Benedict Cumberbatch to play poisoned Soviet spy in HBO series

British star Benedict Cumberbatch will star in an upcoming HBO limited series, titled Londongrad. Based on Alan Cowell’s book The Terminal Spy, the show will feature Cumberbatch as former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko who was poisoned with Polonium-210 in 2006. Cumberbatch will also executive produce the series under his SunnyMarch production banner, reported Variety. Litvinenko, who worked in Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) as an organized crime officer, fled to London in 2000. He became a writer, journalist and outspoken critic of Vladimir Putin. The former KGB spy was mysteriously poisoned in London in 2006. Twenty-two days after his hospitalisation, he had succumbed to the radioactive isotope polonium-210. Cumberbatch currently stars in filmmaker Jane Campion’s acclaimed Netflix feature film Power of the Dog. The actor will next reprise his Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) role of Doctor Strange in Spiderman: Far From Home and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. (PTI)