Secrets & Spies - A Nuclear Game
Sign in to watch this content please.
- Episode
- Episode 3 - Operation Pimlico
- Broadcast Info
- 2024 (60 mins)
- Description
- It’s 1985 and Mikhail Gorbachev is the new, young leader of the Soviet Union at a very tense time. While both sides have hopes of peace, they have been publicly stockpiling nuclear weapons for decades. Neither side wants to appear weak. Thatcher and Reagan hope that a fresh leadership in the Kremlin will offer an opportunity for constructive dialogue. Top double agent Oleg Gordievsky is pivotal in these negotiations, but a sudden summons back to Moscow by his KGB bosses has unnerved him - do they know he is secretly spying for Britain? When he arrives at his Moscow flat and discovers that a lock which he never turns has been used, his fears are confirmed. At the British Embassy, MI6 officers working undercover as diplomats are on standby. Raymond Asquith has been briefed on a far-fetched mission which can be activated if Gordievsky needs rescue. He’s on the lookout for a signal but doesn’t really believe it will ever be used. In America, CIA agent Aldrich Ames is pleased with himself; he’s pulled off a deal with the KGB, selling them the names of two Soviet double agents in exchange for $50,000. But when he hears of the arrest of another CIA double agent, the reality of his situation begins to dawn. If any other Soviet double agents learn of his deception, they could turn him in. His only option appears to be to continue playing this dangerous game and betray all of the Soviet agents working for US agencies. In Moscow, Gordievsky’s world begins to unravel as his KGB bosses drug and interrogate him, desperate for a confession. Gordievsky stays strong and never admits his work with the British. The KGB decide to release him, but he must remain in Russia under close surveillance. Gordievsky knows his days are numbered. On the other side of the iron curtain, Aldrich Ames makes a decision. To cover his own back, he hands over the names of 18 Soviet double agents. In one move he has blown almost the whole CIA network of double-agents. His ace card is Oleg Gordievsky... the KGB now have actual proof against Britain’s top double agent. Oleg Gordievsky is on borrowed time. As Reagan and Gorbachev announce plans for an historic summit, Gordievsky, unaware he has been compromised by Ames, decides he has no choice but to leave his family behind and escape. He raises the secret signal to MI6. British authorities must now decide whether to risk these fragile new steps towards peace in a high stakes escape plot. The decision rests with Thatcher. Grateful for everything Oleg has done to smooth the East-West relationship, Thatcher approves the escape plan. On July 19th, 1985, Oleg sets off on a seemingly routine jog, instead he heads for the woods, shakes off his KGB shadows and flees. A carefully orchestrated route of buses and trains takes him to a pre-agreed rendezvous point, while the MI6 team race to meet him. They too must evade their KGB tail and concoct a reason for leaving Russia, claiming a medical emergency and taking their whole family as cover. It is an audacious and high stakes plan and when the sniffer dogs surround the car at the border, they fear Oleg’s hiding place in the boot will be discovered. Thinking on their feet, they decide to change their baby’s nappy and distract the dogs, saving Gordievsky’s life. Gordievsky is successfully smuggled across the Finnish border to freedom. The British Government initially tries to keep the story out of the newspapers, but when the Soviets refuse to release Gordievsky’s family, the story breaks. Now all the careful diplomacy comes under enormous strain: could this humiliation unseat the delicate political steps towards peace? Reagan and Gorbachev agree a meeting in person but on neutral territory, an event that will become known as The Geneva Summit. History will mark this as the beginning of the end of the Cold War and the path to dismantling nuclear weapons on both sides. While the Cold War eventually ends, politics and spy games never do. Six years later Oleg Gordievsky is living in the West, giving talks and interviews about his experiences and knowledge. At one such event in the CIA building in Washington DC, he shakes hands with a friendly member of his audience: Aldrich Ames, a traitor who remains undiscovered at the heart of the CIA. Back in Russia, Gordievsky’s escape remains a sore point; blame lands in Leningrad, among colleagues of another young KGB agent named Vladimir Putin. Putin’s career is just beginning but his views on Gordievsky’s betrayal and his disappointment with Gorbachev’s foreign policy and close ties with the west will become deeply influential. The episode includes exclusive audio recordings of Aldrich Ames, audio interviews from Oleg Gordievsky, and interviews with former KGB, CIA, FBI and MI6 officers, including one of the MI6 officers who rescued Gordievsky. Other interviews include colleagues of Thatcher, Reagan and Gorbachev, and experts with personal connections to the story such as Susan Eisenhower and Nina Khrushcheva.
- Genre
- History
How to cite this record
The Open University, "Secrets & Spies - A Nuclear Game". https://learningonscreen.ac.uk/ou/search/index.php/prog/249309 (Accessed 10 Jan 2025)