#90 Spycatcher: The Candid Autobiography of a Senior Intelligence Officer (1987) by Peter Wright (BONUS EPISODE)

Oh What A Time...

Pop! Pop!

Comedy, History, Education

4.8 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 30 December 2025

⏱️ 45 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Yes we're still off on our Christmas/New Year holidays but never fear! We have ANOTHER bonus subscriber episode for you to enjoy.

BUT CRUCIALLY, DON'T FORGET! The comedy history podcast that has spent as much time talking about the invention of custard as it has the industrial revolution is here with its first ever live show! Thursday 15th January at the Underbelly Boulevard in London’s Soho.

🎟 Tickets are on sale now: https://underbellyboulevard.com/tickets/oh-what-a-time/

And in huge news, Oh What A Time is now on Patreon! From content you’ve never heard before to the incredible Oh What A Time chat group, there’s so much more OWAT to be enjoyed!

On our Patreon you’ll now find:

•The full archive of bonus episodes

•Brand new bonus episodes each month

•OWAT subscriber group chats

•Loads of extra perks for supporters of the show

•PLUS ad-free episodes earlier than everyone else

Join us at 👉 patreon.com/ohwhatatime

And as a special thank you for joining, use the code CUSTARD for 25% off your first month.

So.. Onto this episode:

Put on your warmest coat, because one of this month’s subscriber specials is a trip back to the Cold War through the memoir of Mi5’s former Assistant Director, Peter Wright.

There is excitement. There is intrigue. There is burglary all over London. And there is an incredible conspiracy theory that the former head of Mi5 may have been a Soviet spy!

Chris’ book review this month is the book Thatcher tried to ban given its incredible revelations about the life of a spy! Enjoy.

And thank you so much for being a Full Timer, we couldn’t make the show without you.

You can also follow us on:

X (formerly Twitter) at @ohwhatatimepod

And Instagram at @ohwhatatimepod

Aaannnd if you like it, why not drop us a review in your podcast app of choice?

Thank you to Dan Evans for the artwork (idrawforfood.co.uk).

Chris, Elis and Tom x

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Oh, what a time is now on Patreon. You can get main feed episodes before everyone else, ad free,
0:06.4	plus access to our full archive of bonus content, two bonus episodes every month, early access
0:11.9	to live show tickets and access to the Oh Water Time group chat. Plus, if you become an Oh Water
0:16.9	Time All-Timer, myself, Tom and Ellis will riff on your name to postulate where else in history you might have popped up.
0:23.7	For all your options, you can go to patreon.com forward slash oh what a time.
0:28.5	Hello and welcome to Oh What a Time. We are on our holidays right now. It's that Christmas New Year period where podcasting just stops.
0:36.8	But don't worry because we've got some very old archive subscriber episodes for you to enjoy until we come back in the new year. But if you have someone in your life that you love and you want to get them a gift, then what about the gift of comedy history? Because on the 15th of January, 2026, oh Oh Water Time are doing our first ever live show at
0:57.4	the Underbelly Boulevard in Soho. Tickets start from just 25 pounds and you could be there to get your
1:03.5	tickets right now for the 15th of Jan. Just go to ohwattatime.com and if you enjoy this episode, remember
1:09.8	there are lots of bonus episodes to be enjoyed over on the Oh Watertime.com and if you enjoy this episode remember there are lots of bonus episodes to be
1:12.5	enjoyed over on the oh water time full-timer package to sign up to our patron to get two
1:18.9	bonus episodes every month plus early release episodes add free listing and all that good stuff you
1:24.2	can head to oh watertime.com anyway this is a fantastic subscriber episode from many moons ago. Enjoy.
1:42.9	Hello and welcome to Oh, What a Time and welcome to this month's bonus episode.
1:47.5	It is an episode I'm very excited about.
1:50.0	On these bonus episodes, we've been reviewing historical books, historical themes.
1:54.1	We've been taking it in turns to do one each per month.
1:56.7	This month I've selected a book that Ellis told me about that I'd never heard of.
2:00.7	It's called Spycatcher, the candid autobiography of a senior intelligence officer,
2:06.5	the murky world of conspiracy, of spies.
2:10.4	It is by Peter Wright, not the darts player, no, a spy from the 50s, 60s, 40s.
2:18.0	Yeah, former assistant director of MI5.
	...

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