A Spy Among Friends (2022) s01e06 Episode Script

1
Sofern nicht anders angegeben,
bleiben sie in ihrem fahrzeug.
Halten sie alle papiere
fur den unterricht bereit.
Sofern nicht anders angegeben,
bleiben sie in ihrem fahrzeug.
Sir Roger!
In the interest of discretion,
I thought it best to drop by in person.
At one o'clock in the morning?
The minister was at the opera
which meant we had to
wait to get his signature.
Gotterdammerung?
Beg your pardon?
Wagner. Opera joke. Never mind.
Thank you, no.
Where have you been tonight?
- Saying goodbye to a friend.
- Anyone I know?
Jim Angleton.
On his way home to
Washington as we speak.
When did you last see Tony Blunt?
- Sure I can't tempt you?
- Quite sure.
Sir Anthony and I, as
I suspect you well know,
had lunch the other day at my club.
Why? You haven't gone
and lost him, have you?
I should never have agreed
to let you go to Beirut.
Sounds like one of yours.
Don't tell me, panic
over, Blunt's resurfaced.
Nine o'clock sharp. My office.
Don't be late.
I just lost my footing.
Questions are being asked, Kim.
- I slipped on the ice, for God's sake!
- People are worried about you!
On my way to the Metropol. I was
hoping to find you or Burgess
preferably you.
A friendly face. Some music.
A little fucking colour.
Which reminds me
Burgess sent a peace offering.
From his personal library,
he wanted me to tell you.
Clever bastard.
Do you know this one?
Takes place in London in 1934
when no-one yet knew
what they stood for.
Also some tinned fruit,
a jar of marmalade,
cigarettes and a couple
of other bits and bobs.
All from Guy?
The marmalade's from me
- Fortnum and Mason's via diplomatic pouch.
Ooh, speaking of which, pass my coat.
I have a letter I need you to send.
- To whom?
- Oh.
Oh, damn, it's gone.
I couldn't trouble you to rustle
up some paper and an envelope?
Paper and envelope.
Er
Medsestra! Medsestra!
Good morning, sir.
Mr Elliott.
Have a seat.
Mrs Thomas here is of the
opinion that Philby told you
Tony Blunt was also a
Russian double agent.
She's right. He did.
And that that's the
reason you let him go?
Something tells me Mrs Thomas is
quite a bit cleverer than that.
When did he give you Blunt?
The last day.
- Out on the balcony?
- Yes.
Where no-one could hear you?
I'll have to take your word for that.
Why haven't you disclosed
any of this until now?
I'd just learned that the man
I trusted most in the Service
and my best friend was a Russian spy.
You could say I'm not quite
sure who to trust any more.
You understand that any information
acquired in Beirut from Philby
is considered counter-intelligence
which is now the domain of MI5?
What I understand is that this
is a show for the minister.
A pissing contest between MI5 and SIS.
No contest, I'm afraid,
thanks to Philby.
- Exactly.
- I thought you were off the case.
Number 10 on the line, sir.
Concerning?
Profumo.
Educated guess.
If you wouldn't mind waiting in
the ante room for a few minutes,
I'm sure Miss Harbinson will be
happy to find you some refreshment.
Not you, Mrs Thomas.
You stay where you are.
I don't know about this, Kim.
It's a personal letter,
it's nothing more
separating friendship from politics.
Which there was no time for in Beirut?
I'm tired, Donald.
So fucking fucking tired.
I didn't seal the envelope.
Read it if you want. Run it
by your KGB chums if you must.
They're your chums, too.
Well, then there shouldn't
be a problem, should there?
The cricket starts today.
England and Australia.
I was rather hoping to catch some
of that on the wireless later.
Ah, well, we should
get on with it, then.
Their fast bowlers
should be quite a handful.
But I think our batsmen
will be up to it this time.
Dinner's at eight, by the way.
You haven't forgotten?
Do you think you could do that upstairs?
Jane.
You look Well
Well, I must admit,
all things considered,
I actually feel quite chipper.
No, I meant comma, well, dot,
dot, dot, how do I put it?
You can go in now.
How's your head, by the way?
Oh, it's still there. By a thread.
So
last night at the St Georges
You went to the St
Georges without me?
Fuck off, Kim.
Wait Now I'm lost Are
you telling me I was there?
- At the bar?
- The pool.
Ah. Golly.
Well that explains this, then.
Do you think I might
have a glass of water?
More?
Right.
So, here's the scoop
but first, you
owe me a proper drink.
It all began in Vienna.
In '34?
February 1934.
Not before then, up at Cambridge?
Cambridge? Oh, no.
Cambridge is where you fantasise
about what you stand against
whereas, Vienna
that was where I quickly
learned what I stood for.
Who recruited you?
No-one.
I fell in love.
You fell in love?
Stop it there, please.
- Which one of you opened the window?
- Him.
Though you must've known
that would interfere
with the listening equipment?
I suppose I assumed whoever
selected the safe house and bugged it
would've taken an open
window into account
in the Mediterranean climate.
What utter nonsense, Nick.
It's 1963, I don't think
it's too much to ask!
It's the debriefer's job to
control the damned environment!
You had to have known opening
a window could be a tactic.
I viewed it more in psychological terms.
It told me that he was on
the brink of capitulating
but needed to create a sense of privacy
before baring his soul, so to speak.
The tape is supposed to be evidence.
I didn't go to Beirut to solve
a crime. I knew he was guilty.
We all knew he was guilty.
- I'm a spy, not a policeman.
- It's interesting.
You almost sounded vindicated just then.
Like a man who'd succeeded in what
he went out there to accomplish.
If he succeeded, then it'd
be Philby sitting here now
and the Russians would
be none the wiser.
So from this point on, we're
supposed to rely on your account
of what happened in that flat.
Do you honestly mean to tell me
MI5 doesn't have the
wherewithal to enhance the tape?
There is, of course another
way to think about all this
which is that the three minutes
you and Philby spent on that
balcony is in fact a distraction.
A piece of misdirection
because I have to say, three minutes
does seem like a very short time,
indeed, the end of
such a long friendship,
in which to bare one's soul
leaving me to consider
the possibility that
the real truth about why you let
Philby go isn't even on the tape.
Thoughts, Mrs Thomas?
You fell in love?
Oh, come on, you've gotta laugh.
Everything you need to know is in there.
Perhaps you'll now allow me to
go home and listen to the cricket.
Is this it? Where's the rest of it?
Names, dates, operations
That's all there is. That's all I know.
A list of your Soviet
handlers from the '30s.
Are any of these people
still active or even alive?
It says here you severed all
contact with Soviet Intelligence
right at the end of the war, in 1945,
"having seen the error of my ways".
Which you've said yourself.
Come here.
Your funeral.
What's the Russian for cheese?
I don't know.
Say it in English, then.
Are you trying to get me killed?
Now, there's a thought.
You don't really mean that.
Give me one good reason why not, Kim,
and it better be a fucking good one.
Tell me you understand why I
said you severed all contact
with the KGB in 1945.
The benefit of the Americans
to protect our relationship with them.
I don't give a toss about the
special relationship. Try again.
You said it to protect me.
To protect you.
Because as we both know, you've
been very busy for the KGB
until right fucking now.
Am I correct in saying your
operating thesis with Philby was
that friendship trumps ideology?
Even though men like Philby
put ideology above all else?
What other men like Philby do you know?
If I may, ma'am,
I think it'd be a mistake to
see Philby as purely ideological.
He just defected to the Soviet Union!
She's right. A spy is an
adventurer, an opportunist
An elitist. And to work
for the KGB from within SIS
put Philby in an even more elite group.
Burgess, Maclean, Philby, Blunt
Four men.
Are you implying there are more?
Aren't we all?
You admit to tipping off
Burgess and Maclean in '51.
Out of loyalty to my friends.
Who's your handler?
I don't have one.
How could I if I broke
contact with the KGB?
Please tell me you're not paying
that bugger to play all day.
He is rather good, though, isn't he?
Take a butcher's at that.
Confirm which of these men
is working for the Russians
and I'll know you're
taking this seriously.
- A test.
- I know. The temerity of it.
You're fishing.
Take it away with you and give
it to me at dinner tonight.
I take it I'm still invited?
- Tim Milne?
- You've been a friend of his for years.
Well, surely by that logic,
your name should be at
the top of this list.
See you at eight.
- Are you all right?
- Never better.
- Were you fishing?
- Yes.
Who was on that list?
Friends and associates of
Burgess, Maclean and Philby.
- Specifically.
- Why does it matter?
- I've already told you I was bluffing.
- Humour us.
Tim Milne
John Cairncross, Tony Blunt,
Guy Liddell, and one or two
others I might be forgetting.
Blunt was on the list?
Thanks to his close
friendship with Guy Burgess,
dating back to their Cambridge days.
Earlier you said
Philby gave you Blunt
when you were out on the balcony
unless I'm missing something.
So if he'd already given you Blunt
why then go through all the
rigmarole with the list of names?
Surely you already had your man.
I was worried Blunt was chickenfeed.
And then that same evening, you
went to dinner at the Philbys'.
- Yes.
- Why?
Certain friends of ours had
got wind that I was in Beirut.
- American friends?
- Among others.
- Of Philby's American wife.
- And if I didn't go to dinner,
then it might've tipped them
off that something was amiss.
- That's it? That's the only reason you went?
- That's it.
It's also the reason why you let
Philby go home that afternoon.
Correct.
Boy, are you on my shit list.
Three days you've been in town
and not a peep! Give me those.
Something smells delicious.
That'll be me.
Bravo.
Jolly good.
Ah! Here he is.
Good Lord, look what the cat dragged in!
Kim was just regaling us with
some of your dirty limericks.
Oh, good Lord, I hope not.
Hello, there. Señorita from Pisa.
I sleep-a with whomever I please-a.
How's the rest of it go?
Ah, no clue. That one was Kim's.
I was merely an innocent bystander.
- The laughs we've had, eh, Nick? Eh?
- Right.
Ah, what about this?
You'll remember this one.
Ah, Elliott, just the fellow.
Sit down, I'd like a
frank word with you.
I'm not sure now's the right time
Does your wife know what you do?
Kim, darling, everyone's already
heard that God knows how many
Darling, please! If you don't
mind. Come on, for old times' sake.
This actually happened
to him, verbatim, right?
- Right.
- Ready?
Does your wife know what you do?
- Yes.
- How how did that come about?
Well, she was my secretary
for a couple of years,
and I think the penny must have dropped.
Ah, quite so. Quite. And
what about your mother?
She thinks I'm in something called SIS,
which she believes stands for
Secret Intelligence Service.
Good God! How-how-how
did she come to know that?
A member of the war cabinet
told her at a cocktail party.
Dinner is served. À table, everyone.
You forgot this earlier.
- Nicholas, will we have you here, please?
- Oh, lovely. Thank you.
De Gaulle may be French,
but he ain't no dummy.
He knows where your loyalties lie.
Oh, do tell, I so love a lecture.
The Brits care about two
things and two things only,
neither one of which is goddamn Europe.
Bangers and mash.
- The monarchy. And America.
- The monarchy and America.
Where are you going, darling?
Do you wanna know something funny?
Windsor isn't even the
royal family's real name.
They changed it from Witten to Windsor.
The Wittens of Saxe-Coburg
and something or other
Gotha Saxe-Coburg and Gotha.
They're bloody krauts, for pity's sake!
- And did you also know that Anthony Blunt
- Kim.
Sir Anthony Blunt, I should
say, a cousin of the Queen's
Distant cousin by marriage.
Did you know that MI5 sent
him on a secret trip to Berlin
right after the war
to recover some rather
compromising correspondence
from certain members of the royal family
to certain members of the Third
Reich, including Hitler himself?
Isn't that right, Nick?
And now Germany is the
front line of the Cold War,
and the Wittens of Saxe-Coburg
and Gotha are now the
under the aegis of the
enemy of my enemy is my friend.
I'm not sure I completely follow!
But that's not bad for how
much have you had to drink?
Dear old England, however,
with an ever watchful eye
on which side her bread is buttered,
has been grooming a new patron to serve.
To, to appease.
To Rrrrr! fellate.
Oh, good Lord! Kim, is
that really necessary?
That's right, you guessed
it Old donkey dick herself.
The United States of America.
What about Russia?
Where do they fit in all of this?
Please don't encourage him, Nick.
He's not trying to
encourage me, darling.
He's trying to shut me up.
You see, my best friend here
has been sent all
the way from London
to do what, exactly, Nick?
Check your liver.
Old donkey dick herself!
I gotta write that one down.
I need some fucking air.
Oh, air, my ass!
That's some classic Brit spy
bullshit if ever I saw it.
Oh, do please fuck off, Miles.
You know, the only thing worse than
simple-minded and pompous is
Now, Kim, come on,
we're all friends here!
simple-minded,
pompous and American
Come on, come on, let's get
you some of that fresh air.
Kim.
Right. Come on.
Left-hand drawer of the desk.
And that was it.
He rejoined the others,
and I left the party to go
and file my report at the consulate.
That's the last you saw of him?
Yes.
Mr Elliott and I are going to go
and stretch our legs for a while.
We'll reconvene back here after lunch.
Mr Director, gentlemen
You've all heard me
preach for years now,
how the Russians are
far more sophisticated
and strategic than we
give them credit for.
So now that my longheld suspicions
about Harold Adrian Russell
Kim Philby have been confirmed,
a man who rose almost to the very top
of Great Britain's Secret
Intelligence Services
we are duty-bound to recognise
that the patience and the discipline
of the Russian intelligence services
are never again to be under-estimated.
But
if at times, we
have lacked the resolve
and the imagination to
counter that threat
Thank you.
then our British friends,
to use their term, are in,
to use our term, even deeper shit.
And we must now face the fact
that if they have been penetrated
to the level that Kim Philby
achieved over the course
of a quarter of a fucking century
then not only are
there other Communist agents
among the senior ranks of their
national security apparatus
but more importantly
we too at the CIA
have also been penetrated.
Watch out.
People and their bloody animals.
Blunt came to me.
At the end of last week.
You don't seem that surprised.
Shrewd customer, is Sir Anthony.
He claims to have only worked
for Russian intelligence
when we were allies during the war.
That old chestnut.
So the reason he decided
to come to me now
is so I can be best positioned
to protect Her Majesty.
To hush it up, you mean?
Then this morning
he telephones
in a terrible state
to inform me that Mr Angleton
attempted to interrogate him
at some CIA safe
house in Buckinghamshire.
Which you managed to stop
before any more
damage could be done.
Well, maybe the Queen'll
give me a knighthood one day.
Does Moscow know Tony's blown?
Rise, Sir Nicholas.
We have to assume Philby's
told the KGB about that.
Oh, I highly doubt that.
If the KGB were ever to discover
that he gave me Blunt, he's dead.
Perhaps we should
consider leaking it, then.
What day is it today?
- Friday.
- You a steak and kidney pie man, Sir Roger?
What difference do you think
men like Philby and Elliott
and the games they play
actually make in the world?
You mean like the one you and Elliott
are now playing against Sir Roger?
- Hello, Jim. How are you?
- Richard.
How long, would you say,
did you suspect Kim Philby?
Was there a specific moment or incident
that opened your eyes?
It was cumulative.
Behavioural.
I've never known a man want
so desperately to be my friend.
But you were never fooled by him?
If I was fooled by anything,
it was by my faith in
our British friends
whom I didn't believe
would ever let him slip
through their fingers.
Are you referring to
anyone in particular, Jim?
I'm referring to an entire
goddamn class of Englishmen.
At the risk of sounding
like a Communist yourself.
So
who else did he give you?
Philby.
Because the other thing that
didn't come back from Beirut
was that list of names.
Right now probably as we speak
Jim Angleton is back at the CIA,
getting ready to tear the place apart
in search for traitors,
due to implications, insinuations
and outright disinformation
that Philby has been
planting in his brain
for the last quarter of a century.
So when you ask who else he gave me,
I think the question that it's
important that we you and I
first ask ourselves is this
are we here in London
ready to withstand such
a level of witch hunt
and take on those kind of casualties?
Because, thanks to Philby
who among us is now safe?
Which is why, if you'll
allow me to blow my trumpet
briefly for a second
I was precisely the right
person to go to Beirut.
Because had it been anybody else,
who didn't know Philby as I do
there's no telling who
they'd be accusing next.
Shall we?
Any other questions, Jane?
Mrs Thomas?
No, sir.
You may fool others, but you can't
pull the wool over these eyes.
You want to know what he
once told me about you?
He said that at any given moment,
you're far more switched
on than you let on.
Which is what makes you so dangerous.
Tell me you'll make
something of all this
that in the end, you were in
fact always one step ahead of him.
Read this.
- When did you get
- Just read it.
- "Dear Nick, I wonder "
- To yourself.
"Dear Nick, I wonder if this
letter will surprise you.
Our last transactions were so strange,
I can't help thinking that perhaps
you wanted me to do a fade "
As a matter of interest,
why would you show me this?
"It is invariably with pleasure
that I remember our meetings and talks.
I've often thought that there
are a number of questions
connected with the whole
story that might interest you,
and it might be helpful all around
if we could get together to discuss
matters of mutual interest
to give ourselves the chance
to salvage a friendship
from all this mess
because as you always said
the true definition of friendship
is that your forgive your friends
their faults."
He's asking you for a meeting.
Unteroffizier, Gefreiter.
You can't seriously be considering
What exactly do you think
would happen at this meeting?
What, he'd cross his heart and hope
to die that Hollis is the fifth man?
Just to be crystal bloody clear,
the reason to believe
that Sir Roger is innocent
is Philby is the de facto source
of the information against him.
And you decided not to
believe him, so what's changed?
Or maybe you think that
Philby will admit that
he's secretly still one of you
'cos he was always one of you
old chap.
You're your own worst enemy.
Do you know what's worse?
You're my worst enemy.
You're the whole bloody
country's worst enemy.
The man, he has fucking lied to you
from the first moment
that he set eyes on you.
He has lied to you and he has used you.
That is all that he has ever done,
and that is all that he will ever do.
What's more, I'm not convinced
that you haven't known that
for the last 23 years.
When are you gonna fucking accept
that and be honest with yourself?
Ein frischer Wodka.
I hear you're leaving MI5.
Oh, she told you, then,
did she, Mrs Sissmore?
Something about you
wanting to be a better wife.
Look, I didn't let him go,
or escape or however you put it.
What I, in fact, did was
Ooh, I like-a the look of your salami!
Whole or sliced, sir?
What do I look-a like,
a bloody money box?
You forced him to run.
They'll never be able to
fully trust him in Moscow.
Which will kill him.
I'm sorry.
Thank you.
Right!
Well, then, on that note
Why do you think Jane Sissmore
felt it necessary to tell
me you were resigning?
- I dunno.
- Really?
Erm
Apparently, according to
her, erm I intrigue you.
Are you really prepared to
walk away and let chaps like me
continue running things, knowing
what you now know about us all?
You seriously think someone like me
- could actually change things?
- Things?
Chaps like you.
A woman from Newcastle change us?
Durham.
It's these offices at the
south east corner on this floor,
down that way, next to the vaults.
All the other offices are
organised on separate floors
according to areas of
responsibility around the world.
The remainder of the Iron
Curtain, south east Asia,
Africa, central Europe.
And this this is you.
Oh, damn!
You've gotta laugh.
Thank you.
A one, a two!
Yata ta ta!
- Are you lonesome ♪
- Yata ta ta!
- A-boom!
- Yata ta ta!
Just-Just a minute.
- Don't stop.
- No, no, just a minute.
- A-boom!
- Just a minute.
I'm-I'm ya ta ta ta-ing, you see!
Oh, well, you shouldn't be!
No, I should be singing
Are You Lonesome Tonight?!
'Cos you've got the
sideboards, you're the star!
- I'm all down to here.
- Yeah. Yeah.
It was the start, something
went wrong with the start.
I know. Sid, you start us off, will you?
Give us the one, two, then
you'll be all right. Yeah. OK?
One, two.
- A boom. Whoo!
- Yata ta ta!
- Are you lonesome tonight? ♪
- A boom. Whoo! Yata ta ta!
It's good, it's good.
Just a minute, Sid. Just a minute.
I'm doing the "Ooh!" now.
I've yata ta ta'd and
I'm doing the Ooh now!
- I've only got the "boom" to go!
- Well, yes.
But there's something wrong
somewhere, isn't there?
Yes! Yes.
Oh, I know what it is!
You start us off, you
count the two in