01x06 - No Man's Land

Episode transcripts for the TV show, "A Spy Amoung Friends". Aired: 8 December 2022.*
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Based on the book of the same name follows the defection of notorious British intelligence officer and KGB double agent, Kim.
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01x06 - No Man's Land

Post by bunniefuu »

Sofern nicht anders angegeben,

bleiben sie in ihrem fahrzeug.

Halten sie alle papiere

fur den unterricht bereit.

Sofern nicht anders angegeben,

bleiben sie in ihrem fahrzeug.

Sir Roger!

In the interest of discretion,

I thought it best to drop by in person.

At one o'clock in the morning?

The minister was at the opera

which meant we had to

wait to get his signature.

Gotterdammerung?

Beg your pardon?

Wagner. Opera joke. Never mind.

Thank you, no.

Where have you been tonight?

- Saying goodbye to a friend.

- Anyone I know?

Jim Angleton.

On his way home to

Washington as we speak.

When did you last see Tony Blunt?

- Sure I can't tempt you?

- Quite sure.

Sir Anthony and I, as

I suspect you well know,

had lunch the other day at my club.

Why? You haven't gone

and lost him, have you?

I should never have agreed

to let you go to Beirut.

Sounds like one of yours.

Don't tell me, panic

over, Blunt's resurfaced.

Nine o'clock sharp. My office.

Don't be late.

I just lost my footing.

Questions are being asked, Kim.

- I slipped on the ice, for God's sake!

- People are worried about you!

On my way to the Metropol. I was

hoping to find you or Burgess

preferably you.

A friendly face. Some music.

A little f*cking colour.

Which reminds me

Burgess sent a peace offering.

From his personal library,

he wanted me to tell you.

Clever bastard.

Do you know this one?

Takes place in London in 1934

when no-one yet knew

what they stood for.

Also some tinned fruit,

a jar of marmalade,

cigarettes and a couple

of other bits and bobs.

All from Guy?

The marmalade's from me

- Fortnum and Mason's via diplomatic pouch.

Ooh, speaking of which, pass my coat.

I have a letter I need you to send.

- To whom?

- Oh.

Oh, damn, it's gone.

I couldn't trouble you to rustle

up some paper and an envelope?

Paper and envelope.

Er

Medsestra! Medsestra!

Good morning, sir.

Mr Elliott.

Have a seat.

Mrs Thomas here is of the

opinion that Philby told you

Tony Blunt was also a

Russian double agent.

She's right. He did.

And that that's the

reason you let him go?

Something tells me Mrs Thomas is

quite a bit cleverer than that.

When did he give you Blunt?

The last day.

- Out on the balcony?

- Yes.

Where no-one could hear you?

I'll have to take your word for that.

Why haven't you disclosed

any of this until now?

I'd just learned that the man

I trusted most in the Service

and my best friend was a Russian spy.

You could say I'm not quite

sure who to trust any more.

You understand that any information

acquired in Beirut from Philby

is considered counter-intelligence

which is now the domain of MI5?

What I understand is that this

is a show for the minister.

A pissing contest between MI5 and SIS.

No contest, I'm afraid,

thanks to Philby.

- Exactly.

- I thought you were off the case.

Number 10 on the line, sir.

Concerning?

Profumo.

Educated guess.

If you wouldn't mind waiting in

the ante room for a few minutes,

I'm sure Miss Harbinson will be

happy to find you some refreshment.

Not you, Mrs Thomas.

You stay where you are.

I don't know about this, Kim.

It's a personal letter,

it's nothing more

separating friendship from politics.

Which there was no time for in Beirut?

I'm tired, Donald.

So f*cking f*cking tired.

I didn't seal the envelope.

Read it if you want. Run it

by your KGB chums if you must.

They're your chums, too.

Well, then there shouldn't

be a problem, should there?

The cricket starts today.

England and Australia.

I was rather hoping to catch some

of that on the wireless later.

Ah, well, we should

get on with it, then.

Their fast bowlers

should be quite a handful.

But I think our batsmen

will be up to it this time.

Dinner's at eight, by the way.

You haven't forgotten?

Do you think you could do that upstairs?

Jane.

You look Well

Well, I must admit,

all things considered,

I actually feel quite chipper.

No, I meant comma, well, dot,

dot, dot, how do I put it?

You can go in now.

How's your head, by the way?

Oh, it's still there. By a thread.

So

last night at the St Georges

You went to the St

Georges without me?

f*ck off, Kim.

Wait Now I'm lost Are

you telling me I was there?

- At the bar?

- The pool.

Ah. Golly.

Well that explains this, then.

Do you think I might

have a glass of water?

More?

Right.

So, here's the scoop

but first, you

owe me a proper drink.

It all began in Vienna.

In '34?

February 1934.

Not before then, up at Cambridge?

Cambridge? Oh, no.

Cambridge is where you fantasise

about what you stand against

whereas, Vienna

that was where I quickly

learned what I stood for.

Who recruited you?

No-one.

I fell in love.

You fell in love?

Stop it there, please.

- Which one of you opened the window?

- Him.

Though you must've known

that would interfere

with the listening equipment?

I suppose I assumed whoever

selected the safe house and bugged it

would've taken an open

window into account

in the Mediterranean climate.

What utter nonsense, Nick.

It's 1963, I don't think

it's too much to ask!

It's the debriefer's job to

control the damned environment!

You had to have known opening

a window could be a tactic.

I viewed it more in psychological terms.

It told me that he was on

the brink of capitulating

but needed to create a sense of privacy

before baring his soul, so to speak.

The tape is supposed to be evidence.

I didn't go to Beirut to solve

a crime. I knew he was guilty.

We all knew he was guilty.

- I'm a spy, not a policeman.

- It's interesting.

You almost sounded vindicated just then.

Like a man who'd succeeded in what

he went out there to accomplish.

If he succeeded, then it'd

be Philby sitting here now

and the Russians would

be none the wiser.

So from this point on, we're

supposed to rely on your account

of what happened in that flat.

Do you honestly mean to tell me

MI5 doesn't have the

wherewithal to enhance the tape?

There is, of course another

way to think about all this

which is that the three minutes

you and Philby spent on that

balcony is in fact a distraction.

A piece of misdirection

because I have to say, three minutes

does seem like a very short time,

indeed, the end of

such a long friendship,

in which to bare one's soul

leaving me to consider

the possibility that

the real truth about why you let

Philby go isn't even on the tape.

Thoughts, Mrs Thomas?

You fell in love?

Oh, come on, you've gotta laugh.

Everything you need to know is in there.

Perhaps you'll now allow me to

go home and listen to the cricket.

Is this it? Where's the rest of it?

Names, dates, operations

That's all there is. That's all I know.

A list of your Soviet

handlers from the '30s.

Are any of these people

still active or even alive?

It says here you severed all

contact with Soviet Intelligence

right at the end of the w*r, in 1945,

"having seen the error of my ways".

Which you've said yourself.

Come here.

Your funeral.

What's the Russian for cheese?

I don't know.

Say it in English, then.

Are you trying to get me k*lled?

Now, there's a thought.

You don't really mean that.

Give me one good reason why not, Kim,

and it better be a f*cking good one.

Tell me you understand why I

said you severed all contact

with the KGB in 1945.

The benefit of the Americans

to protect our relationship with them.

I don't give a toss about the

special relationship. Try again.

You said it to protect me.

To protect you.

Because as we both know, you've

been very busy for the KGB

until right f*cking now.

Am I correct in saying your

operating thesis with Philby was

that friendship trumps ideology?

Even though men like Philby

put ideology above all else?

What other men like Philby do you know?

If I may, ma'am,

I think it'd be a mistake to

see Philby as purely ideological.

He just defected to the Soviet Union!

She's right. A spy is an

adventurer, an opportunist

An elitist. And to work

for the KGB from within SIS

put Philby in an even more elite group.

Burgess, Maclean, Philby, Blunt

Four men.

Are you implying there are more?

Aren't we all?

You admit to tipping off

Burgess and Maclean in '51.

Out of loyalty to my friends.

Who's your handler?

I don't have one.

How could I if I broke

contact with the KGB?

Please tell me you're not paying

that bugger to play all day.

He is rather good, though, isn't he?

Take a butcher's at that.

Confirm which of these men

is working for the Russians

and I'll know you're

taking this seriously.

- A test.

- I know. The temerity of it.

You're fishing.

Take it away with you and give

it to me at dinner tonight.

I take it I'm still invited?

- Tim Milne?

- You've been a friend of his for years.

Well, surely by that logic,

your name should be at

the top of this list.

See you at eight.

- Are you all right?

- Never better.

- Were you fishing?

- Yes.

Who was on that list?

Friends and associates of

Burgess, Maclean and Philby.

- Specifically.

- Why does it matter?

- I've already told you I was bluffing.

- Humour us.

Tim Milne

John Cairncross, Tony Blunt,

Guy Liddell, and one or two

others I might be forgetting.

Blunt was on the list?

Thanks to his close

friendship with Guy Burgess,

dating back to their Cambridge days.

Earlier you said

Philby gave you Blunt

when you were out on the balcony

unless I'm missing something.

So if he'd already given you Blunt

why then go through all the

rigmarole with the list of names?

Surely you already had your man.

I was worried Blunt was chickenfeed.

And then that same evening, you

went to dinner at the Philbys'.

- Yes.

- Why?

Certain friends of ours had

got wind that I was in Beirut.

- American friends?

- Among others.

- Of Philby's American wife.

- And if I didn't go to dinner,

then it might've tipped them

off that something was amiss.

- That's it? That's the only reason you went?

- That's it.

It's also the reason why you let

Philby go home that afternoon.

Correct.

Boy, are you on my sh*t list.

Three days you've been in town

and not a peep! Give me those.

Something smells delicious.

That'll be me.

Bravo.

Jolly good.

Ah! Here he is.

Good Lord, look what the cat dragged in!

Kim was just regaling us with

some of your dirty limericks.

Oh, good Lord, I hope not.

Hello, there. Señorita from Pisa.

I sleep-a with whomever I please-a.

How's the rest of it go?

Ah, no clue. That one was Kim's.

I was merely an innocent bystander.

- The laughs we've had, eh, Nick? Eh?

- Right.

Ah, what about this?

You'll remember this one.

Ah, Elliott, just the fellow.

Sit down, I'd like a

frank word with you.

I'm not sure now's the right time

Does your wife know what you do?

Kim, darling, everyone's already

heard that God knows how many

Darling, please! If you don't

mind. Come on, for old times' sake.

This actually happened

to him, verbatim, right?

- Right.

- Ready?

Does your wife know what you do?

- Yes.

- How how did that come about?

Well, she was my secretary

for a couple of years,

and I think the penny must have dropped.

Ah, quite so. Quite. And

what about your mother?

She thinks I'm in something called SIS,

which she believes stands for

Secret Intelligence Service.

Good God! How-how-how

did she come to know that?

A member of the w*r cabinet

told her at a cocktail party.

Dinner is served. À table, everyone.

You forgot this earlier.

- Nicholas, will we have you here, please?

- Oh, lovely. Thank you.

De Gaulle may be French,

but he ain't no dummy.

He knows where your loyalties lie.

Oh, do tell, I so love a lecture.

The Brits care about two

things and two things only,

neither one of which is g*dd*mn Europe.

Bangers and mash.

- The monarchy. And America.

- The monarchy and America.

Where are you going, darling?

Do you wanna know something funny?

Windsor isn't even the

royal family's real name.

They changed it from Witten to Windsor.

The Wittens of Saxe-Coburg

and something or other

Gotha Saxe-Coburg and Gotha.

They're bloody krauts, for pity's sake!

- And did you also know that Anthony Blunt

- Kim.

Sir Anthony Blunt, I should

say, a cousin of the Queen's

Distant cousin by marriage.

Did you know that MI5 sent

him on a secret trip to Berlin

right after the w*r

to recover some rather

compromising correspondence

from certain members of the royal family

to certain members of the Third

Reich, including h*tler himself?

Isn't that right, Nick?

And now Germany is the

front line of the Cold w*r,

and the Wittens of Saxe-Coburg

and Gotha are now the

under the aegis of the

enemy of my enemy is my friend.

I'm not sure I completely follow!

But that's not bad for how

much have you had to drink?

Dear old England, however,

with an ever watchful eye

on which side her bread is buttered,

has been grooming a new patron to serve.

To, to appease.

To Rrrrr! fellate.

Oh, good Lord! Kim, is

that really necessary?

That's right, you guessed

it Old donkey d*ck herself.

The United States of America.

What about Russia?

Where do they fit in all of this?

Please don't encourage him, Nick.

He's not trying to

encourage me, darling.

He's trying to shut me up.

You see, my best friend here

has been sent all

the way from London

to do what, exactly, Nick?

Check your liver.

Old donkey d*ck herself!

I gotta write that one down.

I need some f*cking air.

Oh, air, my ass!

That's some classic Brit spy

bullshit if ever I saw it.

Oh, do please f*ck off, Miles.

You know, the only thing worse than

simple-minded and pompous is

Now, Kim, come on,

we're all friends here!

simple-minded,

pompous and American

Come on, come on, let's get

you some of that fresh air.

Kim.

Right. Come on.

Left-hand drawer of the desk.

And that was it.

He rejoined the others,

and I left the party to go

and file my report at the consulate.

That's the last you saw of him?

Yes.

Mr Elliott and I are going to go

and stretch our legs for a while.

We'll reconvene back here after lunch.

Mr Director, gentlemen

You've all heard me

preach for years now,

how the Russians are

far more sophisticated

and strategic than we

give them credit for.

So now that my longheld suspicions

about Harold Adrian Russell

Kim Philby have been confirmed,

a man who rose almost to the very top

of Great Britain's Secret

Intelligence Services

we are duty-bound to recognise

that the patience and the discipline

of the Russian intelligence services

are never again to be under-estimated.

But

if at times, we

have lacked the resolve

and the imagination to

counter that thr*at

Thank you.

then our British friends,

to use their term, are in,

to use our term, even deeper sh*t.

And we must now face the fact

that if they have been penetrated

to the level that Kim Philby

achieved over the course

of a quarter of a f*cking century

then not only are

there other Communist agents

among the senior ranks of their

national security apparatus

but more importantly

we too at the CIA

have also been penetrated.

Watch out.

People and their bloody animals.

Blunt came to me.

At the end of last week.

You don't seem that surprised.

Shrewd customer, is Sir Anthony.

He claims to have only worked

for Russian intelligence

when we were allies during the w*r.

That old chestnut.

So the reason he decided

to come to me now

is so I can be best positioned

to protect Her Majesty.

To hush it up, you mean?

Then this morning

he telephones

in a terrible state

to inform me that Mr Angleton

attempted to interrogate him

at some CIA safe

house in Buckinghamshire.

Which you managed to stop

before any more

damage could be done.

Well, maybe the Queen'll

give me a knighthood one day.

Does Moscow know Tony's blown?

Rise, Sir Nicholas.

We have to assume Philby's

told the KGB about that.

Oh, I highly doubt that.

If the KGB were ever to discover

that he gave me Blunt, he's dead.

Perhaps we should

consider leaking it, then.

What day is it today?

- Friday.

- You a steak and kidney pie man, Sir Roger?

What difference do you think

men like Philby and Elliott

and the games they play

actually make in the world?

You mean like the one you and Elliott

are now playing against Sir Roger?

- Hello, Jim. How are you?

- Richard.

How long, would you say,

did you suspect Kim Philby?

Was there a specific moment or incident

that opened your eyes?

It was cumulative.

Behavioural.

I've never known a man want

so desperately to be my friend.

But you were never fooled by him?

If I was fooled by anything,

it was by my faith in

our British friends

whom I didn't believe

would ever let him slip

through their fingers.

Are you referring to

anyone in particular, Jim?

I'm referring to an entire

g*dd*mn class of Englishmen.

At the risk of sounding

like a Communist yourself.

So

who else did he give you?

Philby.

Because the other thing that

didn't come back from Beirut

was that list of names.

Right now probably as we speak

Jim Angleton is back at the CIA,

getting ready to tear the place apart

in search for traitors,

due to implications, insinuations

and outright disinformation

that Philby has been

planting in his brain

for the last quarter of a century.

So when you ask who else he gave me,

I think the question that it's

important that we you and I

first ask ourselves is this

are we here in London

ready to withstand such

a level of witch hunt

and take on those kind of casualties?

Because, thanks to Philby

who among us is now safe?

Which is why, if you'll

allow me to blow my trumpet

briefly for a second

I was precisely the right

person to go to Beirut.

Because had it been anybody else,

who didn't know Philby as I do

there's no telling who

they'd be accusing next.

Shall we?

Any other questions, Jane?

Mrs Thomas?

No, sir.

You may fool others, but you can't

pull the wool over these eyes.

You want to know what he

once told me about you?

He said that at any given moment,

you're far more switched

on than you let on.

Which is what makes you so dangerous.

Tell me you'll make

something of all this

that in the end, you were in

fact always one step ahead of him.

Read this.

- When did you get

- Just read it.

- "Dear Nick, I wonder "

- To yourself.

"Dear Nick, I wonder if this

letter will surprise you.

Our last transactions were so strange,

I can't help thinking that perhaps

you wanted me to do a fade "

As a matter of interest,

why would you show me this?

"It is invariably with pleasure

that I remember our meetings and talks.

I've often thought that there

are a number of questions

connected with the whole

story that might interest you,

and it might be helpful all around

if we could get together to discuss

matters of mutual interest

to give ourselves the chance

to salvage a friendship

from all this mess

because as you always said

the true definition of friendship

is that your forgive your friends

their faults."

He's asking you for a meeting.

Unteroffizier, Gefreiter.

You can't seriously be considering

What exactly do you think

would happen at this meeting?

What, he'd cross his heart and hope

to die that Hollis is the fifth man?

Just to be crystal bloody clear,

the reason to believe

that Sir Roger is innocent

is Philby is the de facto source

of the information against him.

And you decided not to

believe him, so what's changed?

Or maybe you think that

Philby will admit that

he's secretly still one of you

'cos he was always one of you

old chap.

You're your own worst enemy.

Do you know what's worse?

You're my worst enemy.

You're the whole bloody

country's worst enemy.

The man, he has f*cking lied to you

from the first moment

that he set eyes on you.

He has lied to you and he has used you.

That is all that he has ever done,

and that is all that he will ever do.

What's more, I'm not convinced

that you haven't known that

for the last 23 years.

When are you gonna f*cking accept

that and be honest with yourself?

Ein frischer Wodka.

I hear you're leaving MI5.

Oh, she told you, then,

did she, Mrs Sissmore?

Something about you

wanting to be a better wife.

Look, I didn't let him go,

or escape or however you put it.

What I, in fact, did was

Ooh, I like-a the look of your salami!

Whole or sliced, sir?

What do I look-a like,

a bloody money box?

You forced him to run.

They'll never be able to

fully trust him in Moscow.

Which will k*ll him.

I'm sorry.

Thank you.

Right!

Well, then, on that note

Why do you think Jane Sissmore

felt it necessary to tell

me you were resigning?

- I dunno.

- Really?

Erm

Apparently, according to

her, erm I intrigue you.

Are you really prepared to

walk away and let chaps like me

continue running things, knowing

what you now know about us all?

You seriously think someone like me

- could actually change things?

- Things?

Chaps like you.

A woman from Newcastle change us?

Durham.

It's these offices at the

south east corner on this floor,

down that way, next to the vaults.

All the other offices are

organised on separate floors

according to areas of

responsibility around the world.

The remainder of the Iron

Curtain, south east Asia,

Africa, central Europe.

And this this is you.

Oh, damn!

You've gotta laugh.

Thank you.

A one, a two!

Yata ta ta!

- Are you lonesome ♪

- Yata ta ta!

- A-boom!

- Yata ta ta!

Just-Just a minute.

- Don't stop.

- No, no, just a minute.

- A-boom!

- Just a minute.

I'm-I'm ya ta ta ta-ing, you see!

Oh, well, you shouldn't be!

No, I should be singing

Are You Lonesome Tonight?!

'Cos you've got the

sideboards, you're the star!

- I'm all down to here.

- Yeah. Yeah.

It was the start, something

went wrong with the start.

I know. Sid, you start us off, will you?

Give us the one, two, then

you'll be all right. Yeah. OK?

One, two.

- A boom. Whoo!

- Yata ta ta!

- Are you lonesome tonight? ♪

- A boom. Whoo! Yata ta ta!

It's good, it's good.

Just a minute, Sid. Just a minute.

I'm doing the "Ooh!" now.

I've yata ta ta'd and

I'm doing the Ooh now!

- I've only got the "boom" to go!

- Well, yes.

But there's something wrong

somewhere, isn't there?

Yes! Yes.

Oh, I know what it is!

You start us off, you

count the two in
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