Stella Gonet

The Salisbury Poisonings, episode 3 review: a warm tribute to ordinary people who rose to an extraordinary challenge

• If policeman Nick Bailey and, especially, public health director Tracy Daszkiewicz were the heroes of the first two episodes, the finale of The Salisbury Poisonings (BBC One) was dedicated to honouring the memory of Dawn Sturgess. It made for an affecting end to an unexpectedly excellent and eerily prescient series. The media narrative in 2018 had been quick to dismiss Dawn as a homeless drug addict. Here we saw the human truth behind the lurid headlines. She was a 44-year-old mother-of-three who was struggling to get her life back on track, who came from a large family, who loved and was loved. It was a reminder that behind the bare facts lay tales of personal tragedy. As we rejoined the drama for this third and final episode – stripped across the schedules on consecutive nights, rather like ITV’s fact-based drama Quiz over Easter, it's been equally riveting – it was three months later. Life in Salisbury was returning to normal. Royalty visited. The World Cup kicked off. The sleepy cathedral city was about to get another rude awakening. Dawn (MyAnna Buring) was staying with boyfriend Charlie Rowley (Johnny Harris) and getting ready to see her daughter Gracie when he surprised her with a bottle of perfume he’d found on one of their skip-scavenging expeditions. As viewers willed her not to do it, even though we knew full well she would, Dawn sprayed herself with it. There was a pause when she pointed out with puzzlement that it seemed to be odourless. Within minutes, she collapsed and was rushed to intensive care. Charlie soon followed suit and joined her in hospital. Everyone initially assumed it was a drug overdose. Then Dawn’s family were told she had been contaminated with nerve agent Novichok. The guilty relief of her estranged father Stan (Ron Cook) – “So Dawn didn’t take anything herself? It wasn’t her fault?” – was heartbreaking.