Spy Cities

SHANGHAI: SPIES, SORGE AND THE PRE-REVOLUTIONARY UNDERWORLD

Step back into the espionage underworld of 1920s and 30s Shanghai, one of the most dangerous and lawless cities on earth. Our guide is Mark Logan, former British Member of Parliament, Shanghai-based diplomat and fluent Mandarin speaker. We track down the spies who worked this treacherous ground: future premier Zhou Enlai, Soviet master agent Richard Sorge, a young Wallis Simpson, and Ursula Kuczynski (Agent Sonya). This is the spy history that shaped modern China.

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NETHERLANDS: THE DUTCH RESISTANCE FIGHTS BACK AGAINST THE NAZIS

Stand on the beach where a real James Bond-style landing took place — dinner jacket worn under a wetsuit. Take breakfast at the Konditorei whose Jewish owner ran a dead-letter drop for MI6 at the outbreak of war. Then cycle the calm lanes of picturesque Haarlem, where teenage sisters Truus and Freddie Oversteegen assassinated German officers and their Dutch collaborators.

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THE HAGUE & VENLO: BRITAIN’S GREATEST INTELLIGENCE DISASTER?

The 1939 Venlo Incident - the Gestapo’s kidnapping of two British MI6 officers on the Dutch–German border - remains one of the Allies’ greatest intelligence disasters of the Second World War. The German Englandspiel radio deception, run out of The Hague, only deepened the catastrophe. Join us as we investigate the background, and explore some intriguing locations pointed out by our contacts in Dutch intelligence…

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TANGIER: SHADY PEOPLE IN A SUNNY PLACE

Gibraltar’s southern twin among WWII espionage hubs, this ancient Moroccan port city has seen it all. One OSS officer branded it a “nest of vipers,” and Ian Fleming stayed at the El Minzah Hotel in 1941 while planning Operation Goldeneye. A visit to the chaotic Grand Socco is a must: this was the beating heart of the Tangier International Zone (1924–1956), where spies of every stripe operated with impunity.

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GIBRALTAR: SPIES ON THE ROCK

Guarding the Strait of Gibraltar — the all-important sea lane linking the North Atlantic to the Mediterranean — this tiny relic of the British Empire hides a labyrinth of wartime secrets in its tunnels and fortifications. A WWII espionage playground for British SOE commandos, German Abwehr agents and daring Italian frogmen, the narrow streets beneath the towering Rock of Gibraltar are still redolent of intrigue, sabotage and deception.

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LONDON: THE DOWNFALL OF THE CAMBRIDGE FIVE

75 years on from the flight of Donald Maclean and Guy Burgess to the Soviet Union, we follow their alcohol fuelled final days in London. From upmarket hotels to station bars; from sophisticated gentlemen's clubs to louche night clubs. A tale of conspicuous consumption...

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BERLIN: COLD WAR TECHNICAL ESPIONAGE HUB

Our first – but certainly not last – visit to Berlin takes us underground, to the telecom taps betrayed by double agent George Blake; underwater, as British divers wrestle to recover secrets from a crashed Soviet jet; and high above the city to the Teufelsberg listening station.

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WASHINGTON DC: INTO THE WILDERNESS OF MIRRORS

Former CIA case officer turned intelligence historian Professor David Gioe joins us to uncover the secret side of Washington DC. Bringing an insider's perspective, he takes us to locations where some of America's most notorious traitors sold out their country.

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ISTANBUL: SPIES AT THE CROSSROADS OF THE WORLD

Byzantium. Constantinople. Stamboul. Istanbul. A city with many names to match its long history. Straddling Europe and Asia, spies have competed in the city over millennia. As we discover, rival empires have left their stamp on both espionage fact and fiction.

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LISBON 1940: THE WINDSORS - A DEADLY FARCE

Intelligence historian, and well known local guide, Marisa Filipe joins us to explore the story of a top secret tug of war between Hitler and Churchill in neutral Portugal. We follow in the footsteps of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, plus their German, British and Portuguese watchers. And enjoy a cocktail in a hotel frequented by Ian Fleming which would later feature in a Bond movie.

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The Spying Starts Here

Where the modern game was invented and professionalised.

Our first visit to London focuses on the origins of the British intelligence agencies - MI5, MI6 and GCHQ - in the early 20th century. Mansfield Cumming - the original 'C' - and Vernon Kell take the helm at the Secret Service Bureau as spy mania mounts in the United Kingdom. We'll be back in London before too long!

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We’re Angus Blair and David Ludlow. We met at Cambridge at a time when a discreet chat over a sherry with a well connected tutor or an intriguing letter in your pigeon hole were still key entry points to the secret world.

We chose a safer life… and then decided to spend it retracing the footsteps of people who didn’t.

In this series, we’re travelling to the world’s great espionage capitals visiting the real bars, hotels, safe houses and backstreets where spies lied, flirted, betrayed and occasionally changed history.

From the Cambridge Five to Mata Hari, from double agents to double-crosses we’re meeting them where it all happened.

Pull up a chair. Just don’t say who sent you.

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