Search results
This book considers in detail the culture and language of plots, conspiracies and intrigues and exposes how the intelligence activities of the Three Kingdoms of the 1640s began to be situated within early modern government from the Civil Wars to the rule of Oliver Cromwell in the 1650s. It also introduces the reader to some of the personalities who were caught up in this contemporary intelligence and espionage world from the intelligencers, especially Thomas Scot and John Thurloe, to the men and women who became its secret agents and spies. The book includes accounts of espionage activities not just in England but also in Ireland and Scotland, and it especially investigates intelligence and espionage during the critical periods of the British Civil Wars and the important developments which took place under the English Republic and Oliver Cromwell in the 1650s.
the theatrical potential of the Cambridge spies, and for the most part they sympathized with the plight of the traitors and sought to convey an understanding of the personal and historical circumstances behind their motives for committing treason. Tom Stoppard, however, was more interested in the curious protocols of Cold War espionage itself and the intelligence agencies that plan and oversee these covert operations. His radio play, The Dog It Was That Died (1982), later made into a television film for Channel Four in 1989, was the first of his works to be
This book explores the history of the spy and conspiracy genres on British television, from 1960s Cold War series through 1980s conspiracy dramas to contemporary 'war on terror' thrillers. It analyses classic dramas including Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Edge of Darkness, A Very British Coup and Spooks. The analysis is framed by the notion that the on-screen depiction of intelligence services in such programmes can be interpreted as providing metaphors for broadcasting institutions. Initially, the book is primarily focused on espionage-themed programmes produced by regional franchise-holders for ITV in late 1960s and 1970s. Subsequently, it considers spy series to explore how many standard generic conventions were innovated and popularised. The relatively economical productions such as Bird of Prey demonstrated a more sophisticated treatment of genre conventions, articulated through narratives showing the collapse of standard procedure. Channel 4 was Britain's third and final broadcaster to be enshrined with a public service remit. As the most iconic version of the television spy drama in the 1960s, the ITC adventure series, along with ABC's The Avengers, fully embraced the formulaic and Fordist tendencies of episodic series in the US network era. However, Callan, a more modestly resourced series aimed more towards a domestic audience, incorporated elements of deeper psychological drama, class tension and influence from the existential spy thrillers. The book is an invaluable resource for television scholars interested in a new perspective on the history of television drama and intelligence scholars seeking an analysis of the popular representation of espionage.
was that at the centre of his coming rule Charles II should now place secret and state intelligence matters for, as Newcastle pronounced: in the ‘greateste secrets of state Intelegence is the life of a state’. 1 The death of John Thurloe in February 1668 presents us with a final glimpse of the role and the purpose of secret intelligence gathering and espionage matters as they had stood under the English Republic and Cromwellian Protectorate; an age had ended, but by that stage the Restoration regime, now replete
We do know that there was a long history behind the methods of espionage that were to be eventually used by the governments of the 1650s, for espionage methods and ideas themselves had already become part of actions that were normally undertaken, to varying degrees and with varying success, in order to protect individuals and the realm from the actions of foreign powers or from domestic violence or from internal disruption. Additionally, they had also played a significant part in the uncovering of, or in
John Thurloe had already manufactured, or, as we shall argue here, had simply revived, what later commentators came to see as one of the most formidable espionage systems ever created by the state. This intelligence network certainly guaranteed Thurloe some contemporary fame and a real notoriety, which he retains in the more general histories of intelligence and espionage to this day – especially, perhaps, in the more popular versions of ‘spy history’. But were all of these covert actions, all of these resorts to espionage
Canada. MI5 had in fact tried to keep Koenen under lock and key but had been frustrated by the more liberal views of the Internment Tribunal. Above all, MI5 had continued to log the activities of Jürgen Kuczynski, whom it suspected of espionage. When Claud Sykes (by then an MI5 officer) had visited internment camps in December 1940, his main purpose had been to establish a functioning intelligence network inside each camp and to recruit informants who would supply information after their release. Reporting from Huyton Camp, Sykes detailed an interview with the trade
The regicide politician Thomas Scot became the ‘grand Spier of the Nation’ for the English Republic on 1 July 1649. 1 The men who surrounded him were, of course, well aware that ideas of secrecy and espionage were now to be seen as the essential tools of government; merely living through the Civil Wars had taught them that. Their contemporaries had placed such matters within general theories of knowledge and its production, into the ideas of authority and trust, into questions of state morality and into
division of labour, although much still continued to depend upon the actual personalities involved. 7 Theoretically, at least, the other important separation of the secretaries that emerged domestically also stemmed from the custom that one secretary of state always had to be immediately available to personally assist the monarch when they were on their travels. 8 The place of intelligence gathering activities and the use of state espionage by the secretaryship was obviously to become ever more significant as our
A Matter of Intelligence is a book about the British Security Service MI5. More specifically, it concerns one particular aspect of its work, the surveillance of anti-Nazi German refugees during the 1930s and 1940s. When Hitler took power in 1933, the Nazis began a reign of terror against their political opponents: communists, socialists, pacifists and liberals, many of whom were forced to flee Germany. Some of these ‘political’ refugees came to Britain, where MI5 kept them under close surveillance. This study is based on the personal and organisational files that MI5 kept on them during the 1930s and 1940s – or at least those that have been released to the National Archives – making it equally a study of the political refugees themselves. Although this surveillance exercise formed an important part of MI5's work during that period, it is a part which it seems to have disowned or at any rate forgotten: the recent official history of MI5 does not even mention it, nor do its ‘unofficial’ counterparts. This study therefore fills a considerable gap in historical research. It traces the development of MI5 surveillance of German-speaking refugees through the case files of some of its individual targets and of the main refugee organisations; it also considers the refugees’ British supporters and the refugee informants who spied on fellow-refugees, as well as MI5's tussles with the Home Office and other official bodies. Finally, it assesses how successful – or how useful – this hidden surveillance exercise actually was.