Original subtitles

CHATTER IN GERMAN

Und was ist das da?

CHILDREN GIGGLING

CHATTER, LAUGHTER

CHILDREN GIGGLE

If you do confess and confess in full,

every secret you ever passed, every death you caused...

If you do that, then you'll be allowed to return home

to live out your days in peace and anonymity

Nice country cottage, village cricket team, friendly local pub...

..where no-one, not even your family,

and especially not your children, will ever have the slightest idea

of the things you've done

However, anything less than a full confession

and you will be tried for treason,

where they will scream for your blood until they get it

because, as I am sure you are aware,

by far your biggest sin was to make a mockery of them

We're having some friends for dinner tomorrow night

You remember Dick Beeston from The Times,

and Miles Copeland from the CIA?

This isn't a fucking game, Kim

Now that you've come all this way,

Eleanor would be most upset not to see you

To say that patience in London is wearing thin

would be a huge understatement

Put it this way -

if you don't come,

eyebrows will be raised

and questions will be asked

Unless of course London's already briefed Washington about all this

For the last time, the Americans know nothing

Well, then

And no-one even knows I'm here

Don't be absurd, this is Beirut

You've got 24 more hours

After that, my hands are tied

That's settled, then

Seven-thirty for eight Bring that appetite of yours

Arise, shine, for thy light has come

And the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee

HE SCOFFS

It appears the Americans are now involved

Yesterday afternoon in Ohio, this man,

Michael Whitney Straight,

date of birth, 09/01/16,

he appeared of his own free will at the FBI field office in Cincinnati

to confess that he was recruited by the Russian Intelligence Service

some time in the '30s, whilst at Cambridge with...

Subject claims all contact with RIS terminated November 1945

As far as we know, he's yet to give them any further information

Maybe he has something to trade

Moments after he turned himself in,

this Telex, alerting the US Embassy in London,

was delivered to a basement flat in Westminster,

which happens to be just around the corner from...

From Nicholas Elliott's house

Very good

Interesting that this man decides to turn himself in to the FBI

right now, of all times

He obviously got wind of Philby's defection

Most likely from the very same people

he claims to have terminated all contact with in '45

Either way, the Americans are on to Elliott

They know Philby gave him something in Beirut

and we have to find out what that is before they do

Mark my words, Nicholas Elliott is up to something

MUSIC PLAYS

THEY SPEAK IN OWN LANGUAGE

Are you going to buy us a drink?

Where are you taking us?

THEY TALK IN OWN LANGUAGE

WOMEN SQUEAL

GUNSHOT, SCREAMING

Everything all right, Erich?

We need to go - now!

Erich!

Hello

Anyone home?

Where were you - Beirut again?

Istanbul

'During the war.'

Back in the days

when I was considered rather good at this kind of thing

Go! Go

Let's go

Elizabeth. Darling? Careful, don't flood it

Wait!

Start the car! Drive!

They will kill everyone. The Gestapo will round everyone up...

What are you doing? Start the car

As far as they know, you've been kidnapped

We don't have time for this We've been over this, Erich,

there is no chance...

I'm risking the lives of everyone I know, my family, my friends...

The only way they'll find out that you've defected

is if one of us here in this car gets caught and talks

We have to go. Come on!

That horse-faced woman you play bridge with

who works at Buckingham Palace?

Suzie? Hm

She doesn't have a horse face

You're the one who said...

Never mind

Do you think she might be able to get us on the guest list

for a private view at the Queen's Gallery this afternoon?

This afternoon? Hm

Cutting it a bit close, aren't you?

A private view?

You detest that kind of thing

Art? I think I take umbrage at that

What's going on?

What are you up to?

'Any more toast?'

KNOCK ON DOOR

SPEAKS IN DIFFERENT LANGUAGE

A gift from Mother Russia

Try it

I'm not very hungry

The coat

Ah

Lovely. Thank you

Today you become a real Russian

'Speaking of Americans, what have they been told?

'Nothing. Yet. Which is why the sooner you tell me everything,

'the sooner we can take care of them,

'and any others that might be out there.'

Your septic. In the basement

Do you think it would be possible to rustle up some marmalade?

You don't like kasha?

I imagine it could be sent from London

in the diplomatic pouch

Or is it Comrade Galina you don't like?

And some decent tobacco and The Times crosswords wouldn't go amiss

It's the little things

For what it's worth, I don't think you could cope with a trial,

much less with everything the press will throw at you

Frankly, I would never want it to come to that

because all I care about now,

and you know me well enough to know this is true,

is salvaging something useful out of this mess

First the stick and then the carrot. I taught you that

You may well have managed to convince yourself

that you betrayed your country, your friends, your family,

in the service of a principle -

a core belief in a greater good,

or some such rubbish, but deep down, Kim,

deep down, I know you know you're wrong

I can see it, as I look at you now - wrong, immoral,

politically naive, delusional

Don't turn your back on me!

As a matter of interest, have you ever given a moment's thought

to all the people that have been killed because of you?

Comrade Philby

' "A Master of Men was the Goodly Fere,

' "a mate of the wind and sea." '

Come again?

"If they think they ha' slain our Goodly Fere,"

"they are fools eternally."

It's about Jesus on the cross

'You're drunk

'Yes, indeed

'Do you even believe in God?'

Do you mean to tell me...

Are you...

Are you seriously suggesting there's a similarity between you and...

Well...

THEY LAUGH

'Oh, that takes the fucking biscuit. It really does!'

Ah. It's moments like this I joined the service for

The belly laughs! Oh, the belly laughs

'Bloody marvellous, Kim. You and Jesus!'

' "..wind and sea..." ' Come again?

' "If they think they ha' slain our Goodly Fere,

' "they are fools eternally." '

You understand, Mr Straight, that we need a whole lot more than just

a simple mea culpa. We need the names of your... comrades

This one, you don't get points for. We already know about Philby

And Burgess

And Maclean

Take your time, sir

CHATTERING

Didn't know you were an art lover, Elliott

Aren't we all?

No Elizabeth?

Fashionably late, as usual

Sausage on a stick?

It's a frightful cock-up, this Philby business

Do you know, I had no idea until somebody told me the other day

that you two were so close

Nick, my dear fellow, how good of you to come

Hello, Tony

Don't be a cunt, Jack, there's a good chap

Little bird tells me we may all be having a jolly good laugh

at your expense in the not too distant future

Everything all right?

Well, you know. Profumo being Profumo

Oh!

I just wanted to let you know

how dreadfully sorry I am about everything

Life goes on

What do you think?

I was rather hoping you'd tell me

Ah, they're my cue

Kim had us all fooled, you know

Not just you

Thanks, Tony. Very kind of you to say so

And I hope you don't mind me pulling strings to come to this

No, not a bit, not a bit Delighted to see you

Your Majesty, allow me to introduce you to Sir Roger Hollis,

Director General of MI5

TAPPING

MORSE CODE BEEPING

WOMAN: Povernityes' nalevo

"Turn to your left."

WOMAN: Vash pasport, pozhaluysta

For use in Soviet Union and the German Democratic Republic only

"He cried no cry when they drove the nails"

"and the blood gushed hot and free."

IN RUSSIAN:

"He cried no cry..."

"..when they drove the nails."

"And the blood gushed hot and free."

CHATTER

BLEATING

HE SIGHS

Good kip?

This is your house?

My parents'

A romantic notion of my father's

It's just that little bit too far from London

and the ballet for my mother

Oh, that's odd, where's the key?

Ah. Dr Watson, not a moment too soon

What are you doing here?

Hello

Kim Philby

You must be Herr Vermehren. Well done, you

It's all right. He's one of us

C's orders. There's a war on, you know. Walls have ears and all that

Kettle's on. Hope you like squashed flies

Squashed flies?

An English biscuit that might make you wish you were still a Nazi

I was never a Nazi

Wish I could paint

How did you get in here?

Tradesman's entrance

Why are you here?

Is that the Secretary of War with Prince Philip?

Act like we're talking about him

Why?

For fun

Blah de blah de blah...

SHE LAUGHS

That's very good

I have a question about James Jesus Angleton

I think he dropped the Jesus

He a friend of yours?

He was always much more a friend of Kim's than mine

Gonna need it in writing, gentlemen

We don't do that

My client's told you he's prepared to name names...

Name. Singular

I have only one name

Total immunity, in writing. Call J Edgar himself if you have to

And so we're clear,

the name I have isn't in any of the photographs you've shown me

Darling?

This is Mrs Thomas I was telling you about

Right. Yes, of course. Hello

And may I introduce Sir Anthony Blunt,

Purveyor of the Queen's Pictures?

Surveyor

What? Surveyor of the Queen's Pictures

What did I say? Purveyor

Mrs Thomas is from Newcastle

Durham. She's one of your old mob

MI5? Mm-hm

Counter-intelligence, no less

How do you do, Sir Anthony?

We're a dying breed, old boy

We were hoping you might have a few moments

to tell us about the new Vermehren

What?

The Vermeer

You said... Vermehren

Vermeer

I meant Vermeer

Well, er, Vermeer... as I'm sure I don't need to...

is such an important artist

and this particular painting that in actual fact belongs to...

I... I'm so sorry, will you please forgive me?

Heavens, don't worry about us

Duty calls

Who's Vermehren?

He meant Vermeer

Well, I think that's quite enough culture for one day, don't you?

Lovely to finally meet you

You, too

Lovely

Are you all right?

Come on

For you

Order of The Red Banner... for services to the Soviet people

Lovely, thank you

Thank you

It's a step up from that frightful diesel they serve at the palace

What does Erich Vermehren have to do with Tony Blunt?

What lovely weather we're having! Don't be an arse, darling

It was a slip of the tongue. Nothing more

You wanted to go to that thing tonight

just so you could drop Vermehren's name to Tony

All right. Don't you dare try to deny it, not to me

Look... And don't do that, either

I'm not some fucking secretary chasing office gossip

And all I wanted was a nice quiet supper with my wife

Bit on the elaborate side, don't you think?

What?

Mistaking Vermehren for Vermeer

Shall we talk about something else?

Kim told you something, didn't he? In Beirut

Darling... Something about Tony Blunt

Which one is penne? And you wanted to test if it was...

You almost gave Tony a heart attack

It's true, isn't it, whatever Kim told you?

If it isn't, I'm a goner

Penne's the little tubey ones

Everything hangs on what Blunt does next

Yes, that was the whole purpose of the exercise today

Elaborate but effective

So thank you, darling, as always,

for your help, but could we now please change the subject?

This Mrs Thomas person...

..friend or foe?

Not sure yet. Definitely some promise there, though

You used to say that about me

I know. But that was just to get in your knickers

You beast! I dare you!

GIGGLING

Silly arse!

Ogon' yest'? Ogon'

Ogon', ogon' yest'?

I sigaret?

Huh?

Spasibo

So, he says to her...

.."My name is Dr Brown

"and the other day I went on the train to Exeter"

"where I had scones and strawberry jam for tea."

"And on the way, the train stopped just outside Taunton"

"where I saw a lovely rainbow over a field of black and white cows."

And then he checks her eyes and ears and reflexes and so on,

and after he had finished with all that he asked her,

"Where did I travel to on the train?" And Mother says...

Exeter... Exeter

Very good. "And what did I have for tea?"

And Mother says...

Scones and strawberry jam

"Excellent! Excellent!" says the doctor,

and then he asks her, "What's my name again?"

And Mother thinks to herself and she says,

"Er, Johnson, Dr Johnson."

And the doctor pauses and he tells her,

"No. No, Brown, Dr Brown."

To which Mother replies, "Oh, yes, that's right."

"That's right, I knew it was something common."

HE SNICKERS

You silly arse!

LAUGHING

What's funny?

Nothing

I was just thinking about my mother

Vashe zdorov'ye

Bottoms up

Tell me about your mother

She's dead now

Did she know about... your work?

No

You were close?

Very

KNOCK ON DOOR

Evening, sir

Ooh

What? Damp

Mould

Erm... Before you start,

you should know that, officially, I'm not here

Start what?

OK

Oh, do you mean the CIA don't officially know you're here,

or your mission here hasn't been officially rubber stamped?

Mission?

When the man from your embassy dropped off an envelope...

..this morning, was that official?

And while you're unofficially here,

are you by chance working on anything of an intelligence...

..or counter-intelligence nature

that under normal circumstances you'd tell us about?

Who sent you? No-one

Young lady...

This is just between us

Then I am sorry to say... you've wasted your time

It's definitely mould

I'd ask for my money back if I were you

Ah, there you are, Nanny

IN RUSSIAN:

What?

IN RUSSIAN:

CLEARS HER THROAT

Mrs Thomas?

Who's Vermehren?

This really isn't the time or place

Do you know, er...

SHE LAUGHS

My husband, he's a man who works incredibly hard,

day in and day out...

No, this'll only take a minute

..doing everything he can to make people's lives better,

while I stand here, trying to nail down what on earth it is

that you chaps have been playing at for 20 years

And when I get home tonight,

because he knows that I'm not allowed to talk about my work,

he'll pretend to be asleep to make my life easier

So do you know what?

I couldn't care less about the time and the place

She's in there... Ssh!

'Come on, then.'

What does he do, your husband?

A doctor. GP

Drinks are in there. Hands off the silver, I'll be back in a jiffy

Message received

And so, old friend, one day it'll just be you and me...

You and I? You and me?

Finish the sentence first

..against the Soviets

You and me

We sweat and strain

What's this?

Open it

For the day when you and I can only afford to trust each other

and the West depends on us

"The hounds of the crimson sky gave tongue,"

"but never a cry cried he."

Where's this taken?

Istanbul

During the war?

Hm. '43

Our wedding day

You got married in Istanbul?

'We were both posted there

'Your wife's SIS?

'She was my secretary

'Oh!'

Do you drink whisky?

Oh, if I must

You have that

After you

STATIC

COUGHING

What?

My wife wants to know whether you're friend or foe

It's funny, MI5 have a similar question about you

HE CHUCKLES

Mud in your eye

THEY CLINK GLASSES

HE CLEARS HIS THROAT

Erich Vermehren...

..is a devout Catholic who hated the Nazis...

..and thought the best way to fight them was from within

Until I came along

And Philby

HE SIGHS

The truth is, had it not been for Kim's innate ability

to be able to befriend almost anyone under any circumstances,

all my efforts to get Vermehren to defect to England

may have come to nought,

and he may never have given us the identities

of the hundreds of Abwehr officers and their sources all across Europe,

which, it's no exaggeration to say, changed the course of the war...

'all the way to D-Day.'

To us

And getting away with it

Thank you

There you are. Thank you

All he ever asked in return was...

..we do what we could for his friends in the German resistance,

and we did, we did with intelligence,

and weapons drops and radio equipment

It's about to rain

CHUCKLING

Oh!

THEY LAUGH

Come on

What?

What?

Hindsight

HE SIGHS

Just as Vermehren and his friends in the Catholic resistance

were anti-Nazi, they were also fiercely anti-Bolshevik

and determined that after the war,

no part of Germany would ever fall into the hands of the Russians

So... when Churchill and Roosevelt and Stalin...

..agreed how to carve up Germany...

..Vermehren's friends who were faced with being marooned

in the Russian sector...

..tried to make a break for it to the British sector

CHATTERING

SCREAMING

Philby betrayed them to the Russians?

That's who Vermehren is

No. Only I, and now you,

know anything about what I've just told you

And the Russians

And the Russians

And Sir Anthony Blunt

That's what that was about

He knows about Vermehren because he works for the Russians

Which is what Philby told you in Beirut

So...

what do I tell my wife?

Friend or foe?

Who else knows about Blunt?

No-one

Just us

KNOCK AT DOOR

KNOCKING CONTINUES

Sorry for the late hour

Is this it? Yes, sir

Good night

Jesus fucking...

..Christ

WHISPERS: Ey, prosnis'

Hey, wake up!

"The hounds..."

"..of the..."

"..crimson..."

"..sky..."

"..gave..."

"..tongue."

"But..."

"..never..."

"..a cry..."

"..cried he."

We're in business

---oOo---