To celebrate our new exhibition featuring formerly secret files and spy gadgets, we will delve into the real world of espionage – one perhaps more intriguing than fiction.
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Trailer: MI5 Official Secrets
Audio transcript for "Trailer: MI5 Official Secrets"
Chloe Lee: James Bond, George Smiley, mysterious gadgets, and coded messages – spy fiction has captivated our imagination for decades. But the truth behind Britain's security service is even more fascinating than these high-stakes capers.
Here at The National Archives, we hold the real files – declassified documents that reveal the actual operations, successes, and sometimes failures of MI5 since its creation in 1909.
Gill Bennett: MI5 grew out of the creation of the Secret Service Bureau in 1909 and that was a body set up by the Committee of Imperial Defence in expectation there might be a war with Germany.
Chloe Lee: In fact, we’re about to showcase many of these files, plus spy gadgets and other objects, in a new exhibition that opens at our site in Kew on April 5th.
CLIP:
Interrogator
No, no, you are a spy. What I want is the truth?
Schmidt
Yes, I will tell the truth or what I know. How can I do so? I mean, I came here, I fight in Denmark with a German. How can I how can you tell me?
Interrogator
How did you come here?
Schmidt
With a boat from Esbjerg
Interrogator
No, you didn't.
Schmidt
Yes.
Interrogator
No, you didn't. When did you come here?
Schmidt
On the 10th, on the night of the 10th and 11th of July.
Interrogator
That is a lie. I know that is a lie.
Chloe Lee:
I’m Chloe Lee, a Records Specialist at The National Archives. I also host our podcast, On The Record at The National Archives, uncovering the past through stories of everyday people.
This is On The Record at The National Archives, uncovering the past through stories of everyday people.
In this episode of On the Record, I want to explore the remarkable history of MI5 through the true stories of a female agent who infiltrated communist circles in the 1930s, and a Danish double agent whose deception during World War II saved countless Allied lives - among others!
Mark Dunton:
We've got the very lemon that was found in his dressing table drawer in the exhibition. It's black and shrivelled and compressed, but it is the lemon, and it forms part of the archive.
Chloe Lee: The episode is coming soon, so hit follow or subscribe wherever you listen.
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