GC Gordon Corera Covered terrorism, cyber security, and intelligence agencies as the BBC's security correspondent for two decades, stepping down from that role in November 2024.

“I have had occasion to drop in on quite a few other intelligence headquarters. I've held official passes to seven major intelligence headquarters… So I claim this is the eighth major intelligence organization which I have succeeded in penetrating.”

The Rest Is Classified · Geopolitics & World Affairs · October 2026

Corera reading the joke Kim Philby opened with when he finally gave a lecture inside KGB headquarters in 1977, 14 years after defecting to Moscow. A KGB officer who was there recalled a terrible silence before Philby added the punchline about being surrounded by comrades this time.

The Rest Is Classified · 2026-10-26 Listen to the episode → More from Gordon Corera → More Geopolitics & World Affairs quotes →

Transcript

The Rest Is Classified Around 27:23 into the episode

Gordon Corera

…the best example of that is the fact it takes 14 years, 14 years, for him to be let in to the headquarters of the KGB after arriving. So he arrives in 1963. It is only 1977 that he's invited into KGB headquarters to give a lecture. I mean, yeah, I mean, it's kind of that says a lot, I think.

David McCloskey

The KGB does not see him as an intelligence officer. They see him rightly as an asset. As a defector. Yeah, as a defector. He's a British traitor.

Gordon Corera

Yeah. And this lecture is fascinating. That he gives to the KGB because he steps up to the podium and he tries a joke. It has taken me a long time to get here. My journey started in a London park more than 43 years ago. I have had occasion to drop in on quite a few other intelligence headquarters. I've held official passes to seven major intelligence headquarters: four British, SIS, MI6, SOE from the war, MI5, and GCNCS, which is the Code and Cypher School, GCHQ, and three American, CIA, FBI, and NSA. So I claim this is the eighth major intelligence organization which I have succeeded in penetrating. And Lubimov, who's there, says there was a terrible silence because everyone is thinking, like, you know, what's he saying? He's like, he was a penetration…

David McCloskey

So there with Philby kind of accepted in Moscow. Let's take a break. When we come back, we will look at the final chapter of Philby's life and the last great mystery. Who was he working for all along?

Speaker 3

We are getting a statement from number 10. Hop that flight with 350 passengers on board.

Speaker 4

The great game. Strategic struggle between Britain and Russia. We assess a prime minister with high confidence it was Russian.

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

More from The Rest Is Classified

“It's a very British thing, I think, to kind of become obsessed with your own traitors, get the spies you deserve as a country. And maybe, you know, you also get the traitors you deserve. And I think Philby is maybe the traitor we deserve because he tells us so much about ourselves in Britain and holds up a mirror to us.” — Gordon Corera, The Rest Is Classified

“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