Arts, History, Society

Former-MI6 chief tells tale of Cold War double agent

HISTORY FESTIVAL

SIR Richard Dearlove, the former-MI6 chief, has given a rare, personal insight into how he handled one of the West’s most important double agents during the Cold War.

He is not meant to talk about Secret Intelligence Service – the formal name for MI6 – operations, but said he has “licence to describe certain cases” if the material is “already to an extent in the public domain”.

He also revealed at a History Festival how the double agent’s daughter ended up very wealthy after receiving the thousands he was paid and hid in a London bank.

The case unfolded after Sir Richard was posted to the British embassy in Prague earlier in his career as a first secretary in communist Czechoslovakia in 1973 with his wife Rosalind.

“I had obvious diplomatic tasks, but I was there essentially as a member of SIS under diplomatic cover. My main job was to run an espionage case,” he said.

It involved what is called a “walk-in” – a man who had indicated to the British authorities he wanted to spy for them.

“He was a Czech intelligence officer in charge of the operations that the Czechs were running to try and penetrate British intelligence,” Sir Richard said.

He did not name the man but referred to how information about the case from the Czech archives had been publicised – a reference, it is understood, to reports about Miloslav Kroca, codenamed “Freed”, who was a KGB-trained major in the Czech secret-police force.

Sir Richard told the festival: “Running a case like this was a great risk – not to me, but to the source. If he were caught, he would be executed.

“Yet we were able to meet him regularly over a number of years. Because he himself was an intelligence officer he knew in detail the forces that were deployed against me by the Czechs on a continuous basis.

“If you were a young energetic diplomat in the British embassy who spoke Czech you were suspected of being a spy. You were constantly being examined to see if you were running a case like this.”

But when the Czech officer suffered a heart attack and ended up in hospital, his Russian wife handed a bundle of secret papers into his office – among which was one that revealed instructions for his next rendezvous with Sir Richard.

Sir Richard said the meetings were carefully planned so he and the source came independently from different directions. Because of his training, Sir Richard knew the surveillance on him would be in front of, rather than behind, him, “i.e., cars parked at strategic places”.

“We’re deep in the Czech countryside and I recognise them immediately because I know all the number plates that these are surveillance cars,” he said. “They’re clearly trying to find out who’s going to the meeting. Of course, the agent doesn’t turn up and eventually he dies of natural causes.”

But Sir Richard, who was head of MI6 between 1999 and 2004, said the story had a “wonderful ending”. The source’s motivation had partly been revenging on his colleagues but he also wanted his daughter to have a different life.

“He earned a lot of money that he never touched and went into a bank in London. Compound interest can make you very wealthy over a significant period of time,” he said. Years later, a British intelligence officer went to Prague to see the president Vaclav Havel and said: “I want you to find this girl.”

Sir Richard added: “She’s had a terrible life; she didn’t know what had happened to her father other than something catastrophic.

“She is summoned to meet Havel and he hands her a cheque which is her father’s money – many, many thousands of pounds. She is now a very, very wealthy Czech businesswoman.”

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Arts

‘Broken Beauty’

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Arts, Films

Film Review: The Father (12A)

REVIEW

Intro: Anthony Hopkins and a top-notch ensemble may touch a raw nerve in The Father, but this Oscar-winning portrait of dementia deserves its lavish accolades

UNLESS you have been oblivious to the film screen these past two months or so, you will know by now that The Father is about dementia.

Specifically, it’s about dementia as interpreted by the Oscar-winning Sir Anthony Hopkins, who also has a BAFTA to show for his endeavours.

Film Trailer –

The driving force behind this film, however, is French playwright Florian Zeller, who adapted and directed his own 2012 stage hit for the big screen. He, too, won an Academy Award and a BAFTA, shared with his accomplished co-writer Sir Christopher Hampton (Dangerous Liaisons, Atonement). The Father is not short of lavish accolades.

For the screenwriters, the question is whether audiences will adore it as much as film critics. To do so, they will need to see it, but I am not entirely sure that, with cinemas now blessedly open again, such a heartrendingly moving but fundamental film about dementia will be a wildly popular choice.

That the film is packed with thunderous resonance for so many people might count against it at the box office. Cinematic escapism, for anyone who has watched or witnessed the mental deterioration of an ageing relative or friend, it is emphatically not.

That said, it should be watched. There have been numerous films over the past decade or so in which dementia has played a central role. But even the best of them, such as Alexander Payne’s 2013 comedy Nebraska (or on television, the lacerating Elizabeth Is Missing, with Glenda Jackson), have shone a bright light on this debilitating condition from the outside looking in.

The captivating cleverness of Zeller’s film, though it only gradually dawns, is that it projects from the inside looking out.

We first encounter Anthony (Hopkins) in a handsome flat in London’s Maida Vale. His gentle middle-aged daughter, Anne (Olivia Colman), breaks it to him that she has fallen in love and is moving to Paris, so he will need a new live-in-carer. The last two, it seems, have quit.

Anthony, though sweet and mellow one moment, can be cruel and cantankerous the next. Looking after him is clearly a challenge. Every time he mislays his watch, he is certain someone has stolen it.

But there is still evidence of his intelligence and charisma. He is soothed, too, by classical music. Then he meets a man in his flat, Paul (Mark Gatiss), who claims to be Anne’s husband.

Anthony breaks it to him that she has met someone else and is relocating to Paris. “Oops-a-daisy,” he adds, childishly amused by his own mischief-making.

Then it sems that the flat is not his apartment at all but belongs to Anne and Paul. Did she really mention Paris? As Zeller continues to undermine our certainties, he plays even with the casting as he introduces Olivia Williams and Rufus Sewell as the daughter and son-in-law, it becomes clear what he is doing.

We’re experiencing Anthony’s confusion ourselves. This device gathers pace and intensity, but never in a mannered or laboured way. It is very adroitly handled.

II

THROUGHOUT it all, it is impossible to take your eyes off Hopkins, even with such a splendid cast of characters around him. There’s an almost upbeat scene when Laura (Imogen Poots) arrives to be interviewed for the carer’s job, and Anthony dazzled by her youth and prettiness, becomes flirtatious. “Ding dong,” he says, coming over all Leslie Phillips.

He declares that Laura reminds him of his other daughter, Lucy, the one he never sees yet who remains his favourite. Then, having beguiled Laura with charm, he crushes her with cruelty.

It is a mesmerisingly powerful performance, the throbbing heart (and ailing mind) of a beautifully observed film.

The Father might not entirely resonate with everyone who has seen the pitilessness of dementia. This family, for example, is ineffably middle-class and affluent, with no suggestion that anyone needs to worry about the financial implications of Anthony’s increasing needs. Also, the Poots character, for someone meant to have a record of caring for old people, seems strangely clueless.

Despite these minor gripes, The Father is well worth all the acclaim that has been heaped upon it.

Verdict: Fully deserving of the acclaim ★★★★

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