Spying on the Royals (2017) s01e01 Episode Script
Episode 1
1 On the frozen weekend of the 5th of December 1936, a nerve-shredded King Edward VIII made a secret telephone call from his office in Buckingham Palace.
In a private conversation with his brother, he confided that he could no longer be king, if it meant abandoning the woman he loved.
But recently declassified documents have revealed that his every word was being scrutinised.
The idea of tapping the royal family is so sensitive, and so inherently controversial, this is dangerous territory.
This could be explosive.
This is the secret story behind the events that stunned a nation 80 years ago.
I have found it impossible to discharge my duties as King.
A King suspected of Nazi sympathies.
His scandalous love affair with an American divorcee.
An establishment hell-bent on stopping him.
And a top-secret surveillance operation against the king, the full details of which are now only now being uncovered.
The government has always maintained that it does not intercept or tap royal communications.
This episode turns history on its head.
The greatest royal romance of the 20th century can now be seen through a unique new perspective.
The eyes of those who spied on Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson.
Creating a secret dossier unlike any other in British history.
King George V's silver jubilee.
'Their Majesties rode out on the first of their processional drives through London.
The weather has combined with them to make this day a day of never to be forgotten splendour.
Every available vantage point is utilised by onlookers, with Their Majesties proceeding back to Buckingham Palace with the happiest memories of memories of south London's outspoken loyalty.
At the celebratory garden party were all the members of the royal family, including the young Princess Margaret and the future Queen, Elizabeth.
Unseen in the crowd were shadowy figures with one target in mind.
The heir to the throne, Edward, Prince of Wales.
Their activities would climax in perhaps the most controversial surveillance operation in British history.
So controversial, it's been a state secret for almost 80 years.
Only now with documents unearthed here at the National Archives at Kew in London are its full details being analysed by the intelligence historians Doctor Rory Cormack and Professor Richard Aldrich.
It's Cabinet Office material that is only just been released, so What is remarkable about this is that for the last 20 or 30 years, British government has been telling us that it does not intercept or tap the communication of the royal family and indeed, there have been a number of enquiries in which this has been stated repeatedly.
This is not the intelligence services acting alone.
This is not spies acting as rogue elephants.
This comes from the very centre of power.
The subject of the operation was a wayward Prince who would soon be sovereign of the greatest empire the world that have seen.
He was dazzlingly good-looking as a young man.
Wearing a fair isle sweater, a cap on the side of this head, a cigarette hanging out of his mouth.
Going out on the beach in a rather small pair of swimming pants and winking at all the pretty girls, nudging them, you know, and having fun.
Edward's lifestyle did not sit well with his royal duties.
Edward couldn't keep to a time schedule, punctuality was not something that he thought mattered, so on one famous occasion, when he was meant to be reporting for duty in the morning, he was still in bed with the wife of a local official.
He didn't think that that mattered.
Many of his courtiers despaired of him because of not taking his job as heir to the throne seriously.
And that gave him the reputation of being the playboy prince.
It infuriated King George V.
He was entirely infected by what he called the worst American habits.
Drinking cocktails and going to nightclubs and all those sort of things.
There were rumours which reached my ears that the Prince of Wales was living a funny sort of life, involved with lots of women.
I remember asking my father, "What's it all about?" And he said, "Yes, things aren't quite right, I'm afraid.
" Then, in New Year 1935, a bombshell hit Buckingham Palace.
George V received word from his courtiers that Edward had given a mysterious woman £110,000 in jewels.
Worth £7 million today.
The King smelt blackmail.
Acting on the King's concerns, Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin's government decided on an unprecedented move, to gather information on Edward and his new secret lady friend.
The Special Branch was contacted about this most delicate of enquiries.
The head of the Metropolitan Police, Sir Philip Game, wanted somebody who could treat it with the utmost discretion, which this incredibly sensitive operation required, so they went to their rising star, Canning.
Albert Canning was the son of a prosperous Essex businessman and joined the police in 1909.
Superintendent Canning is perhaps the most impressive police officer of the 20th century.
He is taken to the Special Branch after only six months on the beat.
He is promoted extremely rapidly and he's politically sensitive and astute.
That rare breed of police officer who is chosen to do political surveillance because he knows what the boundaries are.
He understands all the complexities.
He understands the limits to which the police can go in this sensitive area.
Canning's first target was the recipient of Edward's gifts.
Her name, Wallis Simpson, was known to the King but little else.
Canning began to investigate her background.
' was born in Monterey, Pennsylvania on the 19th of June, 1896.
Her maiden name was Wallis Warfield.
'She was married at the register office, Chelsea, on the 21st of the seventh 1928, two Ernest Aldrich Simpson.
She then described herself as the former wife of Earl Wingfield Spencer from whom she obtained a divorce.
' 'There is no record in London of divorce, and if it is possible that these people are really divorced, the decrees may have been obtained in America.
' Wallis was not only divorced and on her second marriage, she also had a frustratingly murky past.
We're not in the age of the Internet, you can't look these things up.
These things are done in local towns across England, across the United States.
It's actually very difficult to investigate the background of someone who has lived in London, has lived in New York, perhaps, has lived in Shanghai.
Canning's surveillance soon shifted to Wallis's husband Ernest.
On the surface, he was the picture of respectability.
'Ernest Aldrich Simpson held a commission in the Coldstream Guards.
He relinquished his commission on the 1st of April, 1920, with the rank of Second Lieutenant.
' But when Canning probed deeper, Simpson, too, turned out to have an uncertain past.
'On this occasion, Ernest Aldrich Simpson described himself as the divorced husband of Dorothea Parsons Simpson.
There is no record in London of divorce.
This is a problem for the police because Ernest Aldrich Simpson is quite an ambiguous figure.
He's part of a new class of people who are moving around a cosmopolitan world in the early 20th century, and their allegiances are, at best, difficult to ascertain.
His first wife has disappeared, no information is available.
It suggests that his personal life is complex.
And there's a lot of and answered questions.
Scotland Yard officers began tailing the Simpsons, Wallis in particular.
They were sending the reports on what she was doing, where she was going, with whom she was meeting, and this was then going back to Canning, which he could then report, in turn, back to his boss and to Baldwin.
They recorded how she looked .
.
what she wore .
.
Where she lived 'Number 5, Bryanston Court is in a block of high-class flats 'and the annual rental is said to be about £600.
' Most important of all was Wallis's private life.
After surveillance of her Bryanston Court flat, Canning's team concluded that one man seemed particularly close to Wallis.
POW was the Prince of Wales.
The deeper Canning and his men probed into the relationship, the clearer it became.
A royal scandal was in the making.
In 1935, the secret affair between Wallis Simpson and the Prince of Wales brought increasing concern in royal circles.
Courtiers would despair.
It was known that the Prince of Wales was paying her not only, some believed, £6,000 per annum, but he was giving her presents of jewellery and furs.
They believed she was common.
They believed she was a gold digger.
Documents uncovered at the British National Archives reveal that as detectives found out what was going on between Wallis and the Prince of Wales, their fears mounted.
Special Branch are interested in the minutiae of the personal relationship between Wallis Simpson and the Prince of Wales.
They're interested in the power relationship, and they're also interested in the most minute details of their everyday lives.
They're putting in really detailed surveillance.
It's the kind of surveillance that you would do on an enemy spy.
On a covert surveillance in Kensington, the man leading the operation, Superintendent Albert Canning, began to realise Wallis's hold over the Prince.
"Within the last few weeks Mrs Wallis Warfield Simpson visited an "antiques shop in Pelham Street, South Kensington, "in company with the Prince of Wales.
" "Conversations showed that they were on very affectionate terms, "and addressed each other as 'Darling'.
"A number of purchases were made, "and orders given for the goods to be sent to York House.
" "The opinion of the dealer, "expressed after his distinguished client had left, "was that the Lady seemed to have the Prince of Wales "completely under her thumb.
" It shows the amount of effort that's been put into these enquiries.
It's not just trace surveillance, it's not just following people around to see what they're doing.
It's then interviewing people after-the-fact, to try and detect much more subtle things, the dynamics of the relationship, the power, money.
This is in-depth surveillance.
The snooping into Wallis's past began to reveal a pattern of behaviour that detectives found increasingly worrying.
"Mrs Wallis Warfield Simpson lived at 29 St James' Street "and at 7 Park Place.
"As Mrs Earle Spencer, "she was regarded as a person very fond of the company of men ".
.
and to have had many affairs.
"She was with different men at these addresses.
" These addresses were concentrated in an exclusive area around Mayfair.
They belonged to a racy London set regarded as cosmopolitan and often promiscuous.
These party-loving aristocrats lived close to the Simpsons' Bryanston Court address, and only a stone's throw from Buckingham Palace.
Canning wanted to find out whether their lifestyles might compromise the Prince of Wales.
"Among other persons visiting the flat 7 Grosvenor Square "early this year is Lady Emerald Cunard.
"Lady Emerald Cunard uses a Rolls-Royce, "car registration number YR 98 19, "which formerly belonged to the Prince of Wales.
"She is the mother of the notorious Nancy Cunard, "who is very partial to coloured man, "and who created a sensation a few years ago by taking up residence in "the negro quarter of New York.
" There's one really important thing to remember here, and that is that the words top secret do not necessarily mean reliable, accurate and true.
Was Nancy Cunard really leading a wayward lifestyle, and consorting with African-Americans? Or, as was not mentioned in the report, was she a tireless campaigner on behalf of African-Americans who .
.
were living in an era of racism and segregation? Superintendent Canning's greatest priority, however, remained Ernest and Wallis Simpson.
He believed they were using the Prince of Wales.
"Ernest Aldrich Simpson, described as of the bounder type ".
.
makes no secret of his wife's association with the Prince of Wales, "and seems to enjoy some reflected glory because of this, "and to make what capital he can out" of it.
In the summer of 1935, Canning's detectives made a surprising discovery.
"Although she now spends a great deal of time with the Prince of Wales, "it is said that she has another secret lover, who is kept by her.
"Particulars of the young man concerned could not be ascertained.
" The question of the identity of Wallis's second lover became all-consuming.
There was one particularly bizarre rumour.
It was said that Hitler's ambassador to London, Count Johann von Ribbentrop, was a regular guest at Bryanston Court, and that he showered Wallis with gifts.
The idea that the heir to the British throne's lover was also having intimate relations with a leading Nazi beggared belief.
On July 3rd, 1935 a second report finally solved the mystery.
It confirmed that Wallis did indeed have a second lover.
But he was no Nazi.
"Commissioner, the identity of Mrs Simpson's secret lover has now been "definitely ascertained.
"He is described as very good-looking ".
.
and an excellent dancer.
"He meets Mrs Simpson quite openly, "but secret meetings are made by appointment when intimate relations take place.
"He is Guy Marcus Trundle.
"He is a motor engineer and salesman, "and is said to be employed by the Ford Motor Company.
"It is not known what salary he gets.
" When Canning and his officers did find out the identity, they may have been slightly relieved, but at the same time they were worried about the potential for blackmail, about the potential for nefarious influences on the Prince of Wales.
It was a very tangled web.
The Prince of Wales seemed set on a woman who seemed far from set on him.
It had the makings of a disastrous public scandal.
And one the Prime Minister was desperate to keep quiet.
Baldwin was terrified of the impact these stories would have if it came out.
And so he wanted to make sure that it was managed as carefully as possible.
And, by and large, he succeeded.
He and his government managed to ensure the press barons suppressed the story, essentially, so it was known to as small a circle as possible.
So far, King George V and Prime Minister Baldwin had succeeded in keeping Edward and Wallis's relationship secret.
All that was about to change.
On January 20, 1936, George V died at Sandringham.
The playboy prince was now King Emperor, and broadcast to the nation.
'The homage to the late King's memory is a thing that we will never forget.
It now falls upon me to succeed him and to carry on his work.
' Edward's lover, Wallis, was now a queen in waiting.
The King thought she was Helen of Troy.
For him, it was a love that was more than love.
It was a schoolboy crush gone mad.
Edward's relationship with Wallis had been under Special Branch surveillance for almost a year.
Now the stakes were raised.
The death of George V means that this is no longer a surveillance operation conducted with the knowledge of the King against the Prince of Wales.
This is now a surveillance operation authorised by 10 Downing St, authorised by the Prime Minister against the ruling monarch.
The death of George V ramped up the surveillance operation yet again.
It became that much more serious.
Edward lacked his father's influence trying to rein him in and he began more overtly dining and lunching with Wallis, taking her on holiday.
Edward's lack of discretion allowed superintendent Albert Canning's surveillance to get closer.
In June 1936, Canning filed this report by one of his team, Inspector Evans.
'On the 1st of June last, Mrs Simpson left Folkestone for Boulogne.
The Special Branch officer at Folkestone had previously received a telephone message direct from Inspector Evans at Buckingham Palace, notifying the journey and asking for assistance.
' The assistance was given, but as much to gather intelligence on Mrs Simpson as to ensure her safety.
The Special Branch detective's report continued.
'Remarks by railway and shipping officials overheard by the Special Branch officer at Folkestone indicated that the association of Mrs Simpson with the King was well known there.
Baldwin's efforts to keep the royal romance under wraps were beginning to unravel.
Whatever influence the Prime Minister might exercise over newspapers in Britain, he had no control over the press abroad.
And they were starting to run the story.
In the American weekly magazine Time, for June the 8th, there is a paragraph referring to a dinner given by the king at St James's Palace.
Among the guests being, quote, Mrs Ernest Simpson, the former Wallis Warfield or Baltimore, known to the world's press as King Edward's favourite dancing partner.
It is rumoured that efforts are being made to get Mr Ernest Simpson a post in the diplomatic service.
China has been mentioned in this respect.
" So it's as if there's a concerted effort to get Ernest Simpson out of the way and indeed, to move him as far as possible.
Edward and Wallis were becoming more brazen.
In the summer of 1936, Edward was absolutely determined to break protocol and hire a yacht which was called the Nahlin, for a cruise up the Dalmatian coast, and he was absolutely insistent that Wallis would go with him and this time, of course, without Ernest.
One of the things that they did to the yacht was strip out the library, because they didn't have a need for books or newspapers and they turned the library into a bar so one of the courtiers referred to this yacht as a floating whore house, because of all the shenanigans that were going on on board.
Nothing, it seemed, would prevent Edward from being with Wallis, regardless of what his advisers told him.
In particular, the King's private secretary Lord Wigram was coming under pressure.
It was certainly the unhappiest time that my father ever served a monarch.
He was miserable in that first six months, as the King, undoubtedly, was beastly to him.
After the event, Baldwin's most trusted adviser, Sir Horace Wilson, wrote a report describing the atmosphere inside Buckingham Palace.
'Lord Wigram himself became increasingly unhappy.
He was disturbed about the King's habits.
His subservience to Mrs Simpson's wishes, his consequential extravagance, his treatment of the staff at Buckingham Palace, who felt that the interference with their own positions and salaries was only a device for obtaining more money with which to please Mrs Simpson.
' Wigram's greatest concern was security.
Top secret Cabinet papers were carried in red boxes from Downing Street to Buckingham Palace, where they were meant to stay.
But Edward was taking them to his country residence Fort Belvedere, where he held informal court with his Mayfair set.
Baldwin was very, very worried indeed, the fact that the red box with all the information for the sovereign inside finds its way to Fort Belvedere, and is often left there completely unlocked for all to see.
I think for Mrs Simpson, as much as anyone.
For Edward's chief adviser, it was the last straw.
Lord Wigram resigned.
'At the same time, Lord Wigram made it clear that in his view, the case was one where it was almost impossible to appeal to reason and judgment, and he gave no hope of that anything that might be said, would be effective.
In the 18 months leading up to Wigram's resignation, Special Branch had also begun to raise worrying questions.
Not just about Edward's personal judgment but his political sympathies too.
Documents reveal details of the meeting between Edward and the controversial Fascist leader, Oswald Mosley.
For Canning, this was significant.
For years, he had asked for funds to tackle violence perpetrated by Britain's fascist Blackshirts.
With the rise of Hitler, Canning's concerns about Mosley became more pressing.
'In Britain, Sir Oswald Mosley offered himself to the people as a Hitler with an Oxford accent.
'Prince of Wales met Sir Oswald Mosley at the London residence of Lady Cunard early this year.
' There are multiple concerns here.
It's not just the Prince of Wales and Oswald Mosley.
He is interested in what's going on with the British Union of Fascists and he wants details.
And he wants it from the horse's mouth.
Canning was particularly concerned about Edward's meeting with Oswald Mosley.
The surveillance notes suggest that they had a longish conversation and not a hostile conversation.
'Prince of Wales questioned Mosley regarding the strength and policy of the British Union of Fascists.
These were explained at length by Oswald Mosley.
' On the 4th of October 1936, Oswald Mosley's Blackshirts marched through Cable St in London's Jewish East End.
The demonstration erupted into rioting as the residents fought back at what they saw as an act of provocation.
Meanwhile, King Edward refused to condemn anti-Semitic violence, either in Britain or Germany.
He made no disguise of his admiration for Hitler.
At the same time, Edward's relationship with Wallis went critical.
Just three weeks after Cable St, on the 27th of October, Wallis filed for divorce from her husband Ernest Simpson.
As far as Edward was concerned, what mattered was having Wallis by his side.
He'd only go ahead with the coronation and becoming King if he could have Wallis as his queen.
She would say to him things like, "Ah, you're a heartbreak to any woman.
I know you're not going to marry me.
" And he responded by saying, "I'm absolutely deadly serious.
I am going to marry you.
" On the high society grapevine, rumours of marriage were now beginning to circulate.
Behind the scenes, Mosley, the Blackshirts, a group of far-right MPs and papers including the Mail and the Express, were preparing to throw their weight behind the King.
They would soon be known as the King's Party.
Increasingly, Edward VIII was seen by the far right as the figurehead for a new order, with the new Queen at his side.
On the 3rd of November 1936, Edward performed the State Opening of Parliament.
A Labour MP asked a worried PM, "Are we now to have a fascist monarchy?" By the winter of 1936, the royal crisis was approaching its climax.
The king, it seemed, was on the road to catastrophe.
On the 16th of November, Edward VIII summoned his Prime Minister, Stanley Baldwin, to Buckingham Palace.
The king came straight to the point and said, either I marry Wallis and become king, or I marry Wallis and I abdicate.
But I'm going to marry Wallis, come what may.
The idea that a woman who had actually been divorced twice and was American to boot, should be queen of England, was unthinkable.
For Baldwin, Edward's determination to Murray Wallis would have only one outcome, the king would have to abdicate.
The issue now was managing the shock lying in wait for the British nation and empire.
Two weeks later, the press made public for the first time, the story of Edward and Wallis' relationship.
The people were bitterly divided, for and against.
This is a time when many people thought that the stability of the country depended on the stability of the Royal family.
This was a hierarchy that set the social norms, moral boundaries for the country at large.
Senior politicians and officials were worried about people taking to the streets to protest and it's no exaggeration to say that they feared revolution.
The thrusting of Wallis into the public limelight raised concern.
She even received death threats and was sent to the south of France for her own safety.
Two Special Branch detectives accompanied her as bodyguards.
In early December, Wallis was overheard calling Edward, telling him to hold firm and not to abdicate.
Some feared that Edward might dismiss the government and launch a right-wing takeover.
Baldwin needed every shred of intelligence possible to outmanoeuvre the King.
And in the first week of December he took an unprecedented step, going over the heads of the Scotland Yard operation, he went direct to British intelligence.
The head of MI5, Sir Vernon Kell, was summoned to Downing Street and asked to open a case against Wallis and the King.
Kell is pretty horrified by Baldwin's request and his initial response is no, this is not about a security threat, this is about politics and MI5 cannot go there.
Kell didn't think it was his concern to go through the dirty knicker drawers of the aristocracy, because this was not a security issue, in his mind.
It was a social issue, it was an issue about hedonistic lifestyles and transgressions of social norms and boundaries.
It was potentially a party political issue regarding Baldwin trying to shore up his own position, but for Kell it wasn't necessarily a security issue and therefore did not warrant MI5's involvement.
Kell decided this was not a decision he could make alone and referred it to the board at MI5.
The governing board of MI5 look at it, they consider Baldwin's arguments that this is not just about politics, it's also about security and eventually they advise Kell that he has to do what the Prime Minister has requested.
Baldwin asked Sir Vernon Kell to tap the phones of Edward, his younger brother and future King, George VI, and of Wallis Simpson and residences on the Continent.
For 80 years the unprecedented order to tap the phones of the Royal family remained a state secret.
The authority was given by the Home Office and Sir Horace Wilson, Baldwin's closest official adviser.
'Most secret, the Home Secretary asked me to confirm the information conveyed to you orally with his authority by Sir Horace Wilson, that you will arrange for the interception of telephone communications between Fort Belvedere and Buckingham Palace on the one hand and the continent of Europe, and various addresses in London on the other.
' It's a truly remarkable document.
It is .
.
sensitive almost beyond words, it's one of the most fascinating documents I've ever seen.
Because it raises real issues about the extent and authority, constitutionally, of Cabinet ministers to order surveillance.
And the figures involved here are the Home Secretary and Sir Horace Wilson, who is a very senior official in the Cabinet Office.
So this is coming from the very centre of government.
This is clearly being done on Baldwin's orders.
Edward thought his calls were safe, protected through the Royal exchange at Windsor.
But MI5's boss put his finest recruit on the job.
When Kell is given this unusual request, obviously it's of the highest sensitivity and he needs to turn to an officer that's not only competent, but someone he trusts personally.
So he turns to one of MI5's distinguished officers, Tar Robertson.
I think Sir Vernon saw something in my father, that he was obviously a very good judge of character, actually.
Which you'd have to be in that sort of job and he obviously saw something in my father that he knew he could trust.
Tar was told by Vernon Kell that he had to go to the nearest junction box to Buckingham Palace to listen in to any conversations going in and out.
On the weekend of the 5th of December, Tar Robertson entered Green Park in the dead of night.
Poor Sir Vernon Kell must have been sitting there at home thinking, chewing his nails wondering what was happening.
By placing a wiretap inside the telephone junction box at Green Park, Tar Robertson and his head-phoned colleagues could eavesdrop on phone calls between Wallis Simpson, the King and his brother, circumventing the Royal exchange at Windsor.
In a conversation between Edward and the future George VI, he picked up some earth-shattering news.
He always joked about it.
He was the first person to hear that the King was going to abdicate and hand over to his brother George.
I mean, what a scoop, really, when you think about it.
Sort of news anybody would love to pick up.
He was cock-a-hoop about it, I think.
Edward finally accepted the inevitable, he could not be King with Wallis at his side.
He signed his abdication papers at Fort Belvedere, handing over the crown to George VI.
On the 11th of December, Edward officially announced his abdication to the BBC.
'I have found it impossible to carry the heavy burden of responsibility, and to discharge my duties as King as I would wish to do, without the help and support of the woman I love.
The first phase of a decade-long state surveillance operation against royalty was drawing to a close.
So was Downing Street justified in spying on and tapping the phones of the reigning Monarch and Royal family? Initially, I was shocked.
But on reflection it clear that Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson did represent a potential security threat, partly because of the social contacts they had with the far right.
Also because of this looming King's party of political chancers and extremists.
What Baldwin is engaged in is protecting a democratic government.
Tapping the Royal family would be one of the most controversial decisions a Prime Minister could make.
I think under the circumstances it can be justified, if that member of the Royal family is posing a threat to national security, to the British constitution, or to liberal democracy, there is a case to be made.
They are not above the law.
Next time, the operation continues.
We follow the spooks that followed Edward and Wallis across two continents and reveal Wallis' secret plan for revenge.
'I will return to England and fight this out to the bitter end.
The Coronation will be a flop.
I will publish in every paper, so that the whole world shall know my story.
'
In a private conversation with his brother, he confided that he could no longer be king, if it meant abandoning the woman he loved.
But recently declassified documents have revealed that his every word was being scrutinised.
The idea of tapping the royal family is so sensitive, and so inherently controversial, this is dangerous territory.
This could be explosive.
This is the secret story behind the events that stunned a nation 80 years ago.
I have found it impossible to discharge my duties as King.
A King suspected of Nazi sympathies.
His scandalous love affair with an American divorcee.
An establishment hell-bent on stopping him.
And a top-secret surveillance operation against the king, the full details of which are now only now being uncovered.
The government has always maintained that it does not intercept or tap royal communications.
This episode turns history on its head.
The greatest royal romance of the 20th century can now be seen through a unique new perspective.
The eyes of those who spied on Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson.
Creating a secret dossier unlike any other in British history.
King George V's silver jubilee.
'Their Majesties rode out on the first of their processional drives through London.
The weather has combined with them to make this day a day of never to be forgotten splendour.
Every available vantage point is utilised by onlookers, with Their Majesties proceeding back to Buckingham Palace with the happiest memories of memories of south London's outspoken loyalty.
At the celebratory garden party were all the members of the royal family, including the young Princess Margaret and the future Queen, Elizabeth.
Unseen in the crowd were shadowy figures with one target in mind.
The heir to the throne, Edward, Prince of Wales.
Their activities would climax in perhaps the most controversial surveillance operation in British history.
So controversial, it's been a state secret for almost 80 years.
Only now with documents unearthed here at the National Archives at Kew in London are its full details being analysed by the intelligence historians Doctor Rory Cormack and Professor Richard Aldrich.
It's Cabinet Office material that is only just been released, so What is remarkable about this is that for the last 20 or 30 years, British government has been telling us that it does not intercept or tap the communication of the royal family and indeed, there have been a number of enquiries in which this has been stated repeatedly.
This is not the intelligence services acting alone.
This is not spies acting as rogue elephants.
This comes from the very centre of power.
The subject of the operation was a wayward Prince who would soon be sovereign of the greatest empire the world that have seen.
He was dazzlingly good-looking as a young man.
Wearing a fair isle sweater, a cap on the side of this head, a cigarette hanging out of his mouth.
Going out on the beach in a rather small pair of swimming pants and winking at all the pretty girls, nudging them, you know, and having fun.
Edward's lifestyle did not sit well with his royal duties.
Edward couldn't keep to a time schedule, punctuality was not something that he thought mattered, so on one famous occasion, when he was meant to be reporting for duty in the morning, he was still in bed with the wife of a local official.
He didn't think that that mattered.
Many of his courtiers despaired of him because of not taking his job as heir to the throne seriously.
And that gave him the reputation of being the playboy prince.
It infuriated King George V.
He was entirely infected by what he called the worst American habits.
Drinking cocktails and going to nightclubs and all those sort of things.
There were rumours which reached my ears that the Prince of Wales was living a funny sort of life, involved with lots of women.
I remember asking my father, "What's it all about?" And he said, "Yes, things aren't quite right, I'm afraid.
" Then, in New Year 1935, a bombshell hit Buckingham Palace.
George V received word from his courtiers that Edward had given a mysterious woman £110,000 in jewels.
Worth £7 million today.
The King smelt blackmail.
Acting on the King's concerns, Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin's government decided on an unprecedented move, to gather information on Edward and his new secret lady friend.
The Special Branch was contacted about this most delicate of enquiries.
The head of the Metropolitan Police, Sir Philip Game, wanted somebody who could treat it with the utmost discretion, which this incredibly sensitive operation required, so they went to their rising star, Canning.
Albert Canning was the son of a prosperous Essex businessman and joined the police in 1909.
Superintendent Canning is perhaps the most impressive police officer of the 20th century.
He is taken to the Special Branch after only six months on the beat.
He is promoted extremely rapidly and he's politically sensitive and astute.
That rare breed of police officer who is chosen to do political surveillance because he knows what the boundaries are.
He understands all the complexities.
He understands the limits to which the police can go in this sensitive area.
Canning's first target was the recipient of Edward's gifts.
Her name, Wallis Simpson, was known to the King but little else.
Canning began to investigate her background.
' was born in Monterey, Pennsylvania on the 19th of June, 1896.
Her maiden name was Wallis Warfield.
'She was married at the register office, Chelsea, on the 21st of the seventh 1928, two Ernest Aldrich Simpson.
She then described herself as the former wife of Earl Wingfield Spencer from whom she obtained a divorce.
' 'There is no record in London of divorce, and if it is possible that these people are really divorced, the decrees may have been obtained in America.
' Wallis was not only divorced and on her second marriage, she also had a frustratingly murky past.
We're not in the age of the Internet, you can't look these things up.
These things are done in local towns across England, across the United States.
It's actually very difficult to investigate the background of someone who has lived in London, has lived in New York, perhaps, has lived in Shanghai.
Canning's surveillance soon shifted to Wallis's husband Ernest.
On the surface, he was the picture of respectability.
'Ernest Aldrich Simpson held a commission in the Coldstream Guards.
He relinquished his commission on the 1st of April, 1920, with the rank of Second Lieutenant.
' But when Canning probed deeper, Simpson, too, turned out to have an uncertain past.
'On this occasion, Ernest Aldrich Simpson described himself as the divorced husband of Dorothea Parsons Simpson.
There is no record in London of divorce.
This is a problem for the police because Ernest Aldrich Simpson is quite an ambiguous figure.
He's part of a new class of people who are moving around a cosmopolitan world in the early 20th century, and their allegiances are, at best, difficult to ascertain.
His first wife has disappeared, no information is available.
It suggests that his personal life is complex.
And there's a lot of and answered questions.
Scotland Yard officers began tailing the Simpsons, Wallis in particular.
They were sending the reports on what she was doing, where she was going, with whom she was meeting, and this was then going back to Canning, which he could then report, in turn, back to his boss and to Baldwin.
They recorded how she looked .
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what she wore .
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Where she lived 'Number 5, Bryanston Court is in a block of high-class flats 'and the annual rental is said to be about £600.
' Most important of all was Wallis's private life.
After surveillance of her Bryanston Court flat, Canning's team concluded that one man seemed particularly close to Wallis.
POW was the Prince of Wales.
The deeper Canning and his men probed into the relationship, the clearer it became.
A royal scandal was in the making.
In 1935, the secret affair between Wallis Simpson and the Prince of Wales brought increasing concern in royal circles.
Courtiers would despair.
It was known that the Prince of Wales was paying her not only, some believed, £6,000 per annum, but he was giving her presents of jewellery and furs.
They believed she was common.
They believed she was a gold digger.
Documents uncovered at the British National Archives reveal that as detectives found out what was going on between Wallis and the Prince of Wales, their fears mounted.
Special Branch are interested in the minutiae of the personal relationship between Wallis Simpson and the Prince of Wales.
They're interested in the power relationship, and they're also interested in the most minute details of their everyday lives.
They're putting in really detailed surveillance.
It's the kind of surveillance that you would do on an enemy spy.
On a covert surveillance in Kensington, the man leading the operation, Superintendent Albert Canning, began to realise Wallis's hold over the Prince.
"Within the last few weeks Mrs Wallis Warfield Simpson visited an "antiques shop in Pelham Street, South Kensington, "in company with the Prince of Wales.
" "Conversations showed that they were on very affectionate terms, "and addressed each other as 'Darling'.
"A number of purchases were made, "and orders given for the goods to be sent to York House.
" "The opinion of the dealer, "expressed after his distinguished client had left, "was that the Lady seemed to have the Prince of Wales "completely under her thumb.
" It shows the amount of effort that's been put into these enquiries.
It's not just trace surveillance, it's not just following people around to see what they're doing.
It's then interviewing people after-the-fact, to try and detect much more subtle things, the dynamics of the relationship, the power, money.
This is in-depth surveillance.
The snooping into Wallis's past began to reveal a pattern of behaviour that detectives found increasingly worrying.
"Mrs Wallis Warfield Simpson lived at 29 St James' Street "and at 7 Park Place.
"As Mrs Earle Spencer, "she was regarded as a person very fond of the company of men ".
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and to have had many affairs.
"She was with different men at these addresses.
" These addresses were concentrated in an exclusive area around Mayfair.
They belonged to a racy London set regarded as cosmopolitan and often promiscuous.
These party-loving aristocrats lived close to the Simpsons' Bryanston Court address, and only a stone's throw from Buckingham Palace.
Canning wanted to find out whether their lifestyles might compromise the Prince of Wales.
"Among other persons visiting the flat 7 Grosvenor Square "early this year is Lady Emerald Cunard.
"Lady Emerald Cunard uses a Rolls-Royce, "car registration number YR 98 19, "which formerly belonged to the Prince of Wales.
"She is the mother of the notorious Nancy Cunard, "who is very partial to coloured man, "and who created a sensation a few years ago by taking up residence in "the negro quarter of New York.
" There's one really important thing to remember here, and that is that the words top secret do not necessarily mean reliable, accurate and true.
Was Nancy Cunard really leading a wayward lifestyle, and consorting with African-Americans? Or, as was not mentioned in the report, was she a tireless campaigner on behalf of African-Americans who .
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were living in an era of racism and segregation? Superintendent Canning's greatest priority, however, remained Ernest and Wallis Simpson.
He believed they were using the Prince of Wales.
"Ernest Aldrich Simpson, described as of the bounder type ".
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makes no secret of his wife's association with the Prince of Wales, "and seems to enjoy some reflected glory because of this, "and to make what capital he can out" of it.
In the summer of 1935, Canning's detectives made a surprising discovery.
"Although she now spends a great deal of time with the Prince of Wales, "it is said that she has another secret lover, who is kept by her.
"Particulars of the young man concerned could not be ascertained.
" The question of the identity of Wallis's second lover became all-consuming.
There was one particularly bizarre rumour.
It was said that Hitler's ambassador to London, Count Johann von Ribbentrop, was a regular guest at Bryanston Court, and that he showered Wallis with gifts.
The idea that the heir to the British throne's lover was also having intimate relations with a leading Nazi beggared belief.
On July 3rd, 1935 a second report finally solved the mystery.
It confirmed that Wallis did indeed have a second lover.
But he was no Nazi.
"Commissioner, the identity of Mrs Simpson's secret lover has now been "definitely ascertained.
"He is described as very good-looking ".
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and an excellent dancer.
"He meets Mrs Simpson quite openly, "but secret meetings are made by appointment when intimate relations take place.
"He is Guy Marcus Trundle.
"He is a motor engineer and salesman, "and is said to be employed by the Ford Motor Company.
"It is not known what salary he gets.
" When Canning and his officers did find out the identity, they may have been slightly relieved, but at the same time they were worried about the potential for blackmail, about the potential for nefarious influences on the Prince of Wales.
It was a very tangled web.
The Prince of Wales seemed set on a woman who seemed far from set on him.
It had the makings of a disastrous public scandal.
And one the Prime Minister was desperate to keep quiet.
Baldwin was terrified of the impact these stories would have if it came out.
And so he wanted to make sure that it was managed as carefully as possible.
And, by and large, he succeeded.
He and his government managed to ensure the press barons suppressed the story, essentially, so it was known to as small a circle as possible.
So far, King George V and Prime Minister Baldwin had succeeded in keeping Edward and Wallis's relationship secret.
All that was about to change.
On January 20, 1936, George V died at Sandringham.
The playboy prince was now King Emperor, and broadcast to the nation.
'The homage to the late King's memory is a thing that we will never forget.
It now falls upon me to succeed him and to carry on his work.
' Edward's lover, Wallis, was now a queen in waiting.
The King thought she was Helen of Troy.
For him, it was a love that was more than love.
It was a schoolboy crush gone mad.
Edward's relationship with Wallis had been under Special Branch surveillance for almost a year.
Now the stakes were raised.
The death of George V means that this is no longer a surveillance operation conducted with the knowledge of the King against the Prince of Wales.
This is now a surveillance operation authorised by 10 Downing St, authorised by the Prime Minister against the ruling monarch.
The death of George V ramped up the surveillance operation yet again.
It became that much more serious.
Edward lacked his father's influence trying to rein him in and he began more overtly dining and lunching with Wallis, taking her on holiday.
Edward's lack of discretion allowed superintendent Albert Canning's surveillance to get closer.
In June 1936, Canning filed this report by one of his team, Inspector Evans.
'On the 1st of June last, Mrs Simpson left Folkestone for Boulogne.
The Special Branch officer at Folkestone had previously received a telephone message direct from Inspector Evans at Buckingham Palace, notifying the journey and asking for assistance.
' The assistance was given, but as much to gather intelligence on Mrs Simpson as to ensure her safety.
The Special Branch detective's report continued.
'Remarks by railway and shipping officials overheard by the Special Branch officer at Folkestone indicated that the association of Mrs Simpson with the King was well known there.
Baldwin's efforts to keep the royal romance under wraps were beginning to unravel.
Whatever influence the Prime Minister might exercise over newspapers in Britain, he had no control over the press abroad.
And they were starting to run the story.
In the American weekly magazine Time, for June the 8th, there is a paragraph referring to a dinner given by the king at St James's Palace.
Among the guests being, quote, Mrs Ernest Simpson, the former Wallis Warfield or Baltimore, known to the world's press as King Edward's favourite dancing partner.
It is rumoured that efforts are being made to get Mr Ernest Simpson a post in the diplomatic service.
China has been mentioned in this respect.
" So it's as if there's a concerted effort to get Ernest Simpson out of the way and indeed, to move him as far as possible.
Edward and Wallis were becoming more brazen.
In the summer of 1936, Edward was absolutely determined to break protocol and hire a yacht which was called the Nahlin, for a cruise up the Dalmatian coast, and he was absolutely insistent that Wallis would go with him and this time, of course, without Ernest.
One of the things that they did to the yacht was strip out the library, because they didn't have a need for books or newspapers and they turned the library into a bar so one of the courtiers referred to this yacht as a floating whore house, because of all the shenanigans that were going on on board.
Nothing, it seemed, would prevent Edward from being with Wallis, regardless of what his advisers told him.
In particular, the King's private secretary Lord Wigram was coming under pressure.
It was certainly the unhappiest time that my father ever served a monarch.
He was miserable in that first six months, as the King, undoubtedly, was beastly to him.
After the event, Baldwin's most trusted adviser, Sir Horace Wilson, wrote a report describing the atmosphere inside Buckingham Palace.
'Lord Wigram himself became increasingly unhappy.
He was disturbed about the King's habits.
His subservience to Mrs Simpson's wishes, his consequential extravagance, his treatment of the staff at Buckingham Palace, who felt that the interference with their own positions and salaries was only a device for obtaining more money with which to please Mrs Simpson.
' Wigram's greatest concern was security.
Top secret Cabinet papers were carried in red boxes from Downing Street to Buckingham Palace, where they were meant to stay.
But Edward was taking them to his country residence Fort Belvedere, where he held informal court with his Mayfair set.
Baldwin was very, very worried indeed, the fact that the red box with all the information for the sovereign inside finds its way to Fort Belvedere, and is often left there completely unlocked for all to see.
I think for Mrs Simpson, as much as anyone.
For Edward's chief adviser, it was the last straw.
Lord Wigram resigned.
'At the same time, Lord Wigram made it clear that in his view, the case was one where it was almost impossible to appeal to reason and judgment, and he gave no hope of that anything that might be said, would be effective.
In the 18 months leading up to Wigram's resignation, Special Branch had also begun to raise worrying questions.
Not just about Edward's personal judgment but his political sympathies too.
Documents reveal details of the meeting between Edward and the controversial Fascist leader, Oswald Mosley.
For Canning, this was significant.
For years, he had asked for funds to tackle violence perpetrated by Britain's fascist Blackshirts.
With the rise of Hitler, Canning's concerns about Mosley became more pressing.
'In Britain, Sir Oswald Mosley offered himself to the people as a Hitler with an Oxford accent.
'Prince of Wales met Sir Oswald Mosley at the London residence of Lady Cunard early this year.
' There are multiple concerns here.
It's not just the Prince of Wales and Oswald Mosley.
He is interested in what's going on with the British Union of Fascists and he wants details.
And he wants it from the horse's mouth.
Canning was particularly concerned about Edward's meeting with Oswald Mosley.
The surveillance notes suggest that they had a longish conversation and not a hostile conversation.
'Prince of Wales questioned Mosley regarding the strength and policy of the British Union of Fascists.
These were explained at length by Oswald Mosley.
' On the 4th of October 1936, Oswald Mosley's Blackshirts marched through Cable St in London's Jewish East End.
The demonstration erupted into rioting as the residents fought back at what they saw as an act of provocation.
Meanwhile, King Edward refused to condemn anti-Semitic violence, either in Britain or Germany.
He made no disguise of his admiration for Hitler.
At the same time, Edward's relationship with Wallis went critical.
Just three weeks after Cable St, on the 27th of October, Wallis filed for divorce from her husband Ernest Simpson.
As far as Edward was concerned, what mattered was having Wallis by his side.
He'd only go ahead with the coronation and becoming King if he could have Wallis as his queen.
She would say to him things like, "Ah, you're a heartbreak to any woman.
I know you're not going to marry me.
" And he responded by saying, "I'm absolutely deadly serious.
I am going to marry you.
" On the high society grapevine, rumours of marriage were now beginning to circulate.
Behind the scenes, Mosley, the Blackshirts, a group of far-right MPs and papers including the Mail and the Express, were preparing to throw their weight behind the King.
They would soon be known as the King's Party.
Increasingly, Edward VIII was seen by the far right as the figurehead for a new order, with the new Queen at his side.
On the 3rd of November 1936, Edward performed the State Opening of Parliament.
A Labour MP asked a worried PM, "Are we now to have a fascist monarchy?" By the winter of 1936, the royal crisis was approaching its climax.
The king, it seemed, was on the road to catastrophe.
On the 16th of November, Edward VIII summoned his Prime Minister, Stanley Baldwin, to Buckingham Palace.
The king came straight to the point and said, either I marry Wallis and become king, or I marry Wallis and I abdicate.
But I'm going to marry Wallis, come what may.
The idea that a woman who had actually been divorced twice and was American to boot, should be queen of England, was unthinkable.
For Baldwin, Edward's determination to Murray Wallis would have only one outcome, the king would have to abdicate.
The issue now was managing the shock lying in wait for the British nation and empire.
Two weeks later, the press made public for the first time, the story of Edward and Wallis' relationship.
The people were bitterly divided, for and against.
This is a time when many people thought that the stability of the country depended on the stability of the Royal family.
This was a hierarchy that set the social norms, moral boundaries for the country at large.
Senior politicians and officials were worried about people taking to the streets to protest and it's no exaggeration to say that they feared revolution.
The thrusting of Wallis into the public limelight raised concern.
She even received death threats and was sent to the south of France for her own safety.
Two Special Branch detectives accompanied her as bodyguards.
In early December, Wallis was overheard calling Edward, telling him to hold firm and not to abdicate.
Some feared that Edward might dismiss the government and launch a right-wing takeover.
Baldwin needed every shred of intelligence possible to outmanoeuvre the King.
And in the first week of December he took an unprecedented step, going over the heads of the Scotland Yard operation, he went direct to British intelligence.
The head of MI5, Sir Vernon Kell, was summoned to Downing Street and asked to open a case against Wallis and the King.
Kell is pretty horrified by Baldwin's request and his initial response is no, this is not about a security threat, this is about politics and MI5 cannot go there.
Kell didn't think it was his concern to go through the dirty knicker drawers of the aristocracy, because this was not a security issue, in his mind.
It was a social issue, it was an issue about hedonistic lifestyles and transgressions of social norms and boundaries.
It was potentially a party political issue regarding Baldwin trying to shore up his own position, but for Kell it wasn't necessarily a security issue and therefore did not warrant MI5's involvement.
Kell decided this was not a decision he could make alone and referred it to the board at MI5.
The governing board of MI5 look at it, they consider Baldwin's arguments that this is not just about politics, it's also about security and eventually they advise Kell that he has to do what the Prime Minister has requested.
Baldwin asked Sir Vernon Kell to tap the phones of Edward, his younger brother and future King, George VI, and of Wallis Simpson and residences on the Continent.
For 80 years the unprecedented order to tap the phones of the Royal family remained a state secret.
The authority was given by the Home Office and Sir Horace Wilson, Baldwin's closest official adviser.
'Most secret, the Home Secretary asked me to confirm the information conveyed to you orally with his authority by Sir Horace Wilson, that you will arrange for the interception of telephone communications between Fort Belvedere and Buckingham Palace on the one hand and the continent of Europe, and various addresses in London on the other.
' It's a truly remarkable document.
It is .
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sensitive almost beyond words, it's one of the most fascinating documents I've ever seen.
Because it raises real issues about the extent and authority, constitutionally, of Cabinet ministers to order surveillance.
And the figures involved here are the Home Secretary and Sir Horace Wilson, who is a very senior official in the Cabinet Office.
So this is coming from the very centre of government.
This is clearly being done on Baldwin's orders.
Edward thought his calls were safe, protected through the Royal exchange at Windsor.
But MI5's boss put his finest recruit on the job.
When Kell is given this unusual request, obviously it's of the highest sensitivity and he needs to turn to an officer that's not only competent, but someone he trusts personally.
So he turns to one of MI5's distinguished officers, Tar Robertson.
I think Sir Vernon saw something in my father, that he was obviously a very good judge of character, actually.
Which you'd have to be in that sort of job and he obviously saw something in my father that he knew he could trust.
Tar was told by Vernon Kell that he had to go to the nearest junction box to Buckingham Palace to listen in to any conversations going in and out.
On the weekend of the 5th of December, Tar Robertson entered Green Park in the dead of night.
Poor Sir Vernon Kell must have been sitting there at home thinking, chewing his nails wondering what was happening.
By placing a wiretap inside the telephone junction box at Green Park, Tar Robertson and his head-phoned colleagues could eavesdrop on phone calls between Wallis Simpson, the King and his brother, circumventing the Royal exchange at Windsor.
In a conversation between Edward and the future George VI, he picked up some earth-shattering news.
He always joked about it.
He was the first person to hear that the King was going to abdicate and hand over to his brother George.
I mean, what a scoop, really, when you think about it.
Sort of news anybody would love to pick up.
He was cock-a-hoop about it, I think.
Edward finally accepted the inevitable, he could not be King with Wallis at his side.
He signed his abdication papers at Fort Belvedere, handing over the crown to George VI.
On the 11th of December, Edward officially announced his abdication to the BBC.
'I have found it impossible to carry the heavy burden of responsibility, and to discharge my duties as King as I would wish to do, without the help and support of the woman I love.
The first phase of a decade-long state surveillance operation against royalty was drawing to a close.
So was Downing Street justified in spying on and tapping the phones of the reigning Monarch and Royal family? Initially, I was shocked.
But on reflection it clear that Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson did represent a potential security threat, partly because of the social contacts they had with the far right.
Also because of this looming King's party of political chancers and extremists.
What Baldwin is engaged in is protecting a democratic government.
Tapping the Royal family would be one of the most controversial decisions a Prime Minister could make.
I think under the circumstances it can be justified, if that member of the Royal family is posing a threat to national security, to the British constitution, or to liberal democracy, there is a case to be made.
They are not above the law.
Next time, the operation continues.
We follow the spooks that followed Edward and Wallis across two continents and reveal Wallis' secret plan for revenge.
'I will return to England and fight this out to the bitter end.
The Coronation will be a flop.
I will publish in every paper, so that the whole world shall know my story.
'