BBC announces searing hostage diplomacy doc helmed by Stern & Wild client

Congratulations to Stern & Wild filmmaker Erica Gornall, Director of the newly announced BBC feature documentary PRISONER 951: THE HOSTAGES’ STORY which examines the six-year ordeal of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, the British-Iranian charity worker held hostage in Tehran, and the tireless campaign by her husband, Richard Ratcliffe, to bring her home.

The 90-min film follows Nazanin’s story from her 2016 imprisonment and separation from her 22-month-old daughter, Gabriella to her eventual release in 2022 alongside British-Iranian retired engineer Anoosheh Ashoori. Her case dominated headlines but now Nazanin describes her imprisonment in her own words: how she endured solitary confinement, psychological torment, and staged hunger strikes in a desperate fight for justice. Her story became symbolic of a wider crisis in global diplomacy – one where individuals are increasingly used as geopolitical bargaining chips.

With exclusive access to Nazanin and Richard, as well as Anoosheh and other former hostages, the film offers a rare look at the human cost of being used as leverage in political negotiations between states, and examines the wider pattern of wrongful detention and the international failure to prevent it.

The film is produced by Dancing Ledge Productions for BBC iPlayer and BBC Two and will accompany the broadcaster’s four-part factual drama, PRISONER 951, produced by the same production co and based on Nazanin and Richard’s forthcoming book, A YARD OF SKY. Fatima Salaria is Exec Producer and the Producer is Cassie Cornish-Trestrail who previously worked with Erica on the acclaimed BBC feature documentary AL FAYED: PREDATOR AT HARRODS.

Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and Anoosheh Ashoori arrive at Brize Norton, Oxfordshire, after being freed from detention by Iranian authorities. Image: BBC/Leon Neal/Alamy