Spies, spooks and whistleblowers: from Kim Philby to Edward Snowden

Espionage at the very heart of the government has always occurred. Johanna Lowry-O’Reilly looks at some of the more famous cases in the United Kingdom.

The 1940s, 50s, and 60s provided three decades of “spy fever” which have fuelled popular imagination, literature and cinema for nearly 80 years.

Those involved were the forerunners of the mass data leakers and “whistleblowers” of the 21st century such as Chelsea Manning and Edward Snowden.