Main content

Secrets and Lies: The undercover operatives

The Latvian teenager forced to adopt a fake identity and an influential investigative journalist from Ghana who's famous, but no-one knows what he looks like.

In this episode of Outlook's Secrets and Lies series we're revisiting two astonishing stories from our archive about life undercover.

As a young woman Ieva Lesinska was faced with an agonising choice. To renounce her father as a traitor, or defect to the US and leave behind everything she knew in Latvia. Ieva says it was like she was living in a spy movie, and a film has now been made about her life, it's called: 'My Father, the Spy.'

Anas Aremeyaw Anas is a trained lawyer-turned-investigative reporter in Ghana, and a frequent presenter of the BBC's Africa Eye. In his nearly 20 years working undercover, he's exposed judges taking bribes for a not-guilty verdict; top football officials for fixing matches; sex-trafficking rings; organ-harvesting operations. To do so, he had to disguise himself as a psychiatric patient, as a janitor in a brothel and even as a rock in a barren landscape. His work has led to numerous convictions, but his methods are sometimes dangerous and controversial.

Do you have a fantastic story involving a secret or a lie? We'd love to hear about it. Record a short voice memo or write an e-mail and send it to us at outlook@bbc.com. If your story is about someone you know, just make sure they're ok with you telling us about it.

Available now

44 minutes

Broadcasts

  • Wed 31 Mar 202111:06GMT
  • Wed 31 Mar 202117:06GMT
  • Thu 1 Apr 202102:06GMT

Watch Lives Less Ordinary on YouTube

Watch Lives Less Ordinary on YouTube

Videos from our extraordinary podcast Lives Less Ordinary.

Contact Outlook

Contact Outlook

Info on how we might use your contribution on air

Podcast: Lives Less Ordinary

Podcast: Lives Less Ordinary

Step into someone else’s life and expect the unexpected