“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.”
The Rest Is Classified · Geopolitics & World Affairs · October 2026
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.
Transcript
who's drunk all the time and who's never been before TV cameras before,
right? But you can do
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.
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.
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
times in the 50s. Different
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