Main content

Paranoia

Two spies turn double agents at the height of the Cold War standoff between East and West. Their deception happens as the superpowers edge towards nuclear war.

It鈥檚 summer 1982, and KGB spy Oleg Gordievsky travels from Moscow to take up a post at the Soviet embassy in London. East and west have a deep mistrust and misunderstanding of each other, and as a result, the Cold War, which has been rumbling on for almost 40 years, is heating up. The spying game and paranoia magnify the suspicion between superpowers, and an arms race threatens to bring the world to nuclear armageddon.

Including rarely heard archive interviews with Oleg Gordievsky and the unpublished letters of Michael Bettaney, as well as interviews with former aides to Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan and former KGB, MI5 and MI6 officers, some of whom have never spoken publicly before.

4 months left to watch

58 minutes

Signed Audio described

Last on

Wed 15 May 2024 01:25

More episodes

Previous

You are at the first episode

See all episodes from Secrets & Spies: A Nuclear Game

Clips

Credits

Role Contributor
Narrator Saskia Reeves
Oleg Gordievsky Martin Munro
Aldrich Ames Jacques Theron
Yuri Andropov Thomas Cleghorn
Michael Bettaney Luke Tyler
Arkady Guk Wayne Harrison
Director Kate Quine
Producer Emily Thompson
Production Manager Paul Allen
Executive Producer Lucie Ridout

Broadcasts

Featured in...

Explore the history of spying with our exclusive espionage interactive

Uncover the secrets and spies of the 20th century with The Open University.