The Profumo Affair

Dan Snow's History Hit

History Hit

History

4.7 • 12.9K Ratings

🗓️ 5 June 2021

⏱️ 21 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

It was the scandal that shook the British political world to its core leading to ministerial resignations and helping to bring down a prime minister and cause the defeat of the Conservative party at the next general election. When John Profumo resigned as Minister for War after being exposed lying to parliament about his affair with the model Christine Keeler. The scandal sent shockwaves through the British press, people and establishment and was one of the defining scandals of the 1960s. Historian Richard Davenport-Hines joins Dan to discuss the events of the Profumo affair, what it says about society at the time and the impact of the scandal.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello, I'm Basha Cummings and I'm the host of a weekly investigative show called the
0:04.8	Sloan Newscast from Tautas.
0:07.1	As our name suggests, we are a newsroom with a different approach to journalism.
0:11.6	We take the news slowly and each week the team brings you one investigation that really
0:16.9	matters and helps you make sense of the world, from the inside stories of politics to true
0:22.0	crime and injustice to real life mysteries.
0:25.5	Subscribe to the Sloan Newscast feed wherever you get your podcasts.
0:55.5	This was the 1960s, the Highest of the Cold War.
1:16.2	This was the Profume affair.
1:18.3	On the weekend of the eighth, ninth, July 1961, 60 years ago.
1:24.4	The Majesty's Secretary of State for War, John Profumeau, met Christine Keeler at a pool
1:30.2	party, a pool party in one of the finest stately homes in England, Clifton House in Buckingham
1:35.8	shire, owned by the Astors.
1:37.9	The Astors were throwing quite the party, quite the party for the president of Pakistan,
1:42.6	invited lots of loonies there, lots of politicians, lots of other people.
1:45.5	A kind of invitation that I do not receive, I'll be honest with you, so those kind of parties
1:50.0	are still happening out there.
1:51.3	Well, so many invite.
1:53.5	The meeting led to an affair.
1:56.1	Knowledge of that affair became public.
1:58.4	Profumeau lied to the House of Commons, and the whole thing got escalated when the story
2:03.8	broke.
	...

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