:46and the
41:46prime minister
41:47will be
41:47looking at
41:47me for
41:48answers.
41:49Because it's
41:50an existential
41:50crisis for a
41:51government,
41:52and they are
41:52desperate for you
41:53to solve it
41:54for them and
41:54make sure
41:55nothing else
41:55happens.
41:58This is the
41:59attempted murder
42:00of two Russian
42:00citizens on
42:01English soil,
42:02and you have
42:03British citizens
42:04as collateral
42:05damage.
42:05That's a hot
42:06act.
42:07That's not a
42:07Cold War
42:07act.
42:08It's not
42:09spying.
42:10It's a terrorist
42:11act by a
42:12government.
42:13The pressure
42:14was, when are
42:15we going to
42:16declare the
42:17Russians
42:17responsible?
42:20Novichok was
42:20developed by the
42:21Russians in the
42:221980s.
42:22No one else
42:23developed it.
42:27But that
42:28doesn't mean
42:28therefore it
42:29must have been
42:29Russia who
42:30deployed the
42:31Novichok.
42:31It's just a
42:32very, very
42:33strong hypothesis.
42:38And for a
42:39prime minister of
42:40the country to
42:40get that wrong,
42:41when the US
42:42president, the
42:44five eyes
42:44countries, the
42:46European Union,
42:47every Western
42:48ally, they're
42:49looking at you
42:50for an answer
42:51about what's
42:51happened would
42:52have been a
42:53terrible mistake.
42:55And no one
42:56wants to tip
42:57into a hot
42:58wall.
42:59And that was
43:00the fundamental
43:00tension.
43:01You want me to
43:02confirm something
43:03that I can't
43:04100% confirm.
43:07Prime Minister,
43:08it's your decision
43:09about how you
43:09want to say
43:10what you want
43:11to say in
43:12public.
43:29order, statement, the
43:32prime minister.
43:36It is now clear
43:37that Mr. Skripal and
43:39his daughter were
43:40poisoned with a
43:40military-grade nerve
43:42agent of a type
43:43developed by Russia,
43:44known as Novichok.
43:46The government has
43:47concluded that it is
43:48highly likely that
43:50Russia was responsible
43:51for the act against
43:52Sergei and Yulia Skripal.
43:55either this was a direct
43:56act by the Russian
43:57state against our
43:59country, or the
44:00Russian government
44:01lost control and
44:02allowed it to get
44:03into the hands of
44:04others.
44:05We must now stand
44:06ready to take much
44:08more extensive
44:08measures.
44:10Should there be no
44:11credible response,
44:12we will conclude that
44:13this action amounts to
44:15an unlawful use of
44:16force by the Russian
44:17state against the
44:19United Kingdom.
44:20I commend this
44:22statement to the
44:22House.
44:25She said it was a
44:26Novichok agent, but
44:28everyone was talking
44:28about it.
44:29It just seemed such a
44:30wild thing to think
44:31of.
44:32You know, this should
44:33be happening in
44:34Washington or London
44:35or Paris, not
44:38Salisbury.
44:39And I suppose I did
44:40think if we're not
44:41careful, they might
44:42come back and try and
44:43finish the job.
44:44Crimes, Novichok.
44:46And like probably most
44:48people, I had no idea
44:49what Novichok was at
44:50the time.
44:51You know, immediately
44:51start trying to Google
44:52it and search it and
44:54just find out what it
44:55was that we were
44:56dealing with.
44:57And I think like
44:57everyone in Wiltshire,
44:59it's kind of like, you
45:00know, where next?
45:01What's going to happen
45:02next?
45:02It's a very dramatic
45:04statement.
45:04I think someone who
45:05described you could
45:06hear a pin drop in
45:07that house.
45:08At the time, it felt
45:09like a, well, potential
45:12declaration of war.
45:15Put up or shut up.
45:17If you can't prove to
45:18us that this isn't
45:19down to you, then there
45:21may be something else
45:22coming.
45:34We start to build up
45:36this picture, viewing
45:37locations in granular
45:39detail.
45:40And then we have a
45:42eureka moment.
45:43They were walking in
45:45military formation.
45:47And then all of a
45:49sudden, Russian media
45:51started to appear in
45:53Salisbury, which raised
45:55anxiety.
45:56What are they here to
45:57see?
45:58What are they reporting
45:58back?
46:01I get a phone call from
46:03the Ministry of Defence.
46:05Chez, yeah, we've got
46:06this, we've got this
46:07problem.
46:09And I remember being in
46:10shock.
46:10Look, the hairs go up
46:12on the back of your
46:12neck.
46:13We are all being
46:15activated.
46:20And support for
46:21issues raised can be
46:22found online at
46:23channel4.com
46:24slash support.
46:25And the story continues
46:27next Wednesday at
46:28nine o'clock.
46:29Thanks tonight,
46:30undergoing his own
46:31culinary operation,
46:32Gordon's stepping into
46:34a brisket nightmare
46:35in secret service.
46:36Yes.
46:37Yes.
46:38Yes.
46:38Yes.
46:39Yes.
46:40Yes.
46:45Transcription by CastingWords
Comments