EXCLUSIVE | The Salisbury Poisonings' Anne-Marie Duff says she was lucky to meet real-life Tracy Daszkiewicz
'The Salisbury Poisonings' is the latest in a long line of fact-based stories to come to television. Based on the 2018 Novichok poisoning crisis in the cathedral town of Salisbury, England, and the subsequent Amesbury poisonings, the show follows key players involved in averting the crisis in time. At the centre of this is Tracy Daszkiewicz whose prompt action and thoughtful decision-making proved vital for the containment of the lethal nerve agent.
Following the key characters in Anne-Marie Duff as Tracy, Rafe Spall as Nick Bailey and MyAnna Buring as Dawn Sturgess, the show sheds light on not only the fact surrounding the deadly attack and the effectiveness of public health system but also how it affected first responders and those closely working with the office. "If ever there was a time for us to appreciate our first responders and people who were on the ground saving our lives, this is it, right?" actress Anne-Marie Duff tells MEA WorldWide in an exclusive interview. "'The Salisbury Poisonings' is a bizarre little microcosm of what we're going through right now. It's a drama about international espionage if you like, but [more about] how it affects normal people who were just getting on with their lives."
The fact-based show required a lot of research with writers Adam Patterson and Declan Lawn, who were investigative journalists, spending months in Salisbury before filming. Even Duff met with the real-life Tracy who was the then Director of Public Health and Safety for the county of Wiltshire in England. "It's very rare that you actually get to meet someone you're playing and get to ask all the questions you're desperate to ask," Duff recalls from the time she met her.
"I was super lucky. I got to spend a day with her initially to just hang out with her. I met her at her home and we talked for hours," she says. Duff met her with the intention of getting to know the woman and the officer that Tracy was and not to do an impersonation of her. "I just wanted to get a sense of her. I don't want to do a silly impression of her - where I do how they walk or laugh - I didn't think it would be useful. I just wanted to get a sense of how she is in the world, how the temperature changes when she walks into a room 0 all of those things. That's the truth of a person, isn't it?" Duff was more interested in "the impression they leave behind on other people".
'The Salisbury Poisonings' is currently streaming on AMC+.
