|
|
Article: I was a teen spy; A TV programme tonight reveals how Alan Bennett, Dennis Potter, Michael Frayn and a Halifax lad eavesdropped on Cold War Russia.
- Article from:
- The Evening Standard (London, England)
- Article date:
- November 24, 2003
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2003 Solo Syndication Limited. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
|
Byline: LESLIE WOODHEAD
SCARED and dry mouthed, I shuffled in the queue of conscripts towards the pressed and shining sergeant who would deliver my fate. Would it be "cook", "clerk", or, God help me, something to do with guns? The sergeant thrust his mouth towards my ear. "Russian linguist," he rasped. I was instructed to proceed immediately to Scotland and my new life as a spy.
As a gawky 18-year-old National Serviceman from Halifax, I was an improbable cog in an operation to listen in on the Red Menace. Based during 1957/58 in a Berlin still struggling out of the Second World War, I found myself on the nervy front line of the Cold War. The files ...