19/10/2009

The BBC takes an unprecedented look inside Britain's Secret Intelligence Service, which marks its centenary this year.

BBC security correspondent Gordon Corera talks to senior intelligence officers, agents and diplomats as well as their former arch enemies about the shadowy world of espionage.

Programme Two - Heroes & Villains explores what went on behind the Iron Curtain during the Cold War.

MI6 chief John Scarlett describes his clandestine meeting with an agent, and the Russian defector Oleg Gordievsky talks about his reasons for coming over to the other side.

This programme was first broadcast on the BBC World Service on 19 October 2009 and originally broadcast on BBC Radio 4.