Everyone is talking about the BBC's newest drama series, and for good reason. Prisoner 951 tells the true story of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and has renewed public interest in her wrongful imprisonment in Iran, which lasted six long years.
The four-part series has viewers (us included) hooked. "Almost too unbearable to watch, but quite brilliantly written," one viewer wrote on X after the first episode aired, as another described it as "powerful".
While Prisoner 951 is a dramatisation of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe's ordeal, it is based on real-life events. Here, we take a look at where Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe is now, and recap the events that inspired Prisoner 951....
Where is Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe now?
After six years of unjust imprisonment in Iran (more on that in a moment), Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe was finally freed in March 2022. Upon her release, Zaghari-Ratcliffe returned to the UK, where she was reunited with her husband and daughter.
Zaghari-Ratcliffe currently lives in London with her husband and daughter, and has not returned to Iran since her ordeal, because she has been exiled. Despite her exile and the six-year imprisonment she endured, Zaghari-Ratcliffe still misses her homeland.
"I was forced to live in exile after I left prison and came back to the UK, but the thing I really, really miss is my country," she told The Independent. "Even though I live far from Iran now, my heart beats every single day for what happens in my country."
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What has Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe done since her release?
Since her release, Zaghari-Ratcliffe has become a spokesperson for people taken hostage and wrongfully imprisoned by foreign states, something she criticises the UK government for being in denial over. In 2022, Zaghari-Ratcliff met with Prime Minister Boris Johnson to discuss the impact comments he made as Foreign Secretary in 2017 had had on her case. During their meeting, Zaghari-Ratcliffe told the PM she had "lived in the shadow" of his words, which had a "lasting impact" on her case – read more about Johnson's involvement, and the outcome of his meeting with Zaghari-Ratcliffe, here.
More recently, at a conference in November 2025, Zaghari-Ratcliffe said: "The government has a moral duty of care for each and every citizen who is arbitrarily detained abroad."
"That duty should be fair," she said, per The Guardian. Unfortunately, the government's policy in such cases is discretionary. If you are not made a priority to them, you run the risk of being left behind."
As for what needs to change, Zaghari-Ratcliffe said this is a "still-neglected policy area" but suggested that one of the recommendations is to "establish a hostage envoy."
"The foreign secretary personally met with us to explain how important it was to him," she added of this recommendation. "However, the hostage envoy has not yet been established. There has been no improvement in the UK government's approach to dealing with hostage taking. It feels we are still in the denial phase."
What happened to Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe?
In 2016, British-Iranian national Zaghari-Ratcliffe travelled with her 22-month-old daughter Gabriella to Tehran to visit her parents for Iranian New Year. As they prepared to return to the UK, Zaghari-Ratcliffe was taken into custody and her daughter's British passport revoked.
Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who had previously worked for the BBC World Service Trust and Reuters, was accused of plotting to overthrow the Iranian government, allegations she denied. Although her daughter's passport was returned and she was given into the care of her maternal grandparents, Zaghari-Ratcliffe remained in custody and she was put into solitary confinement for over eight months. During this time, Zaghari-Ratcliffe was denied access to a lawyer and, at trial, was sentenced to five years in prison.
Meanwhile, in the UK, Zaghari-Ratcliffe's husband Richard Ratcliffe fought for her freedom, and said in 2021 that his wife was being held "hostage" due to the UK allegedly owing a £400 million debt to Iran that dated back to 1979. However, both the UK and Iranian governments denied Ratcliffe's claim that the debt was linked to Zaghari-Ratcliffe's imprisonment.
Back in Iran, Zaghari-Ratcliffe's ordeal continued, but she was temporarily released during the COVID-19 pandemic. She was subject to electronic monitoring at her parents' home in Tehran, where she could only venture 300 metres away.
By March 2021, Zaghari-Ratcliffe's original sentence ended, but she was sentenced to yet another year in prison after being found guilty of propaganda activities against the government. She was also handed a one-year travel ban. Later that year, in November, her husband went on a hunger strike to demand that then-Prime Minister Boris Johnson "deliver on his promises" to repay the debt incurred by the UK to Iran.
"He promised to settle a debt, and he hasn't, and now my wife is being held hostage. He needs to deliver on that promise," Ratcliffe told PA News at the time. "He needs to take responsibility for that and the consequences of his failings. I think if he does that, she will be protected."
How long was Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe in jail?
Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe was imprisoned in Iran for six years. She was arrested in 2016 and was not freed from jail until March 2022, although she spent a year under house arrest due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
How accurate is Prisoner 951 to the true story?
Although the BBC's Prisoner 951 is based on the true-life story of Zaghari-Ratcliffe, it is a dramatised retelling of her and her husband's first-hand accounts. This means that others may have differing takes on what happened. Some elements of the story have been changed, too. At the start of each episode, there is a note explaining that some names have been changed and that some scenes have been imagined.
Speaking about his research and how true-to-life the series is, writer Stephen Butchard told Radio Times: "It was a case of speaking to the people involved, some members of the government and trying to get minutes of meetings... everything that's on screen we've tried to back up with records of the real events."
"It was about making it as truthful and as based on fact as possible," he continued. "When you're dealing with a drama like this, that's the responsibility you have."
When is the next episode of Prisoner 951 out?
Prisoner 951 continues on BBC1 at 9pm on Sunday 30 November and Monday 1 December. All four episodes are already available to stream on BBC iPlayer.
