brought to you by Aspire MungFront on ITVX, a six-part drama of friendship and betrayal,

starring Damien Lewis and Guy Pierce. The coldest war is within. Aspire MungFront.

Stream-free on ITVX.

Welcome to True Spies. Week by week, mission by mission. You'll hear the true stories behind the world's greatest espionage operations.

You'll meet the people who navigate this secret world. What do they know? What are their skills? And what would you do in their position?

This is True Spies.

That first meeting, the lot of it was my lack of self-confidence and hearing the voices in my head over and over again, like he's never going to want to work with you. He's never going to give you intelligence. Like, I got nothing.

That this guy would find interesting about me. He's probably sitting there thinking like, who is this way, chick?

This is True Spies.

Episode 82. Me and the Mullah.

The year is 1983, and somewhere in America, a little girl is glued to a television set.

When I was a little girl, I remember my dad watched the nightly news with Dan Rather every night, and I had a bit of a crush on Dan Rather.

And I remember he usually read the paper at the same time, and when that news article came on the screen, he actually slowly put the paper down and was really attentive.

The marine barracks were bombed in Beirut.

And there was just something about that report. Something clicked and I remembered it.

It's funny what you remember, isn't it? Those flashes of early consciousness that stay with you, persisting, crystalline, where their context fades to static.

For some of us, it's the smell of our mother's perfume, or the strains of an old melody. You smell, remember, and forget again.

Until next time, of course. But some memories are stronger still. Strong enough to shape us.

And as I got older, I was just always very fascinated with intelligence and terrorism in particular, what would make people get to that level?

What would make people want to blow themselves up or harm other people in the name of a cause?

Nearly 30 years later, the girl who watched the evening news has moved on from CBS and command Dan Rather.

Now, the man in her life is of a very different stripe.

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