What really happened in Salisbury?

In March 2018, Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter were found slumped on a bench in Salisbury. A new documentary hears from the consultant who tried to keep the victims alive. James Rampton reports

Salisbury, a sleepy city not used to international espionage (Getty)

World famous for its magnificent early English Gothic cathedral and beautiful medieval centre, Salisbury is the epitome of a quiet, historic English city. It seems like the last place on Earth where an extremely dangerous geopolitical incident would blow up. Which is why no one could believe it when three years ago Salisbury became the scene of a horrendous attack by a foreign power and the epicentre of an international espionage story that grabbed the world’s attention.

On 4 March 2018, the former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were found slumped on a bench in the Maltings in a catatonic state and rushed to Salisbury District Hospital.

They were fighting for their lives, having been poisoned by the deadly nerve agent novichok, which had been smeared on the handle of the front door at his home in Christie Miller Road.