Spy Cities

Germany · 1961–1989Checkpoints, tunnels and the cafés along the Wall where East and West watched each other over the same cup of coffee.

WASHINGTON DC: INTO THE WILDERNESS OF MIRRORSFormer CIA case officer turned intelligence historian Professor David Gioe joins us to uncover the secret side of Washington DC. Bringing an insider's perspective, he takes us to locations where some of America's most notorious traitors sold out their country.

ISTANBUL: SPIES AT THE CROSSROADS OF THE WORLDByzantium. Constantinople. Stamboul. Istanbul. A city with many names to match its long history. Straddling Europe and Asia, spies have competed in the city over millennia. As we discover, rival empires have left their stamp on both espionage fact and fiction.

LISBON 1940: THE WINDSORS - A DEADLY FARCEIntelligence historian, and well known local guide, Marisa Filipe joins us to explore the story of a top secret tug of war between Hitler and Churchill in neutral Portugal. We follow in the footsteps of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, plus their German, British and Portuguese watchers. And enjoy a cocktail in a hotel frequented by Ian Fleming which would later feature in a Bond movie.

The Spying Starts HereWhere the modern game was invented and professionalised.Our first visit to London focuses on the origins of the British intelligence agencies - MI5, MI6 and GCHQ - in the early 20th century. Mansfield Cumming - the original 'C' - and Vernon Kell take the helm at the Secret Service Bureau as spy mania mounts in the United Kingdom. We'll be back in London before too long!

We’re Angus Blair and David Ludlow. We met at Cambridge at a time when a discreet chat over a sherry with a well connected tutor or an intriguing letter in your pigeon hole were still key entry points to the secret world.We chose a safer life… and then decided to spend it retracing the footsteps of people who didn’t.In this series, we’re travelling to the world’s great espionage capitals visiting the real bars, hotels, safe houses and backstreets where spies lied, flirted, betrayed and occasionally changed history.From the Cambridge Five to Mata Hari, from double agents to double-crosses we’re meeting them where it all happened.Pull up a chair. Just don’t say who sent you.