The Cambridge spy network
The History Hour
BBC
4.4 • 913 Ratings
🗓️ 21 September 2019
⏱️ 50 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The distinguished British art historian Anthony Blunt was exposed as a former Soviet spy in 1979. He was one of a group of double agents recruited at Cambridge University who passed vital information to Moscow. The BBC's Gordon Corera explains the scandal which shook the British establishment.
Plus the Black Panther Party's free breakfast programme; the abolition of the Don't Ask Don't Tell policy towards LGBT troops in the US military; Ethiopian troops in South Korea; and memories of celebrated children's author CS Lewis.
Photo: Sir Anthony Blunt at the press conference in which he explained his motivation in 1979 (Credit: Aubrey Hart/Getty Images)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to the History Hour Podcast from the BBC World Service with me Max Pearson |
| 0:05.4 | the past brought to life by those who were there. This week the Black Panthers |
| 0:09.7 | serving breakfast to poor kids in California. |
| 0:13.0 | Eggs, toast, bacon, milk, oranges, apples, |
| 0:20.0 | once a week we'd have pancakes. |
| 0:23.0 | Also, the end of Don't Ask Don't Tell in the American military. |
| 0:27.0 | They always assumed that I was single. They wanted to set me up with somebody, and they thought that I was lonely. |
| 0:32.0 | And the Ethiopians who fought... somebody and they thought that I was lonely. |
| 0:33.0 | And the Ethiopians who fought in the Korean War. |
| 0:37.0 | 15 years ago, there were no uniforms |
| 0:40.0 | when the tribesmen fought Mussolini's legions |
| 0:43.0 | today Ethiopia practices what her emperor then preached |
| 0:47.0 | and sends her men to fight aggression in another land. |
| 0:50.0 | That's all coming up later in the podcast, |
| 0:52.0 | but we begin with one of the most notorious spy stories of British history. |
| 0:57.0 | Forty years ago, the British public was shocked to discover that a former Soviet double agent had been working for years as the curator of the Queen's art collection. |
| 1:07.0 | Sir Anthony Blunt, cousin to the Queen herself, was unmasked as the so-called fourth man in the infamous Cambridge spy ring. |
| 1:15.3 | But despite the disgrace, Anthony Blunt had no plans to move to Moscow. |
| 1:19.6 | Susan Hume has been speaking to Christopher Morris, one of a tiny group of journalists who are allowed to interview Blunt after he was uncovered. |
| 1:31.0 | I was persuaded by Guy Burgess that I could best serve the cause of anti-Facism |
| 1:37.0 | by joining him in his work for the Russians. |
| 1:40.0 | This was a case of political conscience against loyalty to country. |
... |
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