Things Gordon Corera Has Said on Podcasts

“Nicholas Elliot writes about Sinjin, Philby's father. He left at tea time, had a nap, made a pass at the wife of a member of embassy staff in a nightclub, had a heart attack, and died early next morning. His last words were, God, I'm bored. I mean, that is Sinjin Philby. That 24-hour snapshot of his life.” — Gordon Corera, The Rest Is Classified

Corera is reading from MI6 officer Nicholas Elliott's account of the death of St John Philby, Kim Philby's father, in Beirut. Earlier in the episode the hosts run through the father's extraordinary life as civil servant, explorer and adviser in Saudi Arabia.

The Rest Is Classified · 2026-10-11 Permalink → Listen →

The Rest Is Classified Around 27:56 into the episode

Gordon Corera

Because, I mean, his father has been going back and forth, you know, out in and out of the Middle East. September 1960, Nicholas Elliott has lunch with both Philby's, father and son. He remembers that Sinjin was agreeable company. Sinjin is on his way back to London, looking forward to take Kim's sons, who, of course, now orphaned, but in Britain.

David McCloskey

Yeah, what is going on with his kids in the UK? Because Aliens passed. And Philby is in Beirut and traveling. Traveling, and, you know, other people are looking

Gordon Corera

after them. And they come out and visit him quite a bit in Beirut, but most of the time they're in Britain. They do spend quite a bit of time in Beirut. But, you know, Sinjin is going to take his grandkids to the cricket. Now, Nicholas Elliot writes about Sinjin, Philby's father. He left at tea time, had a nap, made a pass at the wife of a member of embassy staff in a nightclub, had a heart attack, and died early next morning. His last words were, God, I'm bored. I mean, that is Sinjin Philby. Like that 24-hour snapshot of his life. That's all you need to know about the mad life. I mean, God, I'm bored. I mean, great last words. I don't know. I mean, anyway. Well,

David McCloskey

because Sinjin had converted to Islam, Philby buries him the next day, according to Muslim tradition, and then files a story for the Observer about

Gordon Corera

that. But it is interesting because some people, this whole father-son dynamic is a weird one between the two of them. And people saying, well, you know, was he trying to follow his father? Was it his father's absence? And then he was looking for a father figure in his Soviet handlers. Who can say? I mean, it's kind of hard to know. But one thing we do know is that his death has this massive effect on Philby. I mean, it really does seem to send him spiraling a bit. He goes out of circulation. For a few days, Kim, on a massive bender. He drinks himself senseless. And Eleanor thinks he comes out of this period of his father's death, change somehow, kind of frailer in body and spirit. And a number of things are going to happen in this period. So, once we get to the end of 1960, which, you know, we talked about Philby being on the up, which are going to, I think, destabilize him. There's another one, early 1961. A Soviet spy inside MI6 is discovered. Not Kim Philby: Undercover a guy called George Blake. And this is another kind of wild story because he ends up confessing, doing exactly what Philby didn't do. And he is jailed for 42 years, which at the time is the longest sentence given for anyone under British law. You know, it's even if he

David McCloskey

murdered someone. It's

Speaker names from our own diarization · position estimated from where the line sits in the episode

“Aileen's story is so sad because she is right about her suspicions. But people don't believe her because she's got these mental health problems and people attribute her suspicions to her mental health problems. And then the fact that her husband is treating her shabbily and no one believes her makes her mental health problems worse.” — Gordon Corera, The Rest Is Classified

Aileen was Kim Philby's wife. Corera recounts that she began to suspect her husband was a traitor and told one of his friends in MI6, who assured her there was nothing in it.

The Rest Is Classified · 2026-10-04 Permalink → Listen →

The Rest Is Classified Around 31:13 into the episode

Gordon Corera

know. Yeah. I mean, but she may suspect. And I think this is the period where she may start to suspect. But

David McCloskey

again, it's actually a very similar impulse to many of his MI6 colleagues, where you almost don't want to look it in the eye. Well,

Gordon Corera

for her, I mean, it would be a disaster. I mean, they've got children. They've got, you know, kind of five kids. I mean, imagine if he is a traitor. What's she going to do? I mean, it's a disaster to the family. But she starts to share some of her fears about him, including with Nicholas Elliott, this friend at MI6. And Nicholas Elliott says, no, there's nothing to worry about with Kim. You know, it's rubbish. There's nothing to these suspicions. She's drinking more. Her mental health is suffering again. She's staging these accidents as part of her kind of breakdown. Philby is having an affair with a woman in London. There's big rows at dinner parties. You know, she does seem to be suspecting things. She's got a psychiatrist, and she tells her psychiatrist that she thinks Kim Philby: Interrogated husband, is trying to get her to commit suicide. This psychiatrist then tells MI5, which seems to be a bit of a break of confidence. And at one point, she dramatically calls Nicholas Elliot and she says to Nicholas Elliot, Kim's gone to Russia and he's left a note. And Elliot is like, what? You know, you can understand because Elliot's his backer. He freaks out and he starts to, you know, put out alerts. Elliot then calls the house back and Philby picks up the phone. You know, she's made it all up. I mean, Aileen's story is so sad because she is right about her suspicions. Right. But people don't believe her because she's got these mental health problems and people attribute her suspicions to her mental health problems. And then the fact that her husband is treating her shabbily and no one believes her makes her mental health problems worse. Even worse. So it's a kind of desperate cycle for her as she's kind of descending in these years amidst fear, suspicion and breakdown. Philby himself is under surveillance and he knows that, but of course he knows how MI5 works. He's not in contact with his Soviet handlers really at this point. You know, he's kind of broken off. I

David McCloskey

guess he has nothing much that would be useful to share. And it's dangerous. And it's

Gordon Corera

dangerous because he's under surveillance. So he feels a little bit abandoned, I think. Although, you know, he's often, you know, later in life, he won't kind of admit that. Eventually, he gets word through Anthony Blunt, the Cambridge spies, you know, that he's hard up. And through Blunt, they will get him £5,000 for Philby: Interrogated kind of help him out. But it's a sign of how desperate they are. Meanwhile, Arthur Martin, our kind of middle-class MI5 officer, our mole hunting hero, I think, in many ways, is still on him.

David McCloskey

He doesn't give up.

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“It is a kind of masterclass in deception and therefore in acting. … It's so good that the husband of Judi Dench, who's an actor himself, … actually tells young actors to watch this video of Philby because he's like, that is how you do it. That is a performance.” — Gordon Corera, The Rest Is Classified

Corera was describing the filmed press conference Kim Philby gave after he was publicly accused of being a Soviet spy, at which he denied it in front of the cameras. He called it fascinating as a study of duplicity.

The Rest Is Classified · 2026-10-04 Permalink → Listen →

The Rest Is Classified Around 41:08 into the episode

Gordon Corera

who's drunk all the time and who's never been before TV cameras before,

David McCloskey

right? But you can do

Gordon Corera

it. And so there's a really interesting fact. It is a kind of masterclass in deception and therefore in acting. In acting, in acting. And it's so good that the husband of Judy Dench, who's an actor himself, and Judy Dench, of course, plays M in the James Bond films. But her husband actually tells young actors to watch this video of Philby because he's like, that is how you do it. That is a performance. I mean, it is that good. I just think, you know, it's fascinating as a study of kind of duplicity, basically.

David McCloskey

Yeah. And then, of course, I guess another running theme in the story is Sherry. He serves Sherry to the assembly and some beer to the assembled journalists.

Gordon Corera

I know. I never, I mean, I went to so many press conferences in my time as a journalist. I never got beer and sherry. I mean, served by a guy who's just been accused of being a spy and a traitor. Different

David McCloskey

times in the 50s. Different

Speaker names from our own diarization · position estimated from where the line sits in the episode

“…even though this attack will be associated so closely with Osama bin Laden, 9-11 wasn't actually his idea.” — Gordon Corera, The Rest Is Classified

Corera and McCloskey were walking through the CIA's failure to penetrate al-Qaeda in the late 1990s, and the unclear authorities around killing bin Laden. Corera uses that gap to set up a point about authorship of the plot itself. McCloskey picks it straight up: the idea came from Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, a freelance operator who was its principal architect.

The Rest Is Classified · 2026-08-23 Permalink → Listen →

The Rest Is Classified Around 41:39 into the episode

Gordon Corera

him. About

David McCloskey

killing him, which will be really important. And there's a lot of kind of mud slinging that has happened in the last 25 years over, you know, were the authorities actually killed. Clear? Were they not clear? What was the CIA authorized to do? There's a lot of he said, she said about that. What does seem clear, though, from at least the agency's perspective, is that there weren't clear authorities in the late 1990s that would have allowed them to actually go and kill him.

Gordon Corera

Yeah. And so, without that penetration of al-Qaeda, the problem is they do not spot that something is brewing inside al-Qaeda, which is going to become 9-11. And so, here we go back to 9-11 and to bin Laden and his role in it, because it's very interesting, isn't it? Because even though this attack will be associated so closely with Osama bin Laden, 9-11 wasn't actually his idea.

David McCloskey

The idea for 9-11 comes from a kind of freelance terrorist. It is the brainchild of a guy named Khaled Sheikh Mohammed, who is hereafter known as KSM. Spoiler alert, it's not going to go well for KSM. And I remember seeing his AK-47 on the wall at CIA headquarters in one of the, I think it was in a special activities division conference room. We actually have his captured AK-47 framed up on the wall. KSM is the principal architect of the attacks. Now, let's set him up briefly because his character is important. He is a highly educated engineer. Again, a running theme of some of these terrorist masterminds is they have engineering backgrounds, which

Gordon Corera

is interesting.

David McCloskey

He's raised in Kuwait, but the family has roots in Pakistan. After secondary school in Kuwait, he actually enrolls in 1983 at Joan College, which is a small Baptist school in Murfreesboro, North Carolina.

Speaker names from our own diarization · position estimated from where the line sits in the episode

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