The Spying Game - 1999 Part 2: Spies in the Skies A Channel 4 series narrated by Alan Bates explores the fascinating world of the real-life spy and examines the technologies and techniques that have transformed espionage in the Twentieth Century. The last in the series of "The Spying Game" explores the covert world of counter intelligence. Knowledge is power in the information war and the most effective weapon is the spy, but at the centre of such intrigue nothing can be taken at face value. As important as discovering the secrets of your enemies is the necessity to ensure that your own secrets are not being leaked. Spying on the spies therefore is the counter intelligence officer, searching out those agents operating within their own country. Throughout the Cold War Berlin was the spy capital of the world, the interface between East and West. After the Second World War, the city was carved into four sections: in the West the American, British and French sections and in the East, the Russian section. In this environment, intelligence officers on both sides could actually meet their opposite numbers - the enemy - in order to compromise them, neutralise them or perhaps even recruit them. Masters of the counter intelligence game were the former East German Ministry of State Security, otherwise known as the Stasi. The vaults at the Stasi headquarters in East Berlin hold over a million surveillance photographs and 113 miles of personal dossiers documenting the lives of both foreign and East German suspects. ALBRECHT HORST, a former Stasi archivist returns to the lengthy corridors of filing cabinets that house the archive. "At first only a few people were registered here, they concentrated mainly on war criminals, eventually they realised it was possible to monitor the whole of the country." One of the major roles of the counter intelligence officer is to observe foreign embassies. Embassies are a haven for spies and are therefore the subject of surveillance 24 hours a day, seven days a week. It is the 'watchers' responsibility to know the role of every embassy worker. Is the chauffeur genuine or does he work for the KGB? From a room overlooking the American Embassy, MARIO BURGE and his team observed US officials. From a distance, he logged and documented the habits of embassy employees, their wardrobe, their mannerisms, every minute detail. He could recognise any one of them night or day. Burge's knowledge of his subjects was so intimate that he was familiar even with the secrets kept between family members. MICHAEL LYUMBIMOV was a KGB officer operating in London in the early Sixties. Acting as a Second Secretary, Lyubimov's role was to enlist as many spies and informers as he could. "In order to recruit people you may use three ways", says Lyubimov, "The first way is to find an ideological basis; the second way is to use the material basis, money and so on. And the third way is blackmail." But as soon as he landed in London, Lyubimov was being watched by MI5. In 1964 he was returned to Moscow branded 'persona non grata' by the Foreign Office. Whilst Lyubimov was recruiting spies in London, MI6 had their own man in Moscow. Oleg Penkovsky was a Colonel in military intelligence who had become disillusioned with the Soviet system. He approached MI6 and was recruited as a double agent. But as soon as he began to pass information over, he was put under surveillance by KGB officers. After 6 months of surveillance Penkovsky was arrested and imprisoned in the Lubyanka, the KGB's headquarters. ALEXANDER ZAGVORTSDIN was Penkovsky's interrogator. His methods secured a confession from Penkovsky who was subjected to a Soviet show trial and eventually executed. "Torture is useless because somebody under torture will just tell you what he thinks you want to know, says author PHILLIP KNIGHTLEY. "You use any psychological advantage you may have, by picking on their weak spots. The interrogator is someone with deep psychological insight." But Knightley reveals a more chivalrous side to the spying game. "One of the fallacies of the spy world is that it's a terribly dangerous business to be in. It wasn't. Considering the number of people involved, the actual fatal casualties are pretty small. And one of the reasons for this was that the two sides had a sort of tacit agreement between each other, we won't deliberately kill each other." Glienicker Bridge on the outskirts of Berlin and a border between East and West became the customary location for the strangest of transactions; the spy swap. The Spying Game reveals footage of a genuine swap that may not be a thing of the past, the end of the Cold War has not meant the end of the spy. Narrator: http://alanbates.com/abarchive/tv/spying.html Producer/Director: http://andyrobbins.info/

• published: 28 Nov 2012
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