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Nuclear Secrets

Nuclear Secrets
Nuclear Secrets DVD cover.jpg
DVD cover
Genre Docudrama
Written by
Directed by
Starring
Narrated by Sean Pertwee
Composer(s) Ty Unwin
Country of origin United Kingdom
Original language(s) English
No. of episodes 5
Production
Executive producer(s) Deborah Cadbury
Running time 60 minutes
Distributor BBC Worldwide
Release
Original network BBC Two
Original release 15 January – 12 February 2007
Chronology
Related shows Space Race

Nuclear Secrets, aka Spies, Lies and the Superbomb, is a 2007 BBC Television docudrama series which looks at the race for nuclear supremacy from the Manhattan Project through to Pakistan's nuclear weapons programme.

The series was produced by the BBC in co-production with National Geographic and NDR.

"Soviet Colonel Oleg Penkosky spied in the build-up to the gravest nuclear crisis of all time, when the world came close to annihilation."

In 1960 Soviet Military Intelligence Officer Oleg Penkovsky passes a letter offering to share secrets with the U.S. Government to American students visiting Moscow, but Washington fails to respond.

Penkovsky later passes a letter to British Trade Delegation representative Greville Wynne warning that Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev was planning an all-out nuclear attack. Penkovsky meets with MI6 officer Harry Shergold and Central Intelligence Agency agent Joe Bulik a short time later on a trip to London and warns that the Soviets have been arming Cuba. Penkovsky is instructed to gather info on missile strategy and is given British industrial secrets to help maintain his cover upon his return to Moscow.

Chief Marshall Sergei Varentsov tells Penkovsky of plans to deploy battlefield nuclear weapons in Berlin. Penkovsky passes this along with other secrets that hardens U.S. President John F. Kennedy's stance against Khrushchev. KGB Lt-Gen Gribanov begins a surveillance sweep of Western embassy staff in Moscow including Penkovsky's contact Janet Chisholm. Wynne returns to Moscow to make contact and Penkovsky requests that he and his family are pulled out. CIA Chief John McCone agrees but needs info on Cuba first.


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