Want to create an interactive transcript for this episode?
Podcast: Today In History with The Retrospectors
Episode: The Queen's Soviet Spy
Description: Sir Anthony Blunt, esteemed art historian and a favourite of the Royal family, was publicly revealed as a Soviet spy on 15th November, 1979, when Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher confirmed he had been part of the "Cambridge Five", a group of double agents who secretly passed sensitive information to the Soviet Union.Despite his confession to MI5 in 1964, Blunt continued his association with the royal household, working as a surveyor of the Queen's pictures until his retirement in 1972. The response in Parliament included disbelief and accusations of deliberate cover-ups to protect Blunt, leading, eventually, to his knighthood...