True Spies: Espionage | Investigation | Crime | Murder | Detective | Politics
True Spies takes you inside the world's greatest espionage and detective operations. Our hosts Hayley Atwell, Vanessa Kirby, Sophia Di Martino, Daisy Ridley and Rhiannon Neads talk to the real spies behind the missions. What do they know? What are their skills? And what would you do in their position? We explore and investigate real life thrillers, mysteries and crimes - stories that prove truth is stranger than fiction! These stories cover lies, murder, theft, sex, drugs and rock ‘n roll. You’ll meet experts from the top intelligence agencies including FBI, CIA, MI5, MI6 (SIS), KGB, GRU, Mossad and many others. You’ll discover characters who spied because of money, ideology, coercion or just plain old ego. And, if you’d like to dig deeper into the world of secrets, and test your own secret intelligence skills, head over to spyscape.com for articles, games, experiences, puzzles and videos. For episodes first and ad-free, subscribe to Spyscape+ at: plus.Spyscape.com A Cup & Nuzzle production. Series producers: Gemma Newby, Joe Foley. Music: Nick Ryan.
Episodes
October 28, 2025 • 59 mins
Author Clare Mulley has built her formidable reputation on finding the remarkable stories that have been left out of the history books. This is one of them - the remarkable, heartstopping story of Elzbieta Zawacka, AKA Agent Zo, legend of the Polish resistance.
From SPYSCAPE, the home of secrets. A Cup And Nuzzle production. Series producer: Joe Foley. Produced by Frank Palmer.
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October 23, 2025 • 25 mins
From the lagoon of Venice to revolutionary Russia, counterintelligence has always been an important aspect of statecraft.
In Brief Histories, the new monthly special from True Spies, series producer Joe Foley is your guide to this secret world - alongside a treasure-trove of stories and expert knowledge from our archive.
From SPYSCAPE, the home of secrets and skills. A Cup And Nuzzle production. Series producer: Joe Foley.
Learn ...
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October 20, 2025 • 46 mins
In the golden cornfields of rural Iowa, mysterious men are stealing seeds. Corn is big business - and the secret of growing good corn is priceless intellectual property. But is this a simple case of corporate theft, or foreign espionage in a vital strategic battle between nations? Vanessa Kirby joins Special Agent Mark Betten, FBI, on his mission to find out.
From SPYSCAPE, the home of secrets. A Cup And Nuzzle production. Serie...
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October 13, 2025 • 28 mins
This time on the Debrief, Morgan Childs joins former CIA economic analyst Brett Janis to discuss the Agency's role in monitoring global financial trends, Ukraine, and the future of the USA's place at the heart of the world economy.
From SPYSCAPE, the home of secrets. A Cup And Nuzzle production. Series producer: Joe Foley. Produced by Morgan Childs.
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October 6, 2025 • 40 mins
By 2004, FBI Special Agent Jim Gaylord has seen a lot of counterintelligence operations go right. But he's also seen plenty go wrong, especially when it comes to the People's Republic of China. But now, he has a chance to take down one of China's most prolific collectors of US military tech - and he's determined to take it.
In Part Two, Jim's team makes a breakthrough - and the net begins to close around Chi Mak.
From SPYSCA...
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October 1, 2025 • 28 mins
NEW from True Spies: Brief Histories. From 7th Century China to Nazi-occupied France, discover a selection of stories from the long history of female spies.
In Brief Histories, the new monthly special from True Spies, series producer Joe Foley is your guide to this secret world - alongside a treasure-trove of expert knowledge from our archive.
From SPYSCAPE, the home of secrets and skills. A Cup And Nuzzle production. Series prod...
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September 30, 2025 • 44 mins
By 2004, FBI Special Agent Jim Gaylord has seen a lot of counterintelligence operations go right. But he's also seen plenty go wrong, especially when it comes to the People's Republic of China. But now, he has a chance to take down one of China's most prolific collectors of US military tech - and he's determined to take it.
In Part One, Jim sets out to take down Chi Mak - an engineer with access to top secret Naval technology.
F...
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September 23, 2025 • 48 mins
In this classic episode of True Spies, Vanessa Kirby meets a spy who infiltrated the political wing of the Irish Republican movement. Willie Carlin risked his life in Derry, Northern Ireland, on a daily basis to provide the UK with intelligence.
From SPYSCAPE, the home of secrets and skills. A Cup And Nuzzle production. Series producer: Gemma Newby. Produced by Joe Foley. Music by Nick Ryan
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September 16, 2025 • 68 mins
Lawyer and intelligence historian David Burke reveals a shadowy chapter in the story of Anglo-Irish relations in the 20th century.
Irish police intelligence analyst Patrick Crinnion was a man of rare intelligence. He had also been groomed from a young age to spy for the United Kingdom. When the Troubles in Northern Ireland broke out, he was feeding information on the IRA to Westminster. But the IRA had its own, highly effective sp...
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September 9, 2025 • 33 mins
WIRED journalist Andy Greenberg has spent years reporting from the murky world of hackers, spies, and cyber warriors. His 2019 book Sandworm tells the true story of the Kremlin-backed cyber criminals that became one of the most destructive hacking groups in history. This week, True Spies producer Morgan Childs sits down with Andy to talk about the Sandworm group - and what their campaigns reveal about the future of warfare itself. ...
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September 4, 2025 • 28 mins
NEW from True Spies: Brief Histories. From Egyptian codebreaking, to USB sticks with the power to cripple nuclear facilities, this week hear the long evolution of tradecraft.
In Brief Histories, the new monthly special from True Spies, series producer Joe Foley is your guide to the evolution of this secret world - alongside a treasure-trove of expert knowledge from our archive.
From SPYSCAPE, the home of secrets and skills. A Cup...
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September 2, 2025 • 43 mins
Jim Lawler is one of the CIA's most successful recruiters of foreign spies. But even he had to start somewhere. In this classic episode of True Spies, Vanessa Kirby joins Jim on his first foreign posting. His mission? To enlist a crucial intelligence asset for the USA. To do it, he'll stop at nothing to manipulate, subvert, and seduce his target.
From SPYSCAPE, the home of secrets. A Cup And Nuzzle production. Series producer: Ge...
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August 26, 2025 • 42 mins
John Taylor is an author, lecturer and advisor on handling human sources of secret intelligence. He joins True Spies producer Morgan Childs to discuss the psychology of those who play the espionage game - agent and handler alike.
From SPYSCAPE, the home of secrets. A Cup And Nuzzle production. Series producer: Joe Foley. Produced by Morgan Childs.
John Taylor is a senior Research Fellow at Kings College London and the author of T...
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August 19, 2025 • 50 mins
In this two-part True Spies story, author and journalist Shaun Walker unmasks the greatest generation of Russian spies - the Great Illegals.
In Part Two, Shaun tells the story of Iosif Grigulevich - the Lithuanian Illegal who rose to the upper echelons of Italy's diplomatic community.
From SPYSCAPE, the home of secrets. A Cup And Nuzzle production. Series producer: Joe Foley. Produced by Frank Palmer.
Shaun Walker is the ...
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August 13, 2025 • 22 mins
NEW from True Spies: Brief Histories. From Ancient Roman propaganda apparatus to burgeoning MI6 operations, hear how the very information we consume has throughout history been orchestrated.
In Brief Histories, the new monthly special from True Spies, series producer Joe Foley is your guide to the evolution of this secret world - alongside a treasure-trove of expert knowledge from our archive.
From SPYSCAPE, the home of secrets...
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August 12, 2025 • 58 mins
In this two-part True Spies story, author and journalist Shaun Walker unmasks the greatest generation of Russian spies - the Great Illegals.
In Part One, Shaun tells the story of Nikolai Khokhlov - the music-hall 'whistler' turned deep-cover spy in Nazi-occupied Belarus.
From SPYSCAPE, the home of secrets. A Cup And Nuzzle production. Series producer: Joe Foley. Produced by Frank Palmer.
Shaun Walker is the Central and Ea...
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August 5, 2025 • 46 mins
In this classic episode of True Spies, CIA analyst Sarah Carlson drops Vanessa Kirby into the pressure-cooker of post-revolutionary Libya.
In 2011, the Arab Spring swept Colonel Gaddafi from office, leaving a deadly power vacuum. Three years later, civil war engulfed the nation. Under a hail of rocket fire, Sarah had to figure out a way to extract 150 American personnel from the carnage.
From SPYSCAPE, the home of secrets and s...
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August 1, 2025 • 3 mins
The history of espionage is long and shrouded in mystery...
Hear it chronicled in True Spies: Brief Histories, the new monthly episodes of True Spies.
From the intricacies of Ancient Roman tradecraft and Medieval propaganda, all the way to the surveillance systems of the twenty-first century, you’ll discover the hidden figures, secret dealings and daring special ops that brought us to where we are today.
Get episodes a w...
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July 29, 2025 • 38 mins
True Spies producer Morgan Childs joins researcher and author Seth Thévoz to discuss the origins of London's elite gentlemen's clubs - and the movers, shakers and spies who have called them a home-from-home.
From SPYSCAPE, the home of secrets. A Cup And Nuzzle production. Series producer: Joe Foley. Produced by Morgan Childs.
Seth Thévoz is the author of London Clubland: A Companion for the Curious.
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July 22, 2025 • 62 mins
Author, historian and former British Foreign Office official Tim Willasey-Wilsey tells the incredible story of Wilhelm Von De Ropp - the high-born chameleon who had Hitler's ear in the build-up to WW2.
But unbeknownst to the Nazis, 'Bill' was MI6's man on the inside, passing on information that would help Britain to win the war...
From SPYSCAPE, the home of secrets. A Cup And Nuzzle production. Series producer: Joe Foley. Produc...
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