199. Kim Philby: Undercover in Beirut (Ep 4)

Kim Philby is staying one step ahead of his pursuers who suspect the MI6 man is also a KGB agent. Now he’s heading to the Middle East where his past will catch up with him in some unusual ways. Listen as David and Gordon trace Kim Philby’s journey to Beirut. ------------------- Sign-up for our free newsletter where producer Becki takes you behind the scenes of the show: therestisclassified.com/newsletter ------------------- Join the Declassified Club to go deeper into the world of espionage with exclusive Q&As, interviews with top intelligence insiders, regular livestreams, ad-free listening, early access to episodes and live show tickets, and weekly deep dives into original spy stories. Members also get curated reading lists, special book discounts, prize draws, and access to our private chat community. Just go to ⁠⁠therestisclassified.com⁠ or join on Apple Podcasts. ------------------- Get a 10% discount on business PCs, printers and accessories using the code TRIC10. Visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://HP.com/CLASSIFIED⁠⁠⁠⁠ for more information. T&C's apply. ------------------- EXCLUSIVE NordVPN Deal ➼ https://nordvpn.com/restisclassified Upgrade your online protection with an all-in-one security app! It’s risk free with NordVPN’s 30-day money-back guarantee 🌍 ------------------- Email: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠[email protected]⁠⁠⁠ Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@restisclassified⁠ Video Editor: Joe Pettit Social Producer: Emma Jackson Assistant Producer: Alfie Rowe Producer: Becki Hills Head of History: Dom Johnson Exec Producer: Tony Pastor Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:03David McCloskey?

  For exclusive interviews, bonus episodes, ad-free listening, early access to series, first look at live show tickets, a weekly newsletter, and discounted books, join the Declassified Club at therestisclassified.com.

• 0:25David McCloskey?

  Kim Philby is staying one step ahead of his pursuers, who suspect the MI6 man may actually be an agent for the KGB. Now he's heading to the Middle East, where his past will soon catch up with him. Well, welcome to The Rest Is Classified. I'm David McCloskey.

• 0:40Gordon Corera?

  And I'm Gordon Corera.

• 0:41David McCloskey?

  And we are now entering the fourth episode of the Kim Philby saga. And the last time, we looked at this really remarkable turnaround for Philby, who'd been pushed out of MI6, driving a decommissioned black cab around the streets of London, really whiling away his time aimlessly. When all of a sudden, he ends up being cleared publicly by the Foreign Secretary, who announces that Kim Philby is in fact, not the third man. And Philby, now back in the good graces, sort of, of his former friends at MI6,

• 1:22David McCloskey?

  has been given a very interesting new job, because MI6 has helped him to get work for the Observer newspaper, and he has been sent to Beirut, where he will be a journalist, but also a paid agent of British intelligence, and where he might again, be useful to his Soviet handlers. But first, a word from our sponsors at HP.

• 1:48Gordon Corera?

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• 1:50David McCloskey?

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• 2:36Gordon Corera?

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• 2:54Speaker 02

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• 4:14David McCloskey?

  So, Philby arrives in Beirut, Lebanon, in 1956.

• 4:20Gordon Corera?

  Yeah, and it's an amazing time to be there and to start this new phase of his life. Because firstly, the Middle East is in turmoil. And this is a really interesting moment in the Middle East. Because you've got the rise of Arab nationalism, NASA in Egypt, you're going to have the Suez Crisis in 1956, when NASA tries to nationalize the Suez Canal, and the Brits and French try and boot him out, and the Americans, "Stop us." You've got turmoil in Syria and Iraq. I mean, it all feels a bit familiar, doesn't it?

• 4:54David McCloskey?

  It does, yes. I was gonna say, it's one of the unusual spots in the last century where the Middle East has been in turmoil, right? Otherwise, quite placid.

• 5:03Gordon Corera?

  Although I guess what's different is then Beirut is this wonderful, calm oasis, isn't it?

• 5:09David McCloskey?

  This is pre-Civil War Beirut. So, you know, I think from Philby's perspective, it's a kind of a romantic, lively city, and called famously, the Paris of the Middle East. So, in many ways, this feels like exactly the sort of place that Philby would love to be. I mean, very active restaurant, clubs, nightlife scene. It's really this kind of vibrant place, where a guy like Philby, who's got a bunch of interesting contacts, and loves himself a drink, would probably have a great time.

• 5:46Gordon Corera?

  Yeah, that's right. And I think it is a perfect place to be if you're trying to get back into the spying game. Worth a moment on his personal life and life in Beirut. I mean-

• 5:55David McCloskey?

  That's rare for you, Gordon.

• 5:57Gordon Corera?

  No, let's do the personal life, because it's important in the Philby story. Because Philby is alone when he heads to Beirut in the summer of 1956. Aileen doesn't go with him, so his wife. I mean, we talked before, she's having really serious mental health problems, drinking problems. Their marriage is on the rocks. They're kind of separated. So he goes out alone. Philby does, though, reengage with a character from our very first series on Philby, which if you haven't heard, it's worth going back and listening to the very start, Sinjin Philby, Philby's dad. How do we summarize?

• 6:34David McCloskey?

  And for our American listeners, I will say that the name Sinjin is actually, when you spell it out, it looks like St. John.

• 6:40Gordon Corera?

  Yeah, it is. And it's fair to say, as well as the name being curious, the character is curious. I mean, this is a man who, in brief summary, has been a British civil servant, fallen out with the British civil service, helped found Saudi Arabia, been interned for being a traitor at the start of the Second World War, helped get his son inside MI6, become a famous explorer traversing the empty quarter of Saudi Arabia, converted to Islam, and married a 16-year-old Baluchi girl, given to him while he's in his 60s, Sinjin, by the leader of Saudi Arabia. And he's written a ton of books. So this is a man who's lived a full life, I mean, which tells you something about the Sun, perhaps.

• 7:23Gordon Corera?

  And Sinjin had been living in Mecca in Saudi Arabia, but he kind of, in this period, he falls in and out with the Saudis. You know, he's kind of in and out of favor, all the time keeping up his membership of the Athenaeum Club in London, which is one of our, you know, back-to-club land in London, reading The Times-

• 7:40David McCloskey?

  What's the Athenaeum known for? Like, where does it fit?

• 7:44Gordon Corera?

  Bishops and intellectuals.

• 7:46David McCloskey?

  Okay.

• 7:47Gordon Corera?

  That's what it was then for.

• 7:48David McCloskey?

  And Reform, which we talked about.

• 7:50Gordon Corera?

  Is kind of Reform slightly more liberal? Because that's its origins, kind of political, but still establishment. So he's kind of living in Saudi Arabia, he's desperate for a knighthood. You know, he's got this weird love-hate thing with the British establishment, which-

• 8:03David McCloskey?

  Which the Sun also has.

• 8:06Gordon Corera?

  Yeah. 1955, he's fallen out with the Saudis, and he's in Beirut. So he's living in the mountains near Beirut. And Philby at first lodges-

• 8:15David McCloskey?

  You skipped the baboons.

• 8:16Gordon Corera?

  Oh yeah, he lived in a house in Saudi Arabia with baboons sat outside the door. And then he comes to Beirut, and then again, this is a kind of weird household, because his teenage Baluchi wife is there, and Sinjin is going through an experiment, trying to westernize her. It's like a kind of Pygmalion, you know, "I'm going to change her." And she's rejecting it, and hiding in her room, and eating sweets. They've got two young kids. This is Philby's dad, you know?

• 8:50David McCloskey?

  So these are his half-siblings.

• 8:51Gordon Corera?

  Yeah, yeah. And the father-

• 8:54David McCloskey?

  Has he met them before?

• 8:55Gordon Corera?

  Well, he's hanging out with them now. I mean, you know, they're very young. And the father is not particularly pleasant to his young wife. But his father is also a kind of celebrity, because he's helped found Saudi Arabia. So, which also helps Kim in some extent, because you know, you're in the Middle East.

• 9:12David McCloskey?

  Dad's got a lot of contacts.

• 9:13Gordon Corera?

  Dad's got a lot of contacts. I mean, the dad actually writes to Philby's mother, Dora, to whom I think he's still married, and says, "Do you want to come out and live with us? You know, with my Baluchi slave-girl-wife as well, who I'm beating, and who I'm trying to turn into a West-" I mean, this is one weird family setup.

• 9:33David McCloskey?

  I mean, it honestly makes the espionage both entirely unsurprising, and among the least entertaining aspects of the story at this point.

• 9:42Gordon Corera?

  I remember reading this biography of Sinjin Philby. And like, I was reading it, and there's hardly anything about Kim in it.

• 9:50David McCloskey?

  They don't need it.

• 9:50Gordon Corera?

  They don't need it, because there's enough of a life without Kim Philby. It's like, and I was like, "Oh, it's disappointing. There's not much about Kim." But I was like, "Well, there's a lot of good stuff about, you know, Sinjin." Anyway.

• 9:59David McCloskey?

  So what is Kim up to, though?

• 10:00Gordon Corera?

  So, yeah. So Sinjin's going back and forth. Yeah, let's go back to Kim. Enough about the father. So Philby's new assignment, he's the Observer's Middle East correspondent. £3,000, you know, is the salary, not bad, plus traveling expenses.

• 10:15David McCloskey?

  We should say, that is over 100, that's well over 100,000 pounds.

• 10:18Gordon Corera?

  Yeah, it's pretty good.

• 10:19David McCloskey?

  Or close to it, probably.

• 10:21Gordon Corera?

  Does some work for The Economist as well, and not in contact with the KGB, but he's working as a journalist. His life, I mean, I think this life in Beirut is fascinating, and worth bringing to life. And I actually spoke to someone just last week- Who was there at the time and knew Kim Philby.

• 10:39David McCloskey?

  Really?

• 10:39Gordon Corera?

  Yeah, and her name, so she, she is a woman called Celia Adams and she is the mother of one of my very good friends in the BBC, Paul Adams, who is actually a BBC correspondent. And his father, Michael Adams, was the Guardian's Middle East correspondent.

• 10:55David McCloskey?

  Oh, okay.

• 10:55Gordon Corera?

  While Philby was the Observer's Middle East correspondent. So they were quite close colleagues. Michael, Paul's father, has passed away sadly, but, but his, his wife, Celia, Mrs. Adams, is still around. And I had this great chat with her about what Beirut was like at the time and what Philby was like at the time. And life did sound quite magical. I mean, she was a very young woman at the time. She said, you know, you could ski in the morning, swim in the sea in the afternoon. It's a party town. You could enjoy life. It's dinner parties constantly. You know, it's totally different to the kind of bleak Britain, still coming out of rationing in the Second World War. All the journalists hung out together, usually at the bar of the St. George's Hotel, and it's journalists plus spies. And basically,

• 11:40Gordon Corera?

  everyone is trying to work out which journalists are spies and which spies are journalists, who's what? Philby was there, he was part of this social set. He'd hang out at the bar with them all. Then he would go to the embassies, both the British and American embassies, during the afternoons.

• 11:58David McCloskey?

  He was welcome at the American embassy.

• 11:59Gordon Corera?

  He was welcome at the American embassy, kind of cultivate contacts. You know, he's got the charm, he gets the gossip. I mean, I know another guy, now passed away, who, who, who used to drink with Philby a lot, a guy called Anthony Cavendish. And Cavendish is a kind of, Cavendish is worth a story in his own right. He was a very roguish MI6 officer. Roguish is definitely, was Anthony Cavendish. I mean, is a great character, but he got booted out of MI6, I think, for shenanigans in Vienna, long story. But ends up as a journalist and ends up.

• 12:28David McCloskey?

  What's the story?

• 12:29Gordon Corera?

  The story, I think, is he's having an affair with a secretary at the American embassy, crashes a motorbike, gets booted out for one too many indiscretions, basically, in Vienna as an MI6 officer. So he becomes a journalist. So he's an example of going, you know, what, back and forth, you know, and he, he's, he's in Beirut this time with Philby. And I remember him always saying, you know, I used to have a drink or 10 with Philby, in the bar. Philby never showed the effects the next day, however much he drank. And something that, you know, Celia Adams remembers, you know, also saying that he, he, he never appeared hungover, actually, that much at this point. Never seemed to kind of lose control or give himself away. And Cavendish, I remember talking to Cavendish about Philby, and he said, he would just gossip

• 13:13Gordon Corera?

  with him about MI6. You know, they're both ex MI6 officers. And everyone would just kind of talk about the personalities, you know, who's up, who's down, what's going on. And he just said, I thought he was a charming and excellent man, never had any idea. And looking back, I suppose he must have been very clever and we were very stupid, you know, and that's how he looks at it.

• 13:35David McCloskey?

  And he's not yet reconnected with his Soviet handlers.

• 13:40Gordon Corera?

  Exactly. So he's been out of touch with them, very distant. And so for the first year or two, he doesn't connect with them.

• 13:47David McCloskey?

  Hmm.

• 13:48Gordon Corera?

  He does, though, I mean, this is so Philby. You know, he's hanging out with the other journalists. So September 56, as he's just arrived, he reconnects with a guy called Sam Brewer. And Sam is the New York Times correspondent in the Middle East, another big drinker, six foot three Yale graduate, smartly dressed, bow tie. Kind of that Yale-y thing, isn't it?

• 14:09David McCloskey?

  Yeah.

• 14:10Gordon Corera?

  Kind of thing. And they'd known each other in the 30s when they're covering the Spanish Civil War. Sam is married to Eleanor. Eleanor is 42 years old, born in Washington State, quite an adventurous woman, worked at the Office of War Information in World War II, met Sam Brewer in Istanbul. They've got a daughter, she's kind of smart and sarcastic. And she's introduced to Philby. And immediately, she's kind of impressed, like, like I think a lot of people.

• 14:35David McCloskey?

  And I mean, it's interesting, she will later say that what touched her the most, maybe first, was that he seemed lonely, the loneliness. She describes it, "A certain old fashioned reserve set him apart from the easy familiarity of the other journalists." He was then 44, of medium height, very lean, with a handsome, heavily lined face. His eyes were an intense blue. He had a gift for creating an atmosphere of such intimacy that I found myself talking freely to him. I was very impressed by his beautiful manners. We took him under our wing. Kim soon became one of our closest friends. I mean, so you get a little window there into how effective he could be as an intelligence officer, because he's so, he draws people in.

• 15:21Gordon Corera?

  He's got that charm that people talk about. Kind of interesting, I think she touches on it, a kind of slight vulnerability to him, as well as charm. So it's not a kind of overbearing charm, it's not over the top. She talks about that bit of loneliness. I think there's that slight, the intriguing element to his charm, low key charm, rather than, and he's slightly bohemian in his personal life. So he's not kind of charm in a very kind of overbearing, aristocratic, posh English way. And I think it works on people. It's interesting, though, Celia Adams is one of the few people, she says, "I could tell he was a wrong one." You know, they all, they all say that. But I think most people, you know, did not. And, you know, Sam Brewer.

• 15:58David McCloskey?

  How could she tell?

• 15:59Gordon Corera?

  Well, I think it was.

• 16:01David McCloskey?

  What did she point to?

• 16:01Gordon Corera?

  Well, there was one time where, you know, she was, she was in a car and he just got a bit kind of violent almost with her and pulled her hair. At this time, she's pregnant, actually, with her twins, including Paul, my friend, you know, and he kind of pulls her hair and he just, she just said there was a, there was a kind of nasty undercurrent when he was drunk. And that at the dinner parties they'd go to, he would often be disruptive. You know, he would kind of annoy people as well as be charming. And I think.

• 16:28David McCloskey?

  He'd pick fights.

• 16:29Gordon Corera?

  He'd pick fights a bit. Not quite Burgess level fights, but a bit of that. So Eleanor Brewer, Sam Brewer's wife, you know, gets gnomes. Philby spends Christmas with the Brewers. Sam sent abroad to cover Syria in crisis, New Year, 1957. Kim, at that point, isn't travelling so much. And so what happens? Kim starts an affair with Eleanor.

• 16:50David McCloskey?

  Obviously.

• 16:51Gordon Corera?

  Obviously.

• 16:52David McCloskey?

  Obviously.

• 16:53Gordon Corera?

  You know, he, he has a thing about, well, Eleanor clearly finds him attractive and he starts an affair with, with her. Word gets out in the gossipy community. Sam will come back. She'll say, it's not quite clear whether he realizes it's because of Philby, but she'll say, I want a divorce. She goes back to the US to sort things out. Now this, again, is, you know, Philby and women is such a kind of bizarre world, because he is still technically married to Aileen, who's really struggling back home. Five kids, no money, mental health problems. She's in and out of psychiatric hospitals. December the 11th, 1957, Aileen is discovered dead in the house in Crobbe. The coroner ruled it

• 17:35Gordon Corera?

  as heart failure. She's 47 years old. I mean, she may well have killed herself, she may well have died, but, you know, it's unclear. But it's a really tragic end for this woman who'd been close to Philby and maybe had, you know, suspected things. But when he learns of it in Beirut, Philby kind of sees a fellow journalist on the street and says, let's celebrate in a bar. He shows them the telegram saying, Aileen is dead. And he says, it's a wonderful escape. And the journalist is like stunned by this. They're like, kind of, this is kind of weird.

• 18:04David McCloskey?

  I mean, it's a monstrous reaction.

• 18:05Gordon Corera?

  It's a monstrous reaction. And it's, it's that bit of Philby where, you know, he could be kind and charming and he could be an absolute monster as well. And we shouldn't shy away from that. You know, meanwhile, Eleanor Brewer's divorce has come through. So this is another one of those weird scenes. Philby goes to the bar of the St. George's, the hangout, to find Sam Brewer. And there's this exchange where Philby says, "I've come to tell you that I've had a cable from Eleanor. She's got a divorce. And I want you to be the first person to know that I'm going to marry her." To which Sam Brewer replies, "That sounds like the best possible solution. What do you make of the situation in Iraq?" Now, I mean, that's Eleanor's account of the, how the conversation. I mean.

• 18:49David McCloskey?

  Why was Philby going at, it, it seems like he was interested in and pursued people who were the wives of people who were close to him.

• 19:00Gordon Corera?

  Yeah. And it's not the last time we'll see that that happens.

• 19:02David McCloskey?

  No. It's a very, it's a, it's a, another one of these little cracks in his personality that's sort of very dark.

• 19:11Gordon Corera?

  And is it an obsession with betrayal? Or, I don't know. But all his relationships, there's so much deception. I think only at the very end of his life is there one relationship which isn't deceptive. And I, I think it's, I find it hard to understand. What's going on in his mind?

• 19:29David McCloskey?

  Yeah, I, I think one of the reasons he must have gotten some measure of thrill out of his espionage work, his work for the Soviets, was that he knew something that his colleagues inside MI6 didn't.

• 19:45Gordon Corera?

  Yeah.

• 19:45David McCloskey?

  Like, he had, he had a secret.

• 19:47Gordon Corera?

  Secret knowledge.

• 19:48David McCloskey?

  Yeah. And I wonder if the, the sort of the infidelity, and in particular, the infidelity with people who are close to him and who, he knows the husband, he knows the spouse, is a similar

• 19:58Gordon Corera?

  Dynamic.

• 19:58David McCloskey?

  Dynamic.

• 19:59Gordon Corera?

  Yeah.

• 20:00David McCloskey?

  And, and he, he psychologically, whereas I think a, a normal person, that would be quite stressful.

• 20:07Gordon Corera?

  Yeah.

• 20:07David McCloskey?

  He seems to enjoy it and get some, he's like an adrenaline junkie, in a way.

• 20:12Gordon Corera?

  Yeah, yeah. So Philby and Eleanor get married back in London, January 24th, 1959. His old pal from MI6, Nicholas Elliot, is there, along with others from MI6. They then move into a big apartment in Beirut. And, and you know, in Beirut, he is doing some of this MI6 work. I mean, it's mainly passing on gossip to MI6, talking to politicians and diplomats, pretty low-grade stuff. Lot of time with the CIA people in, in Beirut. I mean, of which there are a lot.

• 20:39David McCloskey?

  Yeah.

• 20:40Gordon Corera?

  You know, because it's the Middle East at that time.

• 20:42David McCloskey?

  The warnings from Harvey have not made their way out to the station in Beirut, apparently. Or they've been ignored?

• 20:48Gordon Corera?

  That's what's...

• 20:49David McCloskey?

  Because you'd think if, if everybody thought this guy was working for the Soviets, that somebody at, at, you know, back in Washington would have said, no, don't, don't talk to this guy.

• 20:59Gordon Corera?

  And again, he, so he's spending a lot of time drinking and socializing with like the CIA station chief, with a guy called Miles Copland, very interesting guy who was in the CIA, still on contract to the CIA, although now he's kind of in business and doing other things. His son, by the way, becomes the drummer of the band The Police, which is a kind of one of those bizarre things. And Copland, Miles Copland, is, is close to Angleton. And so there is this interesting question, which you raise there, which is, at this point, when he's hanging out with all these CIA people and gossiping with them, do they know that he's been under suspicion? I think they probably do. Are they just hanging out with him?

• 21:36David McCloskey?

  Yeah.

• 21:36Gordon Corera?

  Because that's what you do.

• 21:37David McCloskey?

  Like, oh, we're not, we're not sharing

• 21:38Gordon Corera?

  Or are they...

• 21:39David McCloskey?

  ...sensitive information.

• 21:40Gordon Corera?

  Or are they being asked to kind of keep an eye on him? And, you know, are they being asked to kind of watch Philby? Because of course, there had been this contingent in the US who were like, Philby's a bad and then we want to get him.

• 21:49David McCloskey?

  Yeah.

• 21:50Gordon Corera?

  But also, Angleton, we think, you know, is Angleton at this point, his old friend? Is he maybe a bit suspicious or at least curious about Philby? I mean, there were different views about whether those CIA people were, were kind of informing on him to Angleton

• 22:06David McCloskey?

  Mm-hmm.

• 22:06Gordon Corera?

  as a result of suspicion, or they were just friendly.

• 22:09David McCloskey?

  Yeah.

• 22:10Gordon Corera?

  You know, and Angleton was still kind of oblivious to that. So I think there's a kind of ambiguity, but he's definitely spending a lot of time. So he's got all this gossip. And then the Soviets, you know, I mean, life couldn't get better for him because the Soviets get back in touch late 1958. You know, a man approaches him at the bar of this St. George's Hotel, gives him his card, says he's from the Soviet trade mission, says he's enjoying his articles in the newspaper. They seem very well informed. Could we talk? And, and Philby says, I've been waiting for you for so long. When they meet, he's been out of touch for a lot of the last few years. And it's interesting because he could, he could stay out of touch, but it's Philby.

• 22:49David McCloskey?

  Yeah. This is exciting for him, right? I mean, this is, he's, he's back in the game.

• 22:54Gordon Corera?

  Yeah, he's back in the game.

• 22:55David McCloskey?

  They set up a, a kind of commo and signal plan, in a way. So they agree that if Philby's going to meet us or wants to meet a Soviet contact, they'll stand on his balcony at a certain time, holding a newspaper. If he has a book, that means it's an emergency. They also seem to set up a chalk signal for, for emergency situations. And then, you know, normally they'll meet somewhere quiet and discreet in the evening. So he's kind of getting the, the tradecrafts pulled up again so he can actually talk and, and meet with his Soviet handlers.

• 23:27Gordon Corera?

  Yeah, and the Soviets don't have that much diplomatic representation in the Middle East. And so what Philby can give them is the inside gossip of what the Brits and Americans are doing in the Middle East. Because of course, Philby's in and out of the British and American Embassy, he's hanging out with all the British and American spies. So he can give them quite a lot of insight into what the West is up to across the Middle East, because Beirut is this crossroads.

• 23:52David McCloskey?

  Well, life is looking pretty good for Kim Philby in Beirut, but maybe there, let's take a break. When we come back, we'll see that what he doesn't know is that he's heading for a showdown. But first, the return of a friend. We'll see you after the break.

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• 24:41David McCloskey?

  Well, welcome back. It's 1960 and things are looking up for Kim Philby in Beirut. And he also has a good friend who's coming to visit him.

• 24:49Gordon Corera?

  That's right. Because Nicholas Elliot, his old pal, his protector at MI6, has been appointed MI6 station chief in Beirut. What could be better? And on his first day, he sees Philby for lunch, brie et basse and wine, if you want to know. Fill me in, old boy.

• 25:07David McCloskey?

  Should apologize to our French listeners

• 25:09Gordon Corera?

  Yeah, for my pronunciation.

• 25:10David McCloskey?

  For that mangling of...

• 25:12Gordon Corera?

  They can write in. But Elliot says, fill me in to Philby. You know, Elliot's new to the place and he, he wants his old friend to be his kind of guide, introduce him to the right people. And things get busier for Philby at first because Elliot also wants to use him much more for MI6 across the region. So Philby is now, you know, covering Lebanon, of course, but also Jordan, Iraq, Kuwait, Yemen, Egypt, travelling to all these countries. It's quite funny, he's not filing that many stories.

• 25:43David McCloskey?

  Just kind of travelling around, meeting people and drinking.

• 25:46Gordon Corera?

  And James Hannings, who's written a great book, Love and Deception, which is about Philby in Beirut, you know, quotes one person as saying, because he's working for The Observer and The Economist as a journalist, he was neither observing nor economizing. Because he's basically acting as Elliot's eyes and ears in the region, meeting Elliot a few times a week, you know, living it up, parting it, getting more cash from MI6. Eleanor can see, I think, that he's enjoying it. Things are looking good.

• 26:12David McCloskey?

  Yeah, he's back in the game. But, okay, so this does, I, I think it, it brings us to a very interesting question, which is, is Elliot being totally duped? And he just believes that Kim is who he says he is? He's a loyal Brit and he was turned out wrongly? And so Elliot, his old pal, wants to help him? Or is Elliot

• 26:37Gordon Corera?

  Playing a clever game.

• 26:37David McCloskey?

  Playing a very clever game and bringing him back into things so that Kim would get in touch with his Soviet handlers and he could be observed and thus caught?

• 26:46Gordon Corera?

  I think it's the right question to ask, but let's hold the answer, or what we think is the answer, as the story develops. Because I think it's good to have that in our minds, which is what is

• 26:56David McCloskey?

  What's the game here?

• 26:57Gordon Corera?

  What's the...

• 26:58David McCloskey?

  Or is there a game?

• 26:59Gordon Corera?

  Is there a game? Because I think it's a good question to ask. Because as the story develops, I think that is the question to kind of keep in, keep in our minds.

• 27:06David McCloskey?

  But let's go back to Philby's father.

• 27:08Gordon Corera?

  Yeah.

• 27:09David McCloskey?

  For a second.

• 27:10Gordon Corera?

  Because, I mean, his father has been going back and forth, you know, out, in and out of the Middle East. September 1960, Nicholas Elliot has lunch with both Philby's father and son. He remembers that Sinjin was agreeable company. Sinjin is on his way back to London, looking forward to take Kim's sons, who of course, you know, now orphaned, but in, in Britain.

• 27:32David McCloskey?

  Yeah, what, what is going on with his kids in the UK? Because it means past.

• 27:38Gordon Corera?

  Yeah.

• 27:39David McCloskey?

  I mean, and Philby is in Beirut and travelling all around.

• 27:42Gordon Corera?

  And, you know, other people are looking after them. And they, they come out and visit him quite a bit

• 27:45David McCloskey?

  Okay.

• 27:45Gordon Corera?

  in Beirut, but, but most of the time they're in Britain. They do spend quite a bit of time in Beirut. But, you know, Sinjin is going to take his grandkids to the cricket. Now, Nicholas Elliot writes about Sinjin, Philby's father. He left at tea time, had a nap, made a pass at the wife of a member of embassy staff in a nightclub, had a heart attack and died early next morning. His last words were, God, I'm bored.

• 28:12Gordon Corera?

  I mean, that is Sinjin Philby. Like, that, that 24 hour snapshot of his life.

• 28:18David McCloskey?

  There, there.

• 28:18Gordon Corera?

  There.

• 28:19David McCloskey?

  It's all you need to know.

• 28:19Gordon Corera?

  That's all you need to know about the mad life. I mean, God, I'm bored. I mean, great last words. I don't know. I hope, I mean, anyway.

• 28:27David McCloskey?

  Well, then, and, and because Sinjin had converted to Islam, Philby buries him the next, the next day.

• 28:34Gordon Corera?

  Yeah.

• 28:35David McCloskey?

  According to, to Muslim tradition. And, and then files a story for The Observer about.

• 28:41Gordon Corera?

  His dad dying.

• 28:41David McCloskey?

  His dad dying.

• 28:43Gordon Corera?

  I mean, that's one weird.

• 28:44David McCloskey?

  It's insane.

• 28:44Gordon Corera?

  But it is interesting because some people, this whole father-son dynamic is a weird one between, between the two of them. And people saying, well, you know, was he trying to follow his father? Was it his father's absence and then he was looking for a father figure in his Soviet handlers?

• 29:00Gordon Corera?

  Who, who can say? I mean, it's kind of hard to know. But what, one thing we do know is that his death has this massive effect on Philby. I mean, it really does seem to send him spiraling a bit. He goes out of circulation for a few days, Kim, on a massive bender. He drinks himself senseless. And Eleanor thinks he comes out of this period of his father's death, changed somehow. Kind of frailer in body and spirit. And a number of things are going to happen in this period. So, and once we get to the end of 1960, which, you know, we talked about Philby being on the up, which are going to, I think, destabilize him. There's another one, early 1961. A Soviet spy inside MI6 is discovered.

• 29:43Gordon Corera?

  Not Kim Philby, but a guy called George Blake. And this is another kind of wild story because he ends up confessing, doing exactly what Philby didn't do. And he is jailed for 42 years, which at the time is the longest sentence given for anyone under British law, you know, in British history.

• 30:03David McCloskey?

  So even if you murdered someone.

• 30:04Gordon Corera?

  It's the difference between having a life sentence or at that point, 42 years. Cause it's three consecutive 14 year sentences he gets. And, uh, Philby must see that in 61 and go, oh, you know, this is, that's what happens if you get caught, is you spend the rest of your life in jail. Now, interestingly enough, Blake will not spend the rest of his life in jail because he'll get broken out of prison, which is another whole wild story. I actually met the person who broke him out of prison, but that's, or helped break him out of prison. That's another story. But Philby, you know, that, that shakes Philby. And I think Eleanor, as you get into 1962, sees him change.

• 30:42Gordon Corera?

  The drinking gets heavier, edge of desperation, maybe a desire to escape. He's making slightly random, unpleasant passes at women. You know, he's also kind of, I mean, you know, talked about Senior Adams talking about being kind of aggressive and disruptive. There's more arguments and fights, more drinking. Meanwhile, Nicholas Elliott, October 62, was sent back to London from Beirut to run operations in Africa. Another weird story. December 62, Philby has been keeping a pet fox on his balcony. Which is.

• 31:19David McCloskey?

  I mean, the story was obviously leading to this point, right?

• 31:21Gordon Corera?

  Called Jackie.

• 31:22David McCloskey?

  Jackie.

• 31:23Gordon Corera?

  And, and he'd, he'd house trained and weirdly Philby loves.

• 31:26David McCloskey?

  You can house train a fox.

• 31:28Gordon Corera?

  Yeah. And Philby loves animals, which is another kind of, loves Arsenal Football Club and animals. And affairs with his friends' wives. I mean, it's like, anyway, but Jackie is found dead five floors below from the balcony. And there is a, we could, I could go on to a bit of a tangent about the death of Jackie.

• 31:46David McCloskey?

  Oh, go on.

• 31:47Gordon Corera?

  No, because there's a question about whether the housekeepers from the flats hated Jackie so much, having a fox there, that they threw Jackie out the window or whether Jackie fell. There's like a big true crime mystery about the death of Jackie that we could do, but I think.

• 32:01David McCloskey?

  And which we will do for club members.

• 32:05Gordon Corera?

  There's an incentive to join the club.

• 32:07David McCloskey?

  Subscribe to the club.

• 32:08Gordon Corera?

  Five, five part series on the death of Jackie the fox.

• 32:12David McCloskey?

  Gordon is gonna, Gordon is gonna travel to Beirut to, to interview.

• 32:17Gordon Corera?

  The remaining.

• 32:18David McCloskey?

  Elderly housekeeper, former housekeeper.

• 32:20Gordon Corera?

  Talk to some fox experts about how do you house train a fox? And can they survive a fall? Is it like a cat?

• 32:25David McCloskey?

  Pictures reconstructing the balcony. Wait, so hold on. So, so.

• 32:29Gordon Corera?

  So anyway, Jackie dies. That's the point.

• 32:31David McCloskey?

  But you went, so you went deep into, do you feel that Jackie fell or was pushed?

• 32:35Gordon Corera?

  I think possibly was pushed.

• 32:39Gordon Corera?

  Back to Philby, uh, this, but weirdly, the only two times people see Philby like really emotional and like crying are when his dad dies and when Jackie the fox dies.

• 32:50David McCloskey?

  Yeah. So just to, just to make sure we have an appropriate bead on Kim Philby's character. When his father, who was a monstrous abuser, uh, and overall psychopath dies, Philby loses it.

• 33:07Gordon Corera?

  Yeah.

• 33:08David McCloskey?

  When the fox dies, he loses it.

• 33:10Gordon Corera?

  Philby loses it.

• 33:10David McCloskey?

  When Aileen, his wife dies, he goes and celebrates by drinking at the bar.

• 33:16Gordon Corera?

  Yeah. This is not a normal man.

• 33:19David McCloskey?

  This is not a normal man.

• 33:21Gordon Corera?

  And what he doesn't know is, as well as these kind of mini crises in his personal life, is that back in London, Arthur Martin, our middle class spy hunter.

• 33:30David McCloskey?

  I was wondering when Arthur Martin was gonna come back.

• 33:32Gordon Corera?

  Martin, our middle class spy hunter, quiet but effective, is on his trail. And he has not given up in these years. So we last saw Arthur Martin in 55. He's still going.

• 33:44David McCloskey?

  Yeah, it's been seven years.

• 33:46Gordon Corera?

  Yeah, he's still going and he's never given up on, on Philby. And some interesting couple of things happen in this period. One is that a KGB officer called Galitsin, Anatoly Galitsin, defects in Helsinki, December 1961. Lots of wild tales and we'll come to Galitsin, I think in maybe one of our bonus episodes where we do mole hunts. But he talks about a ring of five spies in Britain who knew each other from university, including Burgess and Maclean. So the obvious question then is, he doesn't know who they are, but he, this phrase, the ring of five, is now known within MI5, you know, the idea. And so the question immediately is, who are the others of this ring of five? And then this other really interesting bit of crucial information comes in.

• 34:29Gordon Corera?

  This comes from a Russian exile who'd grown up in Britain called Flora Solomon. Philby had known her in the 30s. She's older than him. I mean, there's some kind of rumors. They might have even had an affair, but she's, she's kind of a bit older. Summer 1962, she's visiting Israel. She's a committed Zionist. And she sees Victor Rothschild. Victor Rothschild, interesting character, had been part of the Cambridge set, also had worked inside MI5, friend of a lot of these people. She says to Victor Rothschild, I've been reading The Observer newspaper and, you know, why is Philby writing all this anti-Israeli stuff in the newspaper? She's complaining about it.

• 35:09Gordon Corera?

  And she says to Rothschild, you know, why did The Observer use a man like Philby, who is a committed communist? And Rothschild said, what, you know, what do you mean? How do you know he's a committed communist? And she says, well, Philby, in the 30s, tried to recruit me as a communist agent. And now this is, this is a quite significant piece of information at this moment.

• 35:33David McCloskey?

  Well, cause it's, it's coming pretty much simultaneously with the Galitsin information, right? So it's, it's new pieces of evidence and information.

• 35:42Gordon Corera?

  Now, it's worth just a moment on why Flora Solomon reveals this, because she's known it obviously for years. You know, we've had the third man stuff before. Is it really Philby's anti-Israel views? Cause there's another theory. One of the theories is that this is revenge for the way Philby has treated Aileen. Because it was Flora Solomon who introduced Kim Philby to Aileen, 1939, 1940, at the start of the war, and introduced the pair who get married. And of course, by now, early 60s, Aileen is dead, having been badly treated by Philby. You know, he's basically left her to go to Beirut.

• 36:23Gordon Corera?

  So, so it's interesting because is this the way he treated Aileen coming back to haunt him? You know, is that what's driving Flora, Flora Solomon to now tell people like Victor Rothschild, who's still well-connected at MI5, this guy's a communist. And not just that, but he's a communist agent.

• 36:41David McCloskey?

  Yeah.

• 36:41Gordon Corera?

  You know, that's the key bit.

• 36:42David McCloskey?

  That's the difference, right? Because Philby had never denied having sort of communist sympathies while he was at Cambridge in the early 30s. But this is different from that.

• 36:53Gordon Corera?

  Yeah, this is different.

• 36:54David McCloskey?

  He's actually recruiting for an organization.

• 36:56Gordon Corera?

  Yeah. So Rothschild reports it to MI5. Arthur Martin interviews Flora Solomon in London at Rothschild's flat for two hours. She goes through all the conversations and about how, you know, Philby confessed to being a Soviet agent. She says she's seen Philby again and she thinks some of the conversations, you know, where Philby trying to tell her or indicate to her, please don't talk about what happened in the past. Arthur Martin isn't quite sure he trusts Flora Solomon entirely. And he's not sure she would give evidence or it could be used in court. But it, but this is, this is really kind of powerful stuff that Philby was an active recruiter. So the question is, what'd you do?

• 37:34David McCloskey?

  So he's in Beirut, obviously. Do you lure him back to the UK and try to arrest him? I mean, I guess it's still the massive question of all of this assembled evidence. Would it hold up in court? What could you actually use in a court of law? Could you invite him back? Would he come to the UK?

• 37:57Gordon Corera?

  Yeah.

• 37:58David McCloskey?

  Could you render him back?

• 37:59Gordon Corera?

  That's what the CIA would do.

• 38:01David McCloskey?

  Could you send a team to snatch him up?

• 38:03Gordon Corera?

  Yeah. What'd you do?

• 38:04David McCloskey?

  And put him in a sweatsuit and bring him back. I mean, it's.

• 38:08Gordon Corera?

  Yeah.

• 38:08David McCloskey?

  It's not obvious immediately how, how you play this.

• 38:11Gordon Corera?

  And so the decision is to confront him, find out what damage he's done, hopefully by confronting him and getting him to confess.

• 38:20David McCloskey?

  Yeah.

• 38:21Gordon Corera?

  So the priority is getting a confession which allows you to do a damage assessment. You know, that seems to be their, their view. And if we can offer him immunity for prosecution in return for a full, accurate confession, that would be, that would be, in their view, a kind of, not a bad outcome because you avoid the political fallout. Cause of course, this is a guy who's been cleared by the Foreign Secretary back in 55. And suddenly you're saying, oh, well, actually.

• 38:52David McCloskey?

  Oops.

• 38:52Gordon Corera?

  Oops, we got that one wrong. Politicians at the time have had enough of spy trials. They've just had Blake, there's been another one, Vassal. You know, all these spy trials, they make everyone look bad, these moles. So the view is maybe we can kind of keep a lid on this. So the plan is send out Arthur Martin. That's who you'd send, isn't it? He's the mole hunter.

• 39:12David McCloskey?

  He's been doing the work.

• 39:13Gordon Corera?

  He's been doing the work. It's like in any place. If you've done the work, you should get the nice foreign trip to Beirut.

• 39:19David McCloskey?

  Well, and he's, I mean, he would relish the opportunity.

• 39:24Gordon Corera?

  To confront Philby.

• 39:25David McCloskey?

  To confront Philby.

• 39:26Gordon Corera?

  But. Nicholas Elliot is someone to see Dick White, who's now the head of MI6. And Dick White says to Nicholas Elliot, you know, your friend Philby, there's no doubt he's bad. And it's interesting because Dick White actually seems to lie to Nicholas Elliot to convince him. And he tells Elliot, you know, we've got new evidence which completely confirms he's a traitor from a KGB source.

• 39:50David McCloskey?

  And it's not quite true.

• 39:51Gordon Corera?

  It's not quite true. They know Elliot, you know, who's been Philby's backer, but they've got to convince Elliot, you know, that it's true. So Elliot tries to keep his stiff upper lip. I mean, inside, he must be broken because this is his friend. This is a guy he's backed. He's been betrayed. And then he says, let me go out and confront Philby.

• 40:10David McCloskey?

  What's the logic? I mean, maybe I understand why Elliot would want to do it.

• 40:14Gordon Corera?

  Yeah.

• 40:14David McCloskey?

  But why would Dick White agree?

• 40:18Gordon Corera?

  I think it's, and this goes back to the British obsession, which is class. Because what they think is that Philby, as a kind of member of the posh establishment, won't confess to his junior.

• 40:35David McCloskey?

  I see.

• 40:36Gordon Corera?

  Like Arthur Martin, this kind of middle classy, you know, MI5 policeman type. He'll only confess when confronted with his social equivalent, someone, you know, at his level, like Nicholas Elliot. Because of course, if his oldest friend, Ambacca, is going out to confront him and say, I know you're bad, come on, you know, time to own up Philby. I think that the theory that Elliot and White come up with is that that's how they're more likely to get a confession and get him to cooperate and answer all these questions like, you know, how many other spies are there? You know, who's in this ring of five?

• 41:17Gordon Corera?

  And it's only, the theory is, if your greatest backer is now Elliot confronting you, that you might really open up.

• 41:27David McCloskey?

  Because at this point, I mean, just to make sure this is on the table, MI6 and MI5 would know that Burgess and McLean are two of the five.

• 41:37Gordon Corera?

  Yeah.

• 41:38David McCloskey?

  But was Blake part of the?

• 41:39Gordon Corera?

  Nope.

• 41:39David McCloskey?

  No, right?

• 41:40Gordon Corera?

  Completely separate from Cambridge.

• 41:41David McCloskey?

  Completely separate from Cambridge. So they would, they would say, okay, well, Philby is maybe the third of these five.

• 41:47Gordon Corera?

  Yeah.

• 41:47David McCloskey?

  But there's.

• 41:48Gordon Corera?

  At least two more.

• 41:49David McCloskey?

  There's at least two more. So maybe Philby.

• 41:51Gordon Corera?

  Can help us.

• 41:51David McCloskey?

  Could help us get those other guys.

• 41:53Gordon Corera?

  Yeah, exactly.

• 41:54David McCloskey?

  So there is a logic to it.

• 41:56Gordon Corera?

  There's stuff they want to know. And that, if you like, is their priority rather than prosecuting Philby.

• 42:01David McCloskey?

  Philby, right.

• 42:02Gordon Corera?

  Is get the intelligence out of them. So head of MI6 agrees, it's going to be Nicholas Elliot, not Arthur Martin, who goes out. I mean, MI5 and Martin are furious and you can understand why. They've done all the work. They don't get the foreign trip.

• 42:17David McCloskey?

  I want to go skiing in Beirut.

• 42:19Gordon Corera?

  Yeah.

• 42:19David McCloskey?

  Yeah.

• 42:20Gordon Corera?

  But also, I mean, for them, you can see if you're Arthur Martin, you're like, well, last time we let MI6, you know, they're always covering up for this guy. They're always making excuses for him and we're going to let his friend go out and confront him?

• 42:32David McCloskey?

  Philby is kind of cracking up. So father's passed away.

• 42:38Gordon Corera?

  Yeah.

• 42:38David McCloskey?

  Jackie the Fox has passed away. His relationship with Eleanor, bit strained.

• 42:44Gordon Corera?

  Yeah.

• 42:44David McCloskey?

  He's drinking heavily. He's under a lot of stress.

• 42:47Gordon Corera?

  He's under a lot of stress. And it's interesting because he's cracking up at this point. There is a question, which is, does he know how close they are getting to him? This is interesting because it does look like Anthony Blunt visits Beirut around this time, late 62, looking for some kind of orchid or something weird and goes to the, you know, is in touch with people from the embassy. People from the embassy remember this. And again, you know, people are like, well, did he meet Philby? You know, Blunt is this mystery man. He's always there at the right moment, you know? Could he have told Philby?

• 43:16David McCloskey?

  Had he been sent to warn him?

• 43:18Gordon Corera?

  Because he's friends with Victor, you know, he's friends with these people. So there's a kind of manic air, I think, to Philby as 1962 comes to a close. New Year's Day, Philby goes on a massive drinking bender, surprisingly, with Miles Copeland from the CIA or formerly CIA. The day ends with Philby smashing his head against a radiator in the bathroom. I mean, the room is splattered with blood and a doctor tells Eleanor, if he'd had any more booze, he might be dead. And as we get to these first days of January, 1963, everything is coming to a head for Philby because Nicholas Elliot is coming to town.

• 44:03Gordon Corera?

  He's formulating a plan. He doesn't seem to have yet told Philby he's there, but he's talking to the new MI6 station chief, Peter Lunn. They're going to rent or use an apartment from one of the secretaries, which is near the sea, which they're going to bug with microphones under the sofa, recorders in the next room. Elliot's keeping a low profile and the plan is to invite Philby to this apartment and it's going to be Peter Lunn who does it. Peter Lunn calls Philby, says, can you come to this flat for a meeting? It's kind of regular chat, kind of things we talk about. Does Philby suspect something is up? It's not entirely clear.

• 44:43Gordon Corera?

  But then 4pm in the afternoon, Philby, who's still wearing bandages from this kind of injury where he smashed his head on the radiator, knocks on the door of this apartment, opens the door and sees the face of Nicholas Elliot.

• 44:59David McCloskey?

  And then Philby says something which I think will haunt British intelligence for decades. Looking at his friend Nicholas Elliot, he says, I rather thought it would be you.

• 45:13David McCloskey?

  So let's end there. And when we come back next time, we are going to look at one of the most important conversations in the history of MI6.

• 45:23Gordon Corera?

  That's right. So that will be next time. And just a reminder, if you want to hear that now, you can do so by joining the Declassified Club at therestisclassified.com, where you'll also be able to hear Philby's own account of some of these conversations with Nicholas Elliot from a tape uncovered in the Stasi archive. And club members are also going to be here about mole hunts, fact and fiction, and from mole hunters themselves. So do join the club if you want to hear that. But otherwise, we'll see you next time.

• 45:49David McCloskey?

  We'll see you next time.

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