Peek behind an Iron Curtain of secrecy with hosts Hayley Atwell and Vanessa Kirby, as they enter a world of KGB sleeper agents, FSB defectors, and American infiltrators in this curated selection of True Spies stories. 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. A Cup & Nuzzle production. Series producers: Gemma Newby, Joe Foley. Music: Nick Ryan.

In his senior year at an East German university, Albrecht Dittrich was recruited by the KGB to go deep undercover in the United States. Taking the alias Jack Barsky, he joined hundreds of other undetected Soviet agents aiming to influence U.S. foreign policy. What would YOU do in Jack’s position?

Hayley Atwell tells the story of how Soviet engineer Adolph Tolkachev became one of the Cold War's most prolific turncoats. For nearly a decade, CIA Operations Officer David Rolph was tasked with keeping the information flowing, right under the nose of the KGB. What would YOU do in David's position?

Vanessa Kirby gets Christo Grozev, a modern Sherlock Holmes, to share the secrets of how he solved one of the most notorious assassination attempts of the 21st century - the poisoning of retired Russian double-agent Sergei Skripal, hospitalized by a mysterious nerve agent on British soil. Would YOU have the skills to do the same?

Undercover CIA agent James Olson takes Vanessa Kirby on a nail-biting mission behind the Iron Curtain. In the late 1970s, James was tasked with tapping an underground communications line between Moscow and a top-secret nuclear weapons facility. Under constant surveillance from the KGB, he would need to use a combination of traditional spycraft and hi-tech gadgetry to intercept this priceless intel without risking a diplomatic catastrophe. Could YOU evade detection?

How do you flee your country and join the other side? A former Russian intelligence agent gives Vanessa Kirby a rare masterclass in international tradecraft. Janosh Neumann fled Moscow armed only with his wits, a suitcase and the names of Russia's most influential money launderers, to begin a dangerous journey to the other side.

Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny believes the Russian state poisoned him in August 2020. In January 2021, he released a film that sent shockwaves through the country. Part-exposé, part-psychological portrait, his investigation claimed to reveal massive corruption within the Kremlin - with President Putin at its heart. In February 2021, Navalny was jailed. In this special episode of True Spies, Vanessa Kirby presents an abridged version of Navalny's explosive investigation.

It's 1993, and Russia is tearing itself apart. A violent coup is threatening to derail Boris Yeltsin's fragile post-Soviet government. Rolf Mowatt-Larssen, deputy chief of station for the CIA in Moscow, is caught in the crossfire. To get out alive, he'll need to lean on an unlikely new ally - Russian Intelligence. Vanessa Kirby tells his story.

Bill Browder’s fund made billions in the wake of the Soviet Union's collapse. But in the new Russia, the cost of doing business could be counted in more than cash. When Bill caught wind of major financial corruption in the country, he decided to act - making powerful enemies in the process. Vanessa Kirby unravels a story of money, power and terrible sacrifice.

In the fall of 1973, journalist Emil Draitser met an aging Soviet super-spy. His name was Dmitri Bystrolyotov, and for him, sex and secrets went hand-in-hand. At the time, Emil could scarcely believe what he heard - much less publish it. Thirty years later, long after the collapse of the USSR, Dmitri's story could finally be told. Vanessa Kirby enters a world of seduction, secrets, and lies between the wars. Could YOU mix business and pleasure?

Who was Britain's Ace of Spies? Nobody really knows but the name he used was Sidney Reilly - and nobody did it better in the early 20th century. Reilly reckoned with oil barons, his personal pride, and the rise of Communism during his decades on the edge.