The Spy Who Went Into the Cold | Kim Philby: Soviet Super Spy | Timeline

[Music] he was just dad in in a way he's always been just my father dad was Harold Adrien Russell Phil be better known to the world as Kim an Englishman who spied for the Soviet Union I remember him as clear as day just with his sort of stuttering and you know sort of a real English you know sort of Oxford Cambridge type you know and everything really going for him it's a shame that he did what he did but that it was the last time I spoke to a communist knowing them to be a communist was sometime in 1934 it was a lie on a stormy night in Beirut a double life that had lasted 30 years ended when he defected to Russia he was one of the worst traders in history for the rest of his life he lived among a people whose language he never mastered while his countrymen counted the cost of trusting him with their secrets it infected the whole British intelligence establishment with the paranoia though in a filthy at all filthy that all Kim could have been a spy any of us could have been scores of books being written about what Philby did but the man inside remains elusive it was just like two different people living in one body strange [Music] for the investigative writer Philip Knightley Philby's defection was the start of a long pursuit these are the Philby's exercising how many were there roughly I mean how many guys did you say you talk to him yeah 20 years yes you're little from India took six weeks to reach me so the chance of a casual drink presented it's all too late uh or if you're still interested I think there's a fair possibility I was getting together for a real talk or not too distant future that's how it all started knightly took up Philippe's invitation to meet him a room had been reserved for him by the KGB nightly I said yes he said before yeah I could hardly believe it he said do you want to start work straightaway and come around for a drink and we'll meet tomorrow and I said straight away you mr. povey straight away he said a neighbor of mine won't pick you up well the neighbor turned out to be cagey reviled KTB gofer and he drove me to a small block of flats in a nice garden and we when I will live to fill this door [Music] a smaller less impressive figure than I thought because slide these tubes carpet slippers looking very much at home an Englishman receiving a visitor these drawing-room [Music] Philby's journey to that flat in Moscow had started here in Cambridge the contrast between the gilded lives around him and the harsh world outside drove him towards left-wing politics a great fear then was the rise of fascists all over Europe the question was what could people like him do about it he was very keen that his father Sinjin Phil be 350 pounds so there's there's quite a lot of money and he immediately with that money bought himself a motorcycle and took a train all the way to Vienna he got there just in time to witness the brutal suppression of local socialists by the Austrian fascist [Applause] [Music] the Nazi just reintroduced beheading for political offenses and the colored one political dissident gallows on a chair because he would already be wounded these sort of things have a very powerful impression and so did this woman Alice oh let's see Friedman she was a young worldly wise divorcee who was fighting fascism on the ground Philby fell in love almost as soon as he met her he gave her his volume of Shelley's poems and in return got a lesson in the realities of an unprivileged life she really took him in hand she was two years older than he was and they went eventually had lived in a very small flat there know practically no money but they worked hard to protect the working class against this right-wing crew after Philby defected Patrick Seale wrote a book about him evidence of his early political views wasn't hard to find Oh God this is the fruit of the research into that book any time it's a mass of stuff in there in this many years since I've looked in here it is a colossal amount of stuff here one source was a journalist called Eric Getty who met the young Philby frequently during those hectic weeks Kim came to see him and his desperate I think for suits to take to the prowl the Socialists we're running for their lives Jemmy was alarmed what's happening there and there the fact that the working-class have been absolutely sort of savagely contained and crushed by the fascists after short and passionate affair Kim married Litzy Harold Adrienne Russell Phil be married to Alice that's Litzy Freedman was a Jew to escape the Nazis the newlyweds came to London here in Regent's Park Philby had the meeting that would change his life a friend of Lindsay's another Austrian Jew called Edith had brought him here to meet a resident soviet agent codenamed otto her his advice was not what he expected don't join the Communist Party said create a cover story for yourself and get inside Britain's ruling establishment they advised him very strongly to give up communism to give up left-wing views and pretend to be a righteous which he did of course he went on and made friends with with with the German Embassy then broke completely with all his left-wing friends [Music] his great love became the collateral cost of his new mission [Music] he didn't actually divorce her until after the war by then he had three children by a respectable English woman called alien furs and was safely installed at the heart of British intelligence nobody seemed interested in the fact that he was once married to a communist had a background of belief in communism been active and left-wing politics in university was just glossed over there was something about phobia which inspired confidence he seemed like a archetypal honest Englishman for other Cambridge students with impeccable backgrounds started spying for the Soviets at the same time two of them guy Burgess and Donald MacLean were good friends of Philby's guided by the KGB they all worked their way into government jobs passing so many wartime secrets to Moscow that the Russians could scarcely believe they were genuine but the end of the war plunged them into a dangerous new world [Music] in 1949 Philby had been sent by mi6 to Washington his job was the top-secret point of liaison between British and American intelligence it was a big step up people even spoke of him becoming the next head of mi6 they only cloud on his sunny horizon was his friend guy Burgess whom he'd rather encourse ously invited to stay Burgess homosexual and louche scandalized the locals and there was worse to come this is the BBC home service and here is the news the Foreign Secretary made his expected statement in Parliament today about the disappearance of the two Foreign Office officials mr. mcclain and mr. Burgess no longer was Uncle Joe an ally of the West to spy for the Communists was the worst of sins in the anonymous buildings near Parliament where mi6 was housed there was consternation and unknown to the public but plane was about to be interrogated because of evidence supplied by the FBI someone had obviously tipped him off the finger of suspicion pointed at their bright young star in Washington Philby was recalled immediately upon the defection he traveled back to London as soon as he arrived he was taken to mi5 s headquarters waiting for him was a team of interrogators led by dick white the rising talent of the counterespionage service the trump card for mi5 was to produce Litzy Friedman's passport showed it to him and it was covered with stamps of her travels on the continent and he was asked if you were living on 2 pounds a week how could she afford to travel around the continent in this way and Philby was absolutely poleaxed by that and he had no reply but it wasn't a knockout blow they tried to get a confession from him having him interrogated by custom mill markussi and filled approved more than a match adopting a technique that the later told me the doctor frequently in these matters when asked to explain something that look really suspicious here intercept that it's interesting I can't explain that it's very very mi5 thought he was guilty and Philby had to resign from his job but some colleagues in mi6 weren't so sure Philby found himself in limbo no job with mi6 and no contact with his friends in the KGB he brought his wife and now five children down to the sleepy Sussex town of Crowe bruh and tried without much success to get work dad was all over the place he worked in the ore car he worked in Ireland we never knew really what he was doing I sort of slightly assumed you don't question his children that he might have been some sort of rep I think people helped him you know gave him with the odd job or two because he wasn't really employable they rented a large Victorian house shielded from the road by trees but the unresolved question didn't go away suddenly dad was in the news he was on the paper this is the third man the man behind this headline was J Edgar Hoover head of the FBI he was so furious that Philby had got off scot-free that he deliberately leaked information to a journalist but to plot backfired foreign secretary Harold Macmillan was asked a question about it in Parliament and with no proof that would stand up in court he had no option but declare Philby this is what he said there was no reason to conclude that he had at any time betrayed the interests of Britain or to identify him with the so-called third man if there was one he'll be immediately invited the world's press to join him at his mother's flat in Kensington on the right there was a press conference to deny charges that he was involved in the disappearance of Burgess and MacLean especially mr. Macmillan the Foreign Secretary said there was no evidence that you were the so-called third man who allegedly tipped off Burgess and MacLean I was satisfied with that clearance that he gave you yes well if there was a third man were you in fact the third man no I was not I think mom was always worried she was said to her best friend once I'm terrified Kim's going to go to Moscow or Russia and take John and Jo I was asked to resign from the Foreign Office because of an improvement association with burgers and as a result of his disappearance so beyond that I'm afraid I've got no further comment for me so do you mean she knew I really don't know I think she probably suspect he'd been accused I mean you know Burgess had been living with us it must be very difficult not to know although he was very very good he obviously was excellent because he got away with all the questioning by all the sort of authorities and came out of it the last time I spoke to a communist knowing them to be a communist was some time in 1934 just what a whopper that was very few people knew at that stage the whisper put around was that Philby had been a middle rank civil servant of no great importance then night she came across a book by a former secret agent writing under the name of John which well we quickly found out from the publishers the John Woodrow was a pseudonym better the Secret Service soon as well as well and he's ruling was the Dickenson he's publisher eventually agreed to it was these promises less which was above a cafe he's turned to London I went down to see very pathetic case like so many people have been in the Secret Service's he was in bitter dispute of these pension rights and they felt that they'd been didn't love his pension he was doing it very straight and circumstances then I realized it was that all i had to do was tell you what he's life used to be like when he was on expenses towards the end of this very boozy four-hour lunch he said I'm a bit surprised how little do you know about Foley attention order phildee's job was in the Secret Service I said well got that Oh yep says he he was in charge of the anti-soviet section the anti-soviet section of the British intelligence was in my hands sorry Dave [Music] [Music] but instead of jail lucky Kim found himself in what was then called the Paris of the Middle East this strange twist in his fortunes happened because some people in mi6 couldn't bring themselves to believe that he had betrayed them Mason's Man has been grossly wrong by the establishment and he should be looked after and they found him work so he's period of treachery was extended by years so they may find it but not any as a journalist but as a spy yes astonishing anything yes there is some fishing but there's an astonishing world dick beastin was then Middle East correspondent for the News Chronicle dick and his wife Moira befriended Philby when he arrived they noticed he drank too much but his charm was undeniable they had their stammer which people found rather attractive in a way we were sort of tried to help him out with his words it was actually his good manners and his charm which lend our very well indeed during the time of year silver in those days the British embassy in Beirut was housed in something called the spears building even today the electricity bills come in their name mi6 or the friends as they've called operated from here up on the fourth floor the whole building is being redeveloped as flats now but after the 1956 Suez Crisis it became the hub of a vast intelligence web covering the whole region it was very much a center so CIA people buzzing around the place and quite a lot of British intelligence people mostly based on the embassy did you know more or less we did yes there was a man called Paul Paulson who was the head of mi6 operation in Beirut who actually had been at school with Ken Philby and Westminster one of the embassy insiders was John Julius Norwich diplomacy like spying was still very much a gentleman's game this is the main embassy team after the new ambassador mark Ross waited to present his credentials which ones mister one in the middle here myself next parati our consul Alec Prodi our military attache Paul Paulson he was the head of mi6 at the Embassy and John so win as I see also in uniforms and always displays medals I can't exactly remember what he what he did in the summer heat embassy staff were allowed to flee to the hills every afternoon the custom in those days was to drink before you drove next to the British Embassy there was a very pleasant little establishment called Joe's Bar and several of us used to congregate in Joe's Bar at one o'clock in order to have a couple of stiff ones to help us drive up the mountain for lunch I was poor foursome and John's earliest Norwich and the Colonel Brody the military ration who's got an amusing little group of people say more of a sort of spook spa was it yeah in 1975 the streets around the embassy were overwhelmed by civil war in the shadow of those scarred buildings I found someone who remembered where the bar had once been just here in front of you hear that door still know from the 1975 1975 city code nobody can cross here they cross quickly this knife works was like was it a nice party ssin you know he had many for him it became one of Philby's favorite drinking dens over there that's a yellow building behind the trees is the British Embassy they just stepped down here to the bar he went in there was the bar on your right there was a window not more than 12 15 feet across and that's had two or three little tables at one of which was Kim who is part of the furniture you know I was never there when he wasn't there speechless I mean perhaps he could be but he didn't speak haven't you said hello Kevin he said hello and then you went and ordered your drink and everybody started talking and Kim just went on sitting there in the back table he didn't even join us he didn't get up and join the party he just sat in the back on the other hand I think he listened very very carefully to everything we were saying because one of the great mysteries of Kim was that he never went to a press conference or anything like that we have some VIP arrived Kim was not there but every Sunday in The Observer frequently on the front page this brilliant written account from har Philby Beirut and we always wanted where he didn't he how he got the information because he never seemed to move from the bar in fact Philby's main base was the normandy hotel and it was here late in 1958 the des KGB agent finally made contact again Philby said later that he felt his heart pounding with excitement as he realized he was back in the spying business the behind his cover story there were glimpses of turmoil inside at the end of a long evening my wife was sitting next to him in jazz bar actually and she said were you the third man and he said my dear if you had a great friend and he knew you had some information about him that you were getting it at all this trouble what would you do I I always valued friendship more than Mormonism's it was a sort of confession in a way but in fact it in a way it wasn't a confession because he really more interested in isms and the loyalty in 1960 the British Embassy moved into a new building on the corniche well this would be the view that the British ambassador would have had in those days Patrick seal had just joined the press corps as Philby's back up on the observer I think in retrospect I can say that he was trying to ingratiate himself with the British authorities and persuade people particularly in the intelligence service that he was rarely had been falsely accused and she was totally loyal and that I think was his ambition I think there was a certain resentment that he'd been parachuted in they felt to the core in there rather than having earned his stripes on the way up because he had been Paris treated him by the friends Alan Munro standing here behind the ambassador was then press attaché at the Embassy oddly enough some years later I found the card which Kim Philby had given me a che our Phil be the observer the Economist Hotel Normandy Beirut and on the back there he's written of this map rue can't re and so on and how to find his block of flats well this is real contrary today and up there carefully lift it was the end of the Christian quarter overlooking the port like sensational view of ferries that it was very comfortable and attractive and good place for parties parties Philby was famously charming when they started often drunk by the time they ended we all said you know what Kim needs to do is to find a really nice girl or keep him on the straight and narrow and who he found was Erina who had been the wife of Sam Brewer of the New York Times News the anyone in Beirut who drank much more than Kim did if he loved going down to the beach often with a bag full of little tiny bottles of different sorts of drink which they would consume and then struggle to come up from the beach often falling down bruising themselves it was hard to remember that back in England he still had a wife and five children one afternoon taken more a beast met him out shopping I had great news guys had covered we were celebrated camera have a drink at the northern tier then he produced this cable saying his wife had died we were very shocked about that he said well it was the best thing for everybody it's something that she's been terribly ill and hurting himself and it was the best way out for everyone her and grieving husband returned to normal business and soon married Eleanor for a few months or so they seemed very much in love and not drinking very much and while the charming and then gradually deteriorate even better and they both used to drink and honestly yes I think that is certainly true definitely yes yes indeed yes they were well suited on that line yes certainly Lorraine Copeland was Ellen his best friend in Beirut she was married to a man called miles Copeland who did freelance work for the CIA this brings our all back it was a round of parties we lived la vie diplomatique we lived a very pleasant life her son also called miles was then at school in Beirut the Philby's were often guests at his parents house Philby's were always there and he was always drunk and always stuttering and I remember saying once to my father why are we always with the Philby's and he said shut up he didn't told me later on why I should have shut up is because he was told by the CIA look we don't trust this guy since you're in Beirut keep an eye on him and it turns out the best way to keep an eye on Kim Philby was invite him to all the parties [Music] at this point a man called Nicholas Lu took over as mi6 chief in Beirut years later he would make for a spy a rare appearance on television to talk about his work I've got involved in this sort of work before the war and I think one of the attractions from my point of view was personally of course one thought it was worthwhile and secondly as such it was a very pleasant atmosphere in which to work and an enormous ly high proportion of one's colleagues male and female were personal friends not least Kim Philby whose charmed Mediterranean life Elliot had done much to engineer and once in Beirut he continued to favour him I remember the head of the mi6 station coming to see me to say I just want to tell you about one of the correspondents here a very senior one his name is Kim Philby and he reports for The Observer and for the Economist and I just want to let you know he used to be one of us and you can trust him with information and so I did who was that who was the head of station they had a station was it was Nicholas Elliot Elliot had been to Eton and Cambridge but he Wars expensive education lightly I went one day to his flat for lunch vast flat very much like in that best door of setup but he was not a man whom people took very seriously perhaps mistakenly so he was very fond of telling rather risky jokes and at lunch he was full of these stories and he gave the impression of a man who simply liked to enjoy himself for two years Philby was in clover but just as Elliot's tour of duty in Beirut was coming to an end the conversation took place a hundred and thirty miles south in Israel which would turn Philby's life upside down Philby became the focus of attention in a relatively casual conversation between Viktor Rothschild who had been an mi5 officer during the Second World War and a woman called flora Solomon had at a drinks party in Tel Aviv this is the marriage certificate of Kim Philby to his recently deceased wife Aileen who is the witness flores solomon flora solomon complained about some articles that have been written by kim Philby in the observer she felt that they were anti Zionist and she remarked to Victor Rothschild that this was pretty rich coming from Kim Philby on the basis that Philby had in fact approached her at the beginning of the war and had pitched her to join the Comintern to quote work for peace Chapman pincher Harry to his friends is approaching a hundred and a legend among spy hunting journalists he knew Victor Rothschild well and says flora actually went even further she said look if something I must tell you I know that Philby was a spy and I've known a long time it's been on my conscience I'd like to know that I know he was working for the KGB it's what she said [Music] the popular myth about the elite secret services was the great decisions were taken over games of billiards in the clubs of London all the main players in the drama that followed came from this world Victor Rothschild left the security service but he was still in very close contact with several senior mi5 officers including dick white and he reported to dick white that this conversation had taken place by then white Philby's mi5 adversary' in 1951 had been transferred to the top job at mi6 so dick on Hollis who was under head of mi5 got their heads together and decided they'd have to do something but what they would do and this thing I think is terrible because it's happened so often they decided under no circumstances would he be prosecuted in any way whatever he might admit but in return for a confession they would give him total immunity not only from prosecution but from publicity and otherwise the whole thing would be completely iced up but there were tensions between the two branches of British intelligence sis as mi6 is officially called is now over there across the Thames the normal procedure was for them to hand a matter like this over to mi5 the spy catching service just down the road accordingly mi5 were preparing one of their top interrogators for the confrontation Arthur Martin was briefed and ready to go and at that 11th hour dick White decided that it should be an sis officer who should make the approach to Kim Philby not Arthur Martin what had happened it seems is that Nicholas Elliot had returned from Beirut and got wind of what was going on he put the case to his boss that he should be the person sent to confront filming surprisingly white agreed his justification for this was that Arthur Martin would not really cut the mustard at the end of the Second World War he had been an NCO he had never risen above the rank of Sergeant and in a very class conscious world dick White who had ended up with the rank of brigadier felt very strongly that Arthur would not impress Kim Philby [Music] so they told Elliott and Elliott confirmed this to me that he had to say to Philby that they knew he had ceased to spy in 1949 and the reason for that was that that was just before filming gone to America so if they could get a statement from him saying it ceased the spine in 1949 the Americans could be assured that he'd not given know any of their secrets because he'd cease to be a spy before he went to Washington [Music] so Elliott arrived back in Beirut to confront filming but when the usual story is that he came back in January 63 but according to Eleanor Philippi in her book about his events Elliott actually came back in December just before Christmas he checked into a discreet hotel where he wouldn't be recognized and took him and herself out to an expensive meal there was the usual fund of doubtful jokes from Elliot she says but the gaiety was false and whatever was said privately between them made Kim's so depressed that he wouldn't go out over Christmas and led to him drinking so much that he cracked his head open on a radiator in their bathroom on New Year's Day what I saw was a man who's I thought was simply a drunk he'd fallen down he was wounded his head he had a wound somewhere on his head I think he was weeping quite substantially I'd never seen a grown man weep as much as he he was clearly frightened I thought it was just drunkenness I didn't really later that I understood that he was under tremendous pressure and was worried that the Russians would not save him in time so if the official story is right and the actual confrontation with Elliot was in mid-january did Elliot make an extra trip to warn his friend or did Helena get it wrong or did someone else deliver the news which ruined the Philby's Christmas here's one possible answer in Selma of 1962 I went to a recession given by my ambassador more crosthwaite and one of the guests indeed I think the principal guest was Sir Anthony blood who apparently come out to Beirut is rather unlikely quest for a frog orchid Blunt was then keeper of the Queen's pictures within 18 months he would secretly confess to being one of the Cambridge spies recruited at the same time as Kim Philby but in December 1962 he was still a close friend to Viktor Rothschild whom he'd known since their Cambridge days and both of them were friends of dick white the reception was I think given his honor he seemed very relaxed and was obviously off to do a bit of hiking in the hills and just what brought him out at the time in reality I couldn't say could it really have been that frog orchid I went to see Andre schuiteman a world orchid specialist here if the orchid library there are so many offices have their own library in queue with thousands of books and journals [Music] we have here a book focus of Britain in Ireland and here we have the folklore gets relatively common in throughout Britain you can see all the queendom and you as an expert would say that the Frog oak is simply don't grow no they don't grow in Lebanon there's a book about orcas of Lebanon there's an index so it's not in level in there it's not inevitable you're confident if Anthony Blunt went to Lebanon it would not have been to see a frog or definitely not not it was he clearly clearly allied can't be true this is the ambassador's residence where Blount was staying as a private guest Philby's flowers a short walk away there's no independent evidence that they met that it seems inconceivable to me that blunt would have traveled to they root at that time without having seen Philip in knowing that they were old friends and with many friends in common had blunt picked up a clue in something those friends had said and come to warn his fellow spy [Music] in early January Philby got a call from the embassy they said they wanted him to come to a private flat to meet the new local head of mi6 skiing fanatic Peter lund when he arrived there who should not be to learn but Nicholas Elliot according to Nicholas his first words were I thought it might be your Nicholas in the next room a tape had been set running to record the long-awaited confession Nicholas said to him we've got absolutely top-flight information you were a spy you betrayed us all betrayed me your old pal a month in on it but what we are prepared to do in return for a confession that you did do that and of course cease to spy in 1949 we will guarantee you immunity from prosecution on publicity his reaction was that he would if Nicholas Elliot came back the next day he would prepare a document in which he would set out the precise position [Music] there is still no public record of this encounter but the consensus of links and briefings is that Eliot and Phil be then had further meetings culminating in Phil be handing over a written confession exactly what was any of ours never told but it wasn't very long but it did include the important fact they'd cease to spy in 1949 which they were able to tell the American Eliot filed a report to London and flew on to Africa telling LUN that Philby was now ready to cooperate and didn't need special surveillance the hope was that he would either come back to London and make himself available for interview or alternatively he would remain in Beirut and again mi5 would be able to interview him at length and he would in effect become an asset of the intelligence community on that basis Peter LAN made an arrangement to see Phil be later and went off skiing in the mountains [Music] five days later a winter storm struck Beirut during the afternoon Philby had left the flat to meet his KGB contact E&L had been invited to dinner that evening by friends from the British Embassy as the arse slipped by Kim phoned to say he'd meet her at the party Malcolm Davidson was one of the other guests it was all like old mansion block in West Kensington it was that during long dark corridors with rooms offer either side and sustained oz windows and I remember it quite clearly being right through and then finding the dining room set at the end there and we were sort of talking and drinking and hanging about and turns out that the spare girl that I was was elder phobic waiting for a husband the first thought that crossed our minds once appeared being too heavy with the drink and therefore you just sort of collapsed on the street corner on somebody had taken him to hospital eventually feels like he's always late and until just because we have started without him I remember feeling upset for Oliver because she was obviously very upset herself and I suppose she must have thought that something serious has happened what had happened was the kim Philby had gone down to the port with a KGB guide and by morning was on a Russian freighter bound for the Soviet Union [Music] [Music] [Music] some things don't change much in Moscow the victory over Hitler was fresh sure in the mind then the power of the state unarguable maybe Philby felt he was on the right side of history but it was not a hero's welcome he was given garage in Moscow what he described was going home to find that he was regarded with some suspicion that everything that he'd the work for has seemed on second thoughts other Russians too good to be true we included British intelligence really be so slack that they allowed so much information to escape and being handed over to the Russians it was just impossible to believe he was given an apartment just a few hundred meters from where the parade roll by but it was more like house arrest than freedom mchao lyubimov was a KGB officer who became a good friend of Philippe's our service respected the British might kill him any time he went in Moscow even in there as Khmer because at that time there was a magnified fear of killings because I understand in the trenches were killed Stalin the man was long gone but Stalin the mindset was alive and well the KGB didn't breathe a word about Philby's arrival the British government lined in letters from the Ambassador in Beirut was that they didn't know where Philby was this is possible he was either on a trip for journalistic purposes or being of somewhat irregular habits he got off on a Lost Weekend it was March before the newspapers even mentioned his absence we have the papers in bed and on there's a little column tiny little bits at the bottom of the observer saying our report is missing I suppose in a way one sort of half believed that he had gone you know to Moscow I mean what else was he doing in July some five months after his disappearance the truth came out it's quite difficult but it's your father it took me a long time to sort of really come to terms with the idea that other people hated him and you know I thought well do you know he's a hero to the Russians not exactly he'll be found he was not even allowed to enter KGB headquarters nor did he have any rank in the organization he'd served so long no agent can be trusted completely he had to be kept all the time and him still those who was a very valuable agent and the pride of the Soviet intelligence still his flat was controlled it was forbidden to meet foreigners of course nobody was afraid that he was going to spy to the press again well they were afraid that he might declare that he wants to go back I think this is the main Menace the main threat to reduce that threat they allowed his family to come and see him visiting Russia was rare in those days you'd go to the embassy and say there's some fees have been arranged for me by my father where does he live I don't know what does he do I don't know and this woman was on one occasion getting very ratty so I leant forward looking around quite carefully and I said he works for the KGB she's scuttled off of it we got our visa Josephine came fairly regularly but the relationship with Eleanor so fund in Beirut with it in the gloom of the Soviet Union I think to stay in Russia was not a success for one thing she never that's enough Russian even to be able to read the names of metro stations [Music] I think she became he's sort of burden to him I don't really blame her for not liking it and I think she was absolutely horrified what dad had done and I don't think she had had any clue was otherwise I think she could have coped with it better his university friend guy Burgess had died a few months after filled his arrival he was never allowed to see him again a morose Donald MacLean and his wife Melinda were practically the limit of their social circle the once loved Elinor simply didn't fit in [Music] he in fact I think what's to get rid of her and I think started an affair with men in the McLain which eventually of course drove her out she once said what's more important me or the party and he said don't be silly the party that did not go down well and probably actually he might have said that to all of us to that's the way he thought [Music] Nicholas Elliot's brief trip to Beirut had turned decidedly septic the public were asking if Philby was a traitor why hadn't he been arrested as with everything else there were theories not answers I'm convinced that this was a plot by white Hollis and anybody else including Nicholas and might be instead to reduce filming to get the hell out of it because the last thing they wanted was any kind of trial in England there were people who said this is a disaster you know and it's we ought to be ashamed of ourselves letting him go like that we should have ripped him in a lot earlier and put him in prison where he belongs but I think an awful lot of people certainly I thought you know well thank God we thank God he buggered off he shall be traveled with him again if that was a deliberate plan some key people don't seem to have been party to it the whole defection is a catastrophe the security service emphatically had never contemplated that Philby would take that course of action that was simply not on the agenda probably just incompetence never under eight there's possibility to mi5 incompetence had been the hallmark of the whole operation there was great frustration that this was the Secret Intelligence Service who had taken over quite a sophisticated detailed operation and planned interview and that their bungled it [Music] the first place if there had been a confession the recording of it was useless since none of them were technicians and because it was a very hot day the window had been left open and when the recording was played back the noise of the traffic outside was so great you couldn't hear a thing on it it was a great fellow for making a hash sure everything but always getting away with it and the typewritten confession Elliott got from Philby caused even more problems when that document was examined in London it became clear that he was worthless but it was very skillfully crafted and the view was that this was not a spontaneous reaction to an offer of immunity but it had been built up over quite a long period but a lot of thought and planning had gone into it by of course the KGB all this was coordinated with Russians it was a game played by Philby with a turret and nothing else it was a game to get as much information as possible to take the right decision whether that's just KGB propaganda or not it was pretty much the conclusion that the bosses in London came to this was fairly good evidence that Kim Philby had been expecting an immunity from prosecution and that the approach that had been made by Nicolas Elliot had been anticipated because of a tip-off [Music] the whole episode was a lethal blow to the values and attitudes which had underpinned the secret intelligence service for more than a generation whoever had warned Philby in advance it was clear that good breeding and good manners were no guarantee of loyalty to the nation the entire case of the Cambridge spies was reopened as a major investigation and there was a pursuit of a likely mole within mi5 infected sis the whole British intelligence establishment with the paranoia in fact they devoted about those of the next 20 years to the wasteful pursuit of fellow officers that they considered might be spies might be in the filthy Bowl [Music] the Philby mold was now a sorry sight isolated unemployed and unhappy he might just as well have been in jail what perked him up was another embarrassment to the British Way was completely missing there was a search immediately with police dogs prison officers examined the wall and found a nylon ladder four years before the man who'd escaped had been studying Arabic at the so called school for spies like Phil B George Blake was a KGB agent who got a job inside British intelligence no immunity offer for him he was lured back to London put on trial and sentenced to 42 years in jail in Moscow the two spies became friends by then Philby was said to be drinking himself towards death but also was under protection of our Directorate they couldn't prevent him from drinking and they decided to marry him well and they asked his wife EDA to get him acquainted to some good girl and by some chance he who was a friend of a FINA Philby was invited to join Rafina on a blind date to go to a nice dancing show at the Luzhniki stadium [Music] drink hadn't told his taste for romance [Music] and they came to mostly kill me at either first chest and that man's after damn and if you told me afterwards in those seconds I decided that they were muddy you and to tell the Frankie Rufina is a very charming very beautiful and very clever by the way no English quite well quite well to be of life this flat became he said his island on the sixth floor it's still stuffed with relics of an Englishman in exile this self is all about him English books written about the Cambridge five and zone it's obviously very fond of Dick Francis and up there PG Wood has the complete collection it looks the radio is his lifeline as he settled into the routines of a domestic life the one thing didn't change much therefore the limited six o'clock portion second portion I feel for them and for me it was so sad to look man just be clear and eyes it just became it's very almost do you don't just it was his children told me he missed kippers marmalade English mustard and good whiskey remember this program Leah Lake seems something simple and it was a wonderful musical so innocently [Music] Rafina told me how he hated her living his sight even to go and see friends for the afternoon you can see me then I go his their nose like this house when I come back he'll saw this night here isn't he became almost childishly devoted to her the hardened master spy in need of love [Music] boychik the a Gurkha is breaching I have gone to the post skill to the first office because you're sort of kind skin and they want to do something nice for you [Music] it's isolated existence meant that the Moscow out there was not something he saw too much of but he wasn't blind to the failures of the cause he'd committed his life to his saw that the life here was not a paradise at all he saw this secretiveness of life is so the power of the KGB he saw the absence of the of the freedom Solzhenitsyn spends much of his first day in management under siege by the world's press I remember after a good bottle of scotch she said why are you expelling Solzhenitsyn from Russia I told him look Timur I'm not responsible for this no he said you are responsible you are responsible for this too and I'm responsible too so he was disillusioned of course as the years rolled by he did venture out more often and went on holidays around the Soviet empire but contact with the life he left behind was a rare treat my wife spotted him we were just sitting down and she spotted him sitting with his wife just across from us why I went after him the first interval and he saw I tapped you on the shoulder and he switched run and he said as I live and breathe deep feast of Ellora that's all remember that phrase and immediately looked delighted to see us Kim said how do you like it here and I said or even here six months having a very difficult time he said six months I've been here I think it was 16 years the uncomfortable truthful Philby was that his value to russia was more symbolic than personal KGB suspicions faded they listened occasionally to his advice about the workings of british society but what mattered much more to them was that this old man was a living example of a signal victory over the West at a time when the skids were under the socialist dream a biography of Philby was published recently in a Russian series called the lives of remarkable people it was written by a trusted journalist called Nikolai Dolgopolov he's here with what was moved from Germany he never met Philby but came to this verdict you're the kind of an icon especially well difficult field of human activity called intelligence maybe he was one of the greatest and remained one of the greatest because of his one percent devotion to the country nevertheless it was 14 years before the KGB allowed that icon even to visit the secret Center their foreign intelligence service [Music] his job that day to give a masterclass to the assembled spies on how to survive in the field she started the whole thing in a very British way with a joke that had been to many many intelligence services in the world for the first according to his old he had a tip for them about interrogations if ever you get hauled in whatever the evidence never admit any connection with Soviet intelligence and never sign a document implicating yourself so was that a joke to telling them to do precisely the opposite of what he'd done in Beirut or was it a message to the friends in mi6 once the news about his defection was public they'd started leaking the confession story to take the curse off letting him go but years later Elliot may have let a different cat out of the bag [Music] this was the question he was asked and this was his answer well gentlemen circumstantial evidence against me is very strong I know one thing you don't know I am NOT a never have been a KGB agent Sims no point in talking about the measure anymore and provided the person keeps his or her nerve they will be all right George Blake lost his nerve at the last moment and that's what gave him away gave him away Kim Philby didn't lose his nerve when he was interrogated in 1951 but Elliot hadn't attended the 51 interrogation was he reliving his own encounter in Beirut until you remembered the official line so he didn't lose his nerve he was interrogated in 1951 it's not surprising we can't be sure spies of all stripes shield the truth with lies Philby's own version was evasive probably he did give Elliot something but what the very confrontation fifty years have passed and still they keep it secret it's a red if there's any human beings God expects them to to announce that they made fools of themselves so so long everything that happened happened so long ago that time there was told and the lessons learned attempt Bank on it one unglamorous possibility is that the evidence embarrassing or not no longer exists I think that's perfectly possible there is a common complaint from the very few people who are aware of what is in sis is registry the common complaint is there's nothing there but there is a bigger barrier spies may have good causes but few things they do could be called good they want to know our secrets that don't want us to know there's ever what the Secret Intelligence Service does frankly is employ case officers who are skilled at persuading people to betray to betray their family their friends their nationality and therefore if you wish to continue in the clandestine information collection business you're gonna have to say some material is never going to be disclosed [Music] in death the KGB piled on the praise for the man they had persuaded to betray his country there was George Blake among the stream of top KGB officers as the Englishman that once left to drink himself close to oblivion was recast as a hero of the dying Soviet Union we were sort of in a pew as it were and all the sort of mourners were going round and round or the people in Moscow paying homage it was it was a horrific occasion I found that what it was an open coffin I mean you know it was it's just not my scene at all I just can't bear that I loved him dearly but I wasn't going to kiss his body he was a romantic it was a romantic he really he really believed in Marx not officially library for instance where mosses and so on but she really it was part of his life and he fought for communism all his life since Cambridge suddenly these four men in gumboots tanneries and big brown aprons came up with their hammers and nails and nailed the coffin looked down and he was buried then they had a gun salute and that was quite special you know that that end bit was Beth the best pitch as far as we of Weber concerned he still divides opinion does his hatred of fascism in the 30s excuse the betrayal of his countrymen or lesson to blame for deaths he may have caused it was a British citizen and he betrayed British secrets about marbles he thought the reason was it still doesn't excuse them in the law so he he was by proper definition a traitor and there's no other way of describing it I think he was so long as two people in Australia where he did actually feel quite strongly about friendships on one side and on the other side of course he was desperate traitor who would betray his family or his friends yes he said to betray you have to first be long when I didn't belong I'd ever belonged and if people I was just raped penetration agent and he said under the other side in other words the British were foolish enough to believe my spiel then that's on them that's a that was their failure not mine I ended up at the place where he's buried crammed in among soldiers and Patriots they all have their titles and their uniforms and they seem to have flowers on Memorial Day but when you get to him fill this it does have flowers a little tired but no title no description just his name it was just dad in in a way he's always been just my father we all loved him enormously what is the question you've never asked him you wish to add I don't think I got couldn't actually say you know why did you do it you

Channel: Timeline - World History Documentaries

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Rating: 4.6303773 out of 5

Keywords: Channel 4 documentary, Full Documentary, BBC documentary, Documentary, Kim Philby, stories, Documentaries, History, Soviet, real, Full length Documentaries, documentary history, TV Shows - Topic, 2017 documentary, history documentary, Documentary Movies - Topic

Id: Pw_0cgO2JKE

Length: 72min 36sec (4356 seconds)

Published: Wed Jul 12 2017