Spies tell their secrets: How do spooks really work?

According to Secrets Of The Spies, a compelling new three-part documentary series coming to BritBox this week, London is the espionage capital of the world. It’s teeming with intrigue thanks to its global influence, its American, European and Russian interests, and its itinerant population, which makes it much easier to hide in plain sight. 

‘London is the epicentre of espionage,’ reveals former MI6 officer Matthew Dunn. ‘Most people live in blissful ignorance of the world of espionage around them.’

Events such as the poisoning of former KGB officer Alexander Litvinenko in London in 2006 serve as a tragic reminder of the skulduggery going on right under our noses, but Secrets Of The Spies provides a fresh, in-depth look at the world of spycraft.

It reveals, for example, the link between British great-grandmother Melita Norwood, a former secretary at an atomic weapons research association who, it emerged in 1999, had leaked nuclear secrets to the Russians for 40 years, and Anna Kushchenko, a glamorous Russian spy who married Brit Alex Chapman. Kushchenko lived in London and then used her British passport to move to New York where she was one of ten ‘illegals’ caught by the FBI. 

Both women were found out only when given up by others.

‘There is this long-held fascination with the world of espionage but there is still very little we really know about it,’ says the show’s executive producer George Waldrum.

‘So often we only hear whispers of what has been going on through stories about foiled plots or information from unknown sources. 

‘We wanted to look at what is fact and what is fiction, how spies work and what their aims are.’

Anna Kushchenko (pictured), a glamorous Russian spy who married Brit Alex Chapman, became one of ten ‘illegals’ caught by the FBI after moving to New York

The documentary shows that the world of espionage bears little resemblance to that of James Bond. As far as Britain goes, there is no shoot-to-kill policy, for example – or at least there isn’t any more. 

The last known sanctioned assassination was when Prime Minister Anthony Eden tasked the secret services with killing Egypt’s leader Gamal Abdel Nasser in 1956. All sorts of methods were dreamed up – an exploding razor, a cigarette box containing a poisonous dart, poisoning his favourite chocolates. 

But it came to nothing when all the British agents were thrown out of Egypt, so they attempted to bribe Nasser’s doctor. However, the doctor simply took the money and ran.

Alexander Litvinenko (pictured) risked the wrath of Vladimir Putin by publicly attempting to clean up the Russian spy agency FSB

Perhaps the most famous assassination in London was that of Bulgarian dissident Georgi Markov, who had been broadcasting anti-Communist material. In September 1978 he was on Waterloo Bridge when a man with an umbrella stumbled into him. 

He felt a sharp pain in his thigh and within hours began to feel ill. He died a few days later. A pellet containing the poison ricin was found where the tip of the umbrella had penetrated his skin.

Although the Communist USSR no longer exists, attitudes towards people seen as traitors remain – and we have felt the impact in this country. Sergei Skripal was a double agent who had betrayed many of his fellow spies, and the Russians risked thousands of British lives by releasing the nerve agent Novichok in Salisbury in 2018 in an effort to kill him and his daughter Yulia. 

Three three-part documentary reveals that the world of espionage bears little resemblance to that of James Bond (pictured)

While they survived, British woman Dawn Sturgess died after spraying herself from a perfume bottle that had actually contained the poison.

Then there was Litvinenko, who risked the wrath of Vladimir Putin by publicly attempting to clean up the Russian spy agency FSB, which had mafia links. As a result he was forced to flee the country, but after years of living peacefully in London he unwittingly met two Russian agents for tea; his was laced with the radioactive substance polonium. 

The haunting images of him dying in pain in hospital showed that beneath the glamorous image, spycraft is a dark and nasty business. Yet it’s one we don’t seem to be able to get enough of.  

All three episodes of Secrets Of The Spies will be available on BritBox from Thursday.