Review by paul2001sw-1

The defection of Oleg Gordievski, former KGB agent, to the United Kingdom was a big story in the 1980s. This series puts this event in the wider context of East-West relations, as well as telling the fairly remarkable story of his final escape from the Soviet Union. As usual in this sort of series, there are a range of talking heads to guide us through the story, most of whom were actively involved in it; as such, they can tell it like it is, although there's a lack of variety in their perspectives as a result: this is not a programme that is heavily critical of the intelligence services. Unusually for me, I am willing to give some credit to Thatcher and Reagan, who departed from their normal bellicosity when they saw, with the advent of Mikael Gorbachev, the potential for diplomatic rapproachment and did not allow it to be derailled by the espionage drama. Whether the spies really served our interests is another question.