The Spy Behind the Iron Curtain
Dan Snow's History Hit
History Hit
4.7 • 13.7K Ratings
🗓️ 12 April 2023
⏱️ 28 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This episode contains high-speed chases, modified cars and a mission to uncover secret enemy technology. It's everything you'd find in a James Bond movie, but also on a Cold War BRIXMIS mission- one that today's guest Dave Butler was part of, gathering intelligence on Soviet firepower as Britain prepared for World War Three.
During their time in East Germany, Dave and his fellow officers were given the opportunity to legally break the speed limits and laws and ignore the police; it was dangerous work and the trick was to avoid being caught by the enemy cars chasing them. For the 70th anniversary of Ian Fleming's first Bond book 'Casino Royale' Dan finds out if life as a spy is really anything like the Bond stories.
Produced by Mariana Des Forges, edited and mixed by Dougal Patmore.
Clips courtesy of
Casino Royale (2006) / Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Sony Pictures, Columbia Pictures, Sony Pictures Releasing/ Martin Campbell
Casino Royale (1967) / Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer / John Huston
The Graham Norton Show/ BBC
Goldfinger / United Artists/ Guy Hamilton
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Fees, the F-word and travel. |
| 0:02.9 | With an HSBC Global Money Account, |
| 0:05.1 | you can drop us from Accapalco to Zurich. |
| 0:07.8 | That means nooth here, |
| 0:09.9 | Vajra, nooth here, |
| 0:12.5 | Haldi and definitely nooth here. |
| 0:15.4 | Pay no HSBC fees overseas |
| 0:17.6 | with a Global Money Account. |
| 0:19.0 | HSBC UK, opening up a world of opportunity, |
| 0:22.1 | available to HSBC UK customers with an eligible current account, |
| 0:24.8 | exclude some accounts such as the HSBC Basic Bank account |
| 0:27.3 | for mobile banking app users only. |
| 0:28.6 | Non-HSBC fees may apply. |
| 0:32.4 | Hello everyone, welcome to Dan Snow's History Hit. |
| 0:35.8 | It's the 70th anniversary of the publication of the first James Bond book. |
| 0:41.1 | Bond, an intelligence officer in the Secret Intelligence Service, |
| 0:45.8 | MI6, Bond, known by his code number, 007. |
| 0:51.2 | He was also, of course, Commander Bond. |
| 0:53.5 | He was in the Royal Navy Reserve. |
| 0:55.6 | He was created by the British journalist, novelist, |
| 1:00.2 | and wartime intelligence officer Ian Fleming in 1953. |
| 1:04.6 | And he became a massive global franchise. |
... |
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