0:00:02 > 0:00:06One thousand years of history under one roof -
0:00:06 > 0:00:10the National Archives, a treasure house of secrets.
0:00:11 > 0:00:15The records of extraordinary times and people.
0:00:15 > 0:00:20These files are this nation's story, our shared past.
0:00:20 > 0:00:24Documents housed here were highly classified,
0:00:24 > 0:00:28intended for the eyes of only the privileged few.
0:00:28 > 0:00:32Protected from your sight for decades.
0:00:32 > 0:00:33But not now.
0:00:38 > 0:00:44I've been granted special access to files once kept hush-hush.
0:00:44 > 0:00:48I'll unearth amazing tales from our hidden history.
0:00:49 > 0:00:54Forget what you've been told - these documents tell the truth.
0:01:05 > 0:01:09Coming up in this programme - traitors and spies.
0:01:09 > 0:01:12How the Gunpowder Plot was foiled
0:01:12 > 0:01:15and how the best-known conspirator confessed.
0:01:15 > 0:01:19This is a terrible instrument of torture.
0:01:19 > 0:01:23Guy Fawkes was secured by the wrists here and by the ankles there.
0:01:23 > 0:01:28The fictional agent and his real-life inspiration.
0:01:28 > 0:01:32How close do you think SOE was to James Bondism?
0:01:32 > 0:01:34I think one of the closest parallels you can draw are
0:01:34 > 0:01:36some of the devices that SOE produced.
0:01:36 > 0:01:38And many of these were extraordinary.
0:01:38 > 0:01:40And the not-so-great escape.
0:01:40 > 0:01:45The secret file on the jailbreak by one of our most notorious traitors.
0:01:45 > 0:01:48The rope ladder, enormous rope ladder which
0:01:48 > 0:01:49could loop over the wall on one side
0:01:49 > 0:01:53and come down the other side with knitting needles for rungs.
0:01:56 > 0:02:01MUSIC: Anarchy in the UK by the Sex Pistols
0:02:01 > 0:02:05The face that launched a thousand protests.
0:02:05 > 0:02:10The image that's become associated with disorder and even anarchy.
0:02:10 > 0:02:14Because the real man represented by this mask aimed at
0:02:14 > 0:02:19nothing short of the complete destruction of the British state.
0:02:19 > 0:02:24And on the 5th of November 1605, he nearly achieved it.
0:02:24 > 0:02:28MUSIC CONTINUES
0:02:32 > 0:02:37The failure of Guy Fawkes and his fellow conspirators to blow up the
0:02:37 > 0:02:42Houses of Parliament turned him into the ultimate antihero.
0:02:42 > 0:02:45And today he remains the supreme traitor,
0:02:45 > 0:02:47to be ritually punished, year after year.
0:03:01 > 0:03:06His arrest and torture are part of our history, but the role
0:03:06 > 0:03:11that the King played in his brutal interrogation has rarely been told.
0:03:11 > 0:03:16Inside the National Archives, the entire story is laid bare.
0:03:22 > 0:03:26These extraordinary documents tell us how the King gave his
0:03:26 > 0:03:32instructions for the interrogation of Guy Fawkes - 16 questions.
0:03:32 > 0:03:39Where he was born, what were his parents' names, what age he is of,
0:03:40 > 0:03:48how he hath lived, by what trade of life, if he was ever in service.
0:03:48 > 0:03:50Now that was an important question,
0:03:50 > 0:03:54because he had in fact served with the Spanish Catholic forces
0:03:54 > 0:03:57before returning to England to carry out the plot.
0:03:57 > 0:04:02Torture was not legal and this secret note implicates
0:04:02 > 0:04:06the King in the sordid business of extracting a confession.
0:04:08 > 0:04:10He says here at the end,
0:04:10 > 0:04:15"If he will not other ways confess, the gentler tortures are to
0:04:15 > 0:04:23"be first used unto him and 'Sic per gradus ad ima tenditur'.
0:04:23 > 0:04:27"And ever by degrees to the worst.
0:04:27 > 0:04:30"And so God speed your good work."
0:04:30 > 0:04:32Signed James R.
0:04:33 > 0:04:37Can you imagine a head of state today putting
0:04:37 > 0:04:40his or her signature to such a document?
0:04:41 > 0:04:46For the Protestant King James, this was intensely personal.
0:04:46 > 0:04:50The Gunpowder Plot was a treasonous attempt by Catholic plotters
0:04:50 > 0:04:54to assassinate him and his entire government.
0:04:54 > 0:04:58When Fawkes was discovered in cellars beneath Parliament, he was
0:04:58 > 0:05:03within hours of lighting the fuse that would blow the building apart.
0:05:06 > 0:05:09The torture authorised and encouraged
0:05:09 > 0:05:13by the King four centuries ago would occur here.
0:05:13 > 0:05:18The Tower of London instilled terror in those brought for interrogation
0:05:18 > 0:05:20or execution.
0:05:20 > 0:05:23But if Guy Fawkes was frightened, he didn't show it.
0:05:25 > 0:05:27He was amazingly defiant.
0:05:27 > 0:05:30And not only was he defiant, he was making racist comments
0:05:30 > 0:05:33about the King's Scottish origins and he said he wished that the
0:05:33 > 0:05:38explosive had gone off so he could blast all Scotsmen back to Scotland.
0:05:38 > 0:05:41Er, and the King was, despite himself, very impressed by
0:05:41 > 0:05:42this show of bravado
0:05:42 > 0:05:45and he commented to his courtiers afterwards that
0:05:45 > 0:05:48he'd been a fine, strapping, defiant brave fellow.
0:05:48 > 0:05:52But nevertheless, he gave personal orders that,
0:05:52 > 0:05:54starting with the gentler methods,
0:05:54 > 0:05:57more and more extreme methods of torture should be used on Fawkes.
0:06:03 > 0:06:07As he was led through the Tower, Guy Fawkes would have known
0:06:07 > 0:06:09what torment to expect.
0:06:11 > 0:06:14The rack was amongst the most notorious of
0:06:14 > 0:06:16the Tower's inhuman devices.
0:06:28 > 0:06:32This is a terrible instrument of torture.
0:06:32 > 0:06:36Guy Fawkes was secured by the wrists here and by the ankles there.
0:06:36 > 0:06:40The torturer, by means of this lever, was able to rotate this
0:06:40 > 0:06:43roller in that direction, and that in the other,
0:06:43 > 0:06:47so that Guy Fawkes's body was gradually drawn apart,
0:06:47 > 0:06:52dislocating his limbs, causing ruptures to the internal organs.
0:06:54 > 0:06:57There's grim handwritten evidence in documents
0:06:57 > 0:07:01about the effectiveness of such unspeakable suffering.
0:07:01 > 0:07:06Have you ever thought what is the impact on a man of torture?
0:07:07 > 0:07:12Well, here us an indication in this very precious
0:07:12 > 0:07:16and very valuable and delicate document.
0:07:18 > 0:07:21Here, on the 7th of November,
0:07:21 > 0:07:22he signs a document clearly,
0:07:22 > 0:07:24legibly, firmly,
0:07:24 > 0:07:26Guido Fawkes.
0:07:27 > 0:07:30Then he's pulled apart on the rack
0:07:30 > 0:07:32for two full days.
0:07:32 > 0:07:34On the 9th of November,
0:07:34 > 0:07:36he's forced to sign another declaration.
0:07:37 > 0:07:38Ha!
0:07:40 > 0:07:42The effect of the pain.
0:07:42 > 0:07:44He's named Robert Catesby,
0:07:44 > 0:07:46John Grant,
0:07:46 > 0:07:47Thomas Wintour
0:07:47 > 0:07:49as co-conspirators,
0:07:49 > 0:07:51and he's signed his confession,
0:07:51 > 0:07:53but not the strong, clear,
0:07:53 > 0:07:55confident hand of 48 hours before.
0:07:55 > 0:07:58No, now it is the feeblest, weakest,
0:07:58 > 0:08:00scarcely perceptible signature.
0:08:01 > 0:08:04Such has been the impact of the torment on him.
0:08:10 > 0:08:13Fawkes and the other conspirators were put on trial
0:08:13 > 0:08:15in January 1606.
0:08:16 > 0:08:18The King watched in secret
0:08:18 > 0:08:22as the list of charges was read out against the plotters.
0:08:22 > 0:08:25Even though Fawkes pleaded not guilty,
0:08:25 > 0:08:28the verdict was never in doubt -
0:08:28 > 0:08:30guilty of high treason!
0:08:32 > 0:08:34Despite his dislocated limbs,
0:08:34 > 0:08:36there was enough life left in Guy Fawkes
0:08:36 > 0:08:39for a public execution.
0:08:39 > 0:08:41He was dragged from the Tower of London
0:08:41 > 0:08:43and through the streets of the capital,
0:08:43 > 0:08:45to a place where, as the law prescribed,
0:08:45 > 0:08:48he would be first hanged and then disembowelled.
0:08:48 > 0:08:51And the site of his execution
0:08:51 > 0:08:55was to be the very place that he'd tried to blow up,
0:08:55 > 0:08:56the Palace of Westminster.
0:09:01 > 0:09:04After the hanging and the quartering
0:09:04 > 0:09:06came the scattering.
0:09:06 > 0:09:08Fawkes' body parts were distributed
0:09:08 > 0:09:11to the four corners of the kingdom.
0:09:11 > 0:09:15King James was determined to send out a message
0:09:15 > 0:09:17to other would-be traitors,
0:09:17 > 0:09:20wherever they might lurk.
0:09:22 > 0:09:25Today, any revelation that the state's authorities
0:09:25 > 0:09:28are complicit in the use of torture
0:09:28 > 0:09:30causes a scandal.
0:09:30 > 0:09:32But in 1605,
0:09:32 > 0:09:35the country celebrated the King's survival.
0:09:35 > 0:09:40It wasn't squeamish about the agonies endured by the traitors.
0:09:40 > 0:09:43Remember, remember the 5th of November...
0:09:43 > 0:09:48and the man whose grisly end is commemorated
0:09:48 > 0:09:50whenever we burn a guy.
0:09:54 > 0:09:59My next story from the archives concerns the most audacious
0:09:59 > 0:10:01fake ID in history.
0:10:06 > 0:10:10Today, we still honour the heroism of our armed forces
0:10:10 > 0:10:12in the Second World War.
0:10:12 > 0:10:16Alongside the Army, Royal Navy and RAF
0:10:16 > 0:10:20was another vital organisation that worked in secret.
0:10:20 > 0:10:23The Special Operations Executive,
0:10:23 > 0:10:24or SOE,
0:10:24 > 0:10:28was set up by Churchill to conduct reconnaissance,
0:10:28 > 0:10:31espionage and sabotage
0:10:31 > 0:10:33in Nazi-occupied Europe.
0:10:33 > 0:10:36This top-secret file gives a clue
0:10:36 > 0:10:39to the SOE's extraordinary skill
0:10:39 > 0:10:41in deceiving the enemy.
0:10:44 > 0:10:46During World War II,
0:10:46 > 0:10:49they produced documents for spies
0:10:49 > 0:10:54and for those escaping from the Nazi regime,
0:10:54 > 0:10:57for all of the occupied countries.
0:10:57 > 0:11:01This book is full of their forgeries.
0:11:01 > 0:11:07They produced literally hundreds of thousands of forged documents
0:11:07 > 0:11:10and they enlisted, for the purpose,
0:11:10 > 0:11:14people who, in pre-war life, had been criminals,
0:11:14 > 0:11:19master forgers who were able to reproduce
0:11:19 > 0:11:22every crest and stamp,
0:11:22 > 0:11:26and impersonate every piece of type.
0:11:26 > 0:11:28This magnificent,
0:11:28 > 0:11:30meticulous work
0:11:30 > 0:11:34must have made an important contribution to our war effort.
0:11:34 > 0:11:39The SOE became so expert at forging Nazi official documents
0:11:39 > 0:11:41that it couldn't resist showing off.
0:11:42 > 0:11:44I have in my hands
0:11:44 > 0:11:46a Deutsches Reich Reisepass,
0:11:46 > 0:11:49a German Reich's passport,
0:11:49 > 0:11:51issued during World War II.
0:11:52 > 0:11:54It's stamped with a J,
0:11:54 > 0:11:56as required by Nazi law,
0:11:56 > 0:12:00indicating that the holder is, in fact, a Jew.
0:12:00 > 0:12:03He is a painter by profession
0:12:03 > 0:12:05and under "distinguishing features",
0:12:05 > 0:12:09it notes that he has a small moustache.
0:12:09 > 0:12:13This person has, in fact, emigrated to Palestine,
0:12:13 > 0:12:18admitted through the port of Haifa on the 19th of July 1941.
0:12:18 > 0:12:21The holder's name is Adolf Hitler.
0:12:21 > 0:12:24Here is his photograph and his signature.
0:12:24 > 0:12:27This is, of course, a hoax,
0:12:27 > 0:12:30a forgery, a joke.
0:12:30 > 0:12:33But a forgery perfect in every detail.
0:12:33 > 0:12:39It is a playful spoof by the Special Operations Executive
0:12:39 > 0:12:43to demonstrate that they were capable of forging anything.
0:12:44 > 0:12:48The SOE's work was secret during wartime
0:12:48 > 0:12:51and so it remained for decades afterwards.
0:12:51 > 0:12:56Now, these files enable us to glimpse its breathtaking activities.
0:12:57 > 0:13:01I must say, I was astonished when I saw this forged passport
0:13:01 > 0:13:03of Hitler as a Jew.
0:13:03 > 0:13:05What was your reaction when you saw it?
0:13:05 > 0:13:07Well, it's a surprise to see it.
0:13:07 > 0:13:08At the same time,
0:13:08 > 0:13:10I think it's a very impressive piece of documentation.
0:13:10 > 0:13:12It's a great example, I think, of the ingenuity
0:13:12 > 0:13:14that the British had at that time of the war
0:13:14 > 0:13:16and the resources that they had, as well.
0:13:16 > 0:13:19So they had the fantastic skills of production.
0:13:20 > 0:13:25The fake Hitler passport was a private joke within the SOE.
0:13:25 > 0:13:29But the organisation had serious designs on the German Fuehrer.
0:13:30 > 0:13:33There's a very famous plot called Operation Foxley.
0:13:33 > 0:13:35That was to kill Adolf Hitler
0:13:35 > 0:13:39and SOE put this into motion in 1944
0:13:39 > 0:13:41and they spent several months gathering information
0:13:41 > 0:13:44and trying to work out various forms of killing him.
0:13:44 > 0:13:46But, in the end, the war really sort of, um...
0:13:46 > 0:13:47the momentum of the war took over
0:13:47 > 0:13:49and the operation was never given the green light.
0:13:50 > 0:13:53The SOE did get the go-ahead
0:13:53 > 0:13:56to unite resistance movements in German-occupied countries.
0:13:58 > 0:14:00It also set Europe ablaze
0:14:00 > 0:14:04and devised deceptions that bought the Nazis to their knees.
0:14:06 > 0:14:08But, apart from helping Britain to victory,
0:14:08 > 0:14:13the Special Operations Executive provided us with another legacy.
0:14:13 > 0:14:17The fact that its boss, one Brigadier Colin Gubbins,
0:14:17 > 0:14:20went by the code name M should give you a clue.
0:14:25 > 0:14:30A young Ian Fleming, later to be the author who invented James Bond,
0:14:30 > 0:14:33worked closely with the real-life M
0:14:33 > 0:14:36and it's clear that the SOE's inventiveness
0:14:36 > 0:14:42was an inspiration for him as he conceived Q's gadgets and gizmos,
0:14:42 > 0:14:45such an entertaining feature of movies like Goldfinger.
0:14:46 > 0:14:48You'll find a little red button.
0:14:49 > 0:14:51Whatever you do, don't touch it.
0:14:51 > 0:14:52And why not?
0:14:52 > 0:14:55Because you'll release this section of the roof
0:14:55 > 0:14:58and engage and then fire the passenger ejector seat.
0:14:59 > 0:15:03How close do you think SOE was to James Bondism?
0:15:03 > 0:15:06I think one of the closest parallels you can draw
0:15:06 > 0:15:09are some of the devices that SOE produced to assist its agents
0:15:09 > 0:15:11in the work that they had to do in enemy territory.
0:15:11 > 0:15:13And many of these were extraordinary.
0:15:13 > 0:15:15They started off, for example, with lipsticks
0:15:15 > 0:15:19which were converted to hold written messages right at the start.
0:15:19 > 0:15:23And then they move on to things like explosive rats, for example.
0:15:23 > 0:15:24Rats?
0:15:24 > 0:15:25Explosive rats, which were...
0:15:25 > 0:15:29Where they would take the carcass of a rat and the skin of a rat
0:15:29 > 0:15:32and they would take out the insides, scrape out all the insides,
0:15:32 > 0:15:35replace that with explosives and then leave the rat lying around,
0:15:35 > 0:15:38perhaps in a marshalling yard or in a factory,
0:15:38 > 0:15:40in the hope that a worker would come along and idly pick up this rat
0:15:40 > 0:15:42and throw it into a local furnace
0:15:42 > 0:15:45and then the furnace would explode, causing damage.
0:15:46 > 0:15:49Its influence lives on in the Bond movies.
0:15:49 > 0:15:54But the SOE was dissolved officially in January 1946,
0:15:54 > 0:15:56no longer needed, it seemed, in peacetime.
0:15:58 > 0:16:01I've had the privilege of seeing the file with Hitler's passport here.
0:16:01 > 0:16:04Do you think we know all about SOE now?
0:16:05 > 0:16:07No, I don't think so.
0:16:07 > 0:16:09I don't think we'll ever know the full story of SOE.
0:16:09 > 0:16:11A lot of documents were destroyed after the war,
0:16:11 > 0:16:13so it's incredible, in fact,
0:16:13 > 0:16:16that some of these documents, like this one, like Hitler's passport,
0:16:16 > 0:16:17do survive today.
0:16:17 > 0:16:19But, sadly, for every Hitler's passport,
0:16:19 > 0:16:21there may be a dozen other documents that don't exist.
0:16:21 > 0:16:23Very intriguing.
0:16:28 > 0:16:31Espionage achieved another golden era
0:16:31 > 0:16:33at the height of the Cold War,
0:16:33 > 0:16:37when British intelligence services pitted their wits
0:16:37 > 0:16:39against the Soviet KGB.
0:16:41 > 0:16:44The West had its agents, the Russians had theirs.
0:16:45 > 0:16:49What both sides feared were the double agents,
0:16:49 > 0:16:51people thought to be working for us,
0:16:51 > 0:16:54who were, actually, supplying secrets to the other side.
0:16:56 > 0:17:01George Blake was one of Britain's most notorious double agents.
0:17:01 > 0:17:05Recruited by MI6 during the Second World War,
0:17:05 > 0:17:09he later offered his services to the KGB
0:17:09 > 0:17:11and betrayed dozens of British agents.
0:17:13 > 0:17:16When he was discovered, Blake was tried for treason,
0:17:16 > 0:17:17found guilty
0:17:17 > 0:17:20and jailed for 42 years,
0:17:20 > 0:17:23one of the longest sentences in British legal history.
0:17:24 > 0:17:26But just five years into that term,
0:17:26 > 0:17:31Blake escaped over the wall of London's Wormwood Scrubs Prison.
0:17:32 > 0:17:34- REPORTER:- It's believed that he got out of B Block,
0:17:34 > 0:17:38where he is housed with 320 other long-term first offenders,
0:17:38 > 0:17:40by smashing a window and sawing through an iron bar.
0:17:41 > 0:17:45Blake's escape was highly embarrassing for the British state.
0:17:45 > 0:17:49How could it lose one of its most infamous prisoners,
0:17:49 > 0:17:50a notorious traitor?
0:17:51 > 0:17:55Not surprisingly, the authorities wanted to keep their failings quiet.
0:17:56 > 0:17:58But now they can be revealed.
0:18:00 > 0:18:05Here is the secret file on the way that he was being treated in prison.
0:18:06 > 0:18:09"During the first part of Blake's sentence,
0:18:09 > 0:18:12"he was treated with as much consideration as was consistent
0:18:12 > 0:18:15"with preventing his escape."
0:18:15 > 0:18:16Ho-ho...!
0:18:16 > 0:18:18"The object being to see whether
0:18:18 > 0:18:20"as favourable treatment as possible
0:18:20 > 0:18:24"might persuade him to cooperate with the security services
0:18:24 > 0:18:25"in making disclosures.
0:18:26 > 0:18:29For a while, the authorities must have thought
0:18:29 > 0:18:30their approach was the right one.
0:18:30 > 0:18:34Blake appeared to be a model prisoner.
0:18:34 > 0:18:37They didn't know that he was planning his great escape,
0:18:37 > 0:18:40communicating with an accomplice on the outside
0:18:40 > 0:18:43with a walkie-talkie that had been smuggled in.
0:18:44 > 0:18:47It seems to me that the security services
0:18:47 > 0:18:51had always underestimated George Blake
0:18:51 > 0:18:55and so it was possible for him to escape.
0:18:57 > 0:19:00These police reports document what is known
0:19:00 > 0:19:03of the events of that night.
0:19:04 > 0:19:08It's clear that the authorities have no idea where Blake is.
0:19:08 > 0:19:11"Estimation of time varies enormously in prison,
0:19:11 > 0:19:13"but I can find no tangible evidence
0:19:13 > 0:19:16"of Blake's whereabouts after 6pm."
0:19:17 > 0:19:21The prison authorities, so complacent about their inmate,
0:19:21 > 0:19:23don't even know where he's meant to be
0:19:23 > 0:19:26and, therefore, aren't sure whether he's escaped.
0:19:28 > 0:19:31In the interval, they have discovered a ladder,
0:19:31 > 0:19:33which has been thrown over the prison wall from the outside.
0:19:33 > 0:19:37"This ladder had 20 rungs, each about a foot apart.
0:19:37 > 0:19:39"Each rung was reinforced
0:19:39 > 0:19:44"with Milward steel knitting needles, size 13,
0:19:44 > 0:19:48"which are very thin and pliable and covered with grey plastic material."
0:19:51 > 0:19:56The identification of Blake as the escaped prisoner is made quite late.
0:19:56 > 0:20:00"At 8.10pm, Chief Officer Whittaker handed the police
0:20:00 > 0:20:02"a photograph of George Blake,
0:20:02 > 0:20:05"taken in prison on the 2nd of January 1965.
0:20:05 > 0:20:10"This was the first time that it became known with certainty
0:20:10 > 0:20:14"that the escaped prisoner was, in fact, George Blake, the spy."
0:20:16 > 0:20:19"The conclusions of this report are that George Blake,
0:20:19 > 0:20:21"by reason of his long sentence,
0:20:21 > 0:20:24"had nothing whatsoever to lose by escaping
0:20:24 > 0:20:28"and was, therefore, a potential escaper at all times.
0:20:28 > 0:20:32"The structural condition of HM Prison Wormwood Scrubs
0:20:32 > 0:20:38"presents no problem to a person determined to escape."
0:20:39 > 0:20:41The British authorities had entrusted
0:20:41 > 0:20:46one of their most important spies to an insecure prison.
0:20:46 > 0:20:50These files represent a comedy of incompetence.
0:20:52 > 0:20:56The people who helped Blake to escape weren't professionals,
0:20:56 > 0:20:58as the authorities assumed.
0:20:59 > 0:21:01Once he'd made it to the other side of the wall,
0:21:01 > 0:21:04Blake had a new set of problems.
0:21:04 > 0:21:07In fact, the escape turned into something of a farce.
0:21:11 > 0:21:16His accomplices, Michael Randle, Pat Pottle and Sean Bourke
0:21:16 > 0:21:19were not crack KGB agents.
0:21:20 > 0:21:22They were, actually, three former inmates,
0:21:22 > 0:21:24who'd met Blake in Wormwood Scrubs.
0:21:25 > 0:21:30Their plan to spring him was high on daring but low on detail.
0:21:31 > 0:21:34This is slightly the shambolic bit about it, I suppose.
0:21:34 > 0:21:36It's a very long rope ladder.
0:21:36 > 0:21:38It has knitting needles for rungs.
0:21:38 > 0:21:40And so, it's thrown over.
0:21:40 > 0:21:43What they didn't realise, or what they'd forgotten about,
0:21:43 > 0:21:47is when Blake gets to the top there and looks down
0:21:47 > 0:21:49the 20 feet down the other side,
0:21:49 > 0:21:51he can't come down on the ladder
0:21:51 > 0:21:54because there's nothing to secure it at the top,
0:21:54 > 0:21:55there's no hook or anything like that.
0:21:55 > 0:21:57They'd forgotten about that.
0:21:57 > 0:21:58So, he jumps.
0:21:58 > 0:22:01And, as he jumps, he twists a little bit in midair.
0:22:01 > 0:22:05When he lands on the ground here, he lands on his wrist,
0:22:05 > 0:22:07his face gets injured,
0:22:07 > 0:22:09but his wrist is very badly broken.
0:22:10 > 0:22:14Sean Bourke bundled Blake into a getaway car.
0:22:14 > 0:22:18Destination? A safe house a short distance from the prison.
0:22:18 > 0:22:21But minutes later, near-disaster struck again.
0:22:22 > 0:22:25It's raining, so the visibility isn't great.
0:22:25 > 0:22:27The windows are all steamed up
0:22:27 > 0:22:32and Bourke drives his car into the back of the car in front
0:22:32 > 0:22:34as they approach a passenger crossing.
0:22:34 > 0:22:38And the driver gets out to remonstrate with Bourke,
0:22:38 > 0:22:39but Bourke isn't having any of it.
0:22:39 > 0:22:42He has to get to that safe house as quick as possible.
0:22:43 > 0:22:47Blake made it to a bedsit half a mile from the jail.
0:22:47 > 0:22:48But when this proved unsuitable,
0:22:48 > 0:22:52the gang had to move him to a number of other addresses.
0:22:53 > 0:22:58His escape was very big news and a huge manhunt was underway.
0:23:00 > 0:23:03With the police issuing an all-ports alert,
0:23:03 > 0:23:05Blake's accomplices now faced the problem
0:23:05 > 0:23:07of smuggling him out of Britain.
0:23:08 > 0:23:14Gang member Mike Randle came up with an unusual, even bizarre, plan.
0:23:15 > 0:23:20Michael Randle had read a book about an American journalist,
0:23:20 > 0:23:22who'd wanted to go into the Deep South
0:23:22 > 0:23:24to investigate racial segregation
0:23:24 > 0:23:28and he'd taken this drug that changed the colour of his skin.
0:23:28 > 0:23:31And the thought was, how are we going to get Blake out of the country?
0:23:31 > 0:23:33We need to disguise him, perhaps.
0:23:33 > 0:23:35Shall we go and find this drug?
0:23:35 > 0:23:37See if we can get enough quantities of this drug
0:23:37 > 0:23:39to change the colour of his skin
0:23:39 > 0:23:42to make him look, if not black, Arabic, perhaps.
0:23:44 > 0:23:48In December 1966, eight weeks after the prison escape,
0:23:48 > 0:23:50the gang made their move.
0:23:50 > 0:23:54They got hold of a camper van and fitted it with a secret compartment
0:23:54 > 0:23:56in which Blake could hide.
0:24:00 > 0:24:03They took a ferry at Dover, sailed to Ostend
0:24:03 > 0:24:06and drove all the way to East Germany.
0:24:07 > 0:24:09Despite all the pitfalls along the way,
0:24:09 > 0:24:12Blake had made it to his destination,
0:24:12 > 0:24:14the Communist bloc.
0:24:15 > 0:24:17George Blake's escape from Wormwood Scrubs
0:24:17 > 0:24:20reads like a rollicking good spy novel,
0:24:20 > 0:24:22full of action and intrigue
0:24:22 > 0:24:25and somewhat unbelievable characters.
0:24:25 > 0:24:27But, for the British authorities,
0:24:27 > 0:24:30there was nothing entertaining about it.
0:24:30 > 0:24:33He had betrayed Allied agents,
0:24:33 > 0:24:36allegedly leading to the deaths of many.
0:24:36 > 0:24:42And nothing more undermines or corrodes an intelligence service
0:24:42 > 0:24:44than suspicion and paranoia.
0:24:45 > 0:24:49That fear that you can trust nobody.
0:24:55 > 0:24:59To appreciate Britain's discomfort over this whole episode,
0:24:59 > 0:25:02we have to remember that this happened in the mid-1960s.
0:25:03 > 0:25:08Just how sensitive would this case have been during that era?
0:25:08 > 0:25:11I'm making contact with a source.
0:25:12 > 0:25:16Well, we're at the heart of the Cold War in this period, the '60s.
0:25:16 > 0:25:19The British and the West,
0:25:19 > 0:25:20the Americans and West
0:25:20 > 0:25:22don't know what the Russians are doing.
0:25:22 > 0:25:24The Russians don't know
0:25:24 > 0:25:26what the British and the Americans are doing.
0:25:26 > 0:25:28Spies are extremely important,
0:25:28 > 0:25:32because you're trying to gather intelligence on...
0:25:32 > 0:25:34particularly from the West side,
0:25:34 > 0:25:36on a very, very secretive world.
0:25:36 > 0:25:40It's difficult to get around in the Soviet Union and the Eastern bloc.
0:25:40 > 0:25:45It's difficult to find out information in any...
0:25:45 > 0:25:48..any normal way, as you would now.
0:25:48 > 0:25:51MI6 was reeling from the discovery
0:25:51 > 0:25:56that there were other double agents in the so-called Cambridge spy ring.
0:25:56 > 0:26:01Burgess, Maclean, Philby, Blunt were all traitors.
0:26:02 > 0:26:08But some think that the most dangerous of all was George Blake.
0:26:09 > 0:26:11I think he probably did more damage
0:26:11 > 0:26:15in terms of direct damage than Philby.
0:26:15 > 0:26:17Philby did an awful lot of damage
0:26:17 > 0:26:20and it's difficult to get to the heart of that.
0:26:20 > 0:26:23But, in terms of what he gave away, in immediate terms,
0:26:23 > 0:26:26Blake was more...was worse, yeah.
0:26:26 > 0:26:30What does it do for the reputation of the British state
0:26:30 > 0:26:33that a man like Blake hops out of Wormwood Scrubs
0:26:33 > 0:26:37on a ladder made of knitting needles and escapes in a camper van
0:26:37 > 0:26:39and walks across the Iron Curtain?
0:26:39 > 0:26:42Well, it was the final humiliation, really, wasn't it?
0:26:42 > 0:26:45This man had destroyed our networks in East Germany,
0:26:45 > 0:26:48he had been one of the worst traitors
0:26:48 > 0:26:52inside our most secretive organisation, MI6,
0:26:52 > 0:26:56and, suddenly, like a will-o'-the-wisp,
0:26:56 > 0:26:57he disappears from the country,
0:26:57 > 0:27:00out of one of our, supposedly, safest jails.
0:27:02 > 0:27:05Blake may have made it to his communist masters,
0:27:05 > 0:27:08but they were the losers in the Cold War.
0:27:08 > 0:27:12Today, he lives in Moscow on a KGB pension,
0:27:12 > 0:27:14with no wish to return home.
0:27:18 > 0:27:21The prison that he escaped from remains operational,
0:27:21 > 0:27:23with tighter security, I hope,
0:27:23 > 0:27:28than that described in those embarrassing once-secret files.
0:27:30 > 0:27:34The towering walls of Wormwood Scrubs...
0:27:34 > 0:27:37Pretty daunting, you would think.
0:27:37 > 0:27:43Unless, of course, you were as determined, ruthless, brave,
0:27:43 > 0:27:48as good at organising a conspiracy as was George Blake.
0:27:48 > 0:27:52In which case, these walls would be about as effective
0:27:52 > 0:27:54as a picket fence.
0:28:00 > 0:28:05Today's documents shine a light into the dark world of espionage.
0:28:05 > 0:28:09Guy Fawkes' bold plot was foiled by state intelligence
0:28:09 > 0:28:15and his mangled body dangled from a rope close to this spot.
0:28:15 > 0:28:18The Tower had proved a more secure prison for him
0:28:18 > 0:28:22than Wormwood Scrubs would be for George Blake.
0:28:22 > 0:28:24British forgeries during World War II
0:28:24 > 0:28:27were another spy success.
0:28:27 > 0:28:28But to stamp "Jew"
0:28:28 > 0:28:31on the counterfeit passport of Adolf Hitler,
0:28:31 > 0:28:35who ordered the Holocaust, one of the worst mass murderers of history,
0:28:35 > 0:28:38was surely an example of gallows humour.