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Episode 447: Smiley’s Person (Patreon)

Published:
2025-03-31 13:19:07
Imported:
2026-06
Tags:

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Content

We talk to the Times’ Emanuele Midolo about the killing of foreign correspondent David Holden in 1977. Plus: spies, journalists, journalists as spies, and solving a sordid murder at the margins of the Cold War. Emanuele Midolo is the author of the new book MURDER IN CAIRO, co-authored by Peter Gillman, about Holden’s murder.

Discover more episodes at podcast.trueanon.com.

Files

Comments

Jes

Hi Brace and Liz and YC

Pepipopa

Why we only getting 1 ep a week I'm angry 😡

Lulu

"British history - which for the Brits is the only history that counts." I like this guy 💯

Andy Sommerville

You need to do an Australia episode so Brace’s accent has the opportunity to shine

Henry

Le Carré gang rise up

Jesse

Where’s all the sex???

Mark Freeman

I think Whitney Webb would be an amazing guest.

Hugo

Big John 🥡🥡 >>> most Brits

Dec

Unc assassinated :((

Richard Cochnar

I fell asleep in the theatre watching Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. Watched it again at home a few years later and really enjoyed it.

Nicholas

I too love the American Tinker Tailor film, mostly for the vibe. I watch it every year around the beginning of fall to really get in the Autumn Mood

Nicholas

Love me Mark Strong, love me Tom Hardy, simple as.

Mark Owen

Alec Guinness didn't smirk when put in charge of a destroyed organization.

Liz MacBride

i knew brace was a unionist but i didn't think he was an irish unionist :((((

Throw Away

this is what they did to shintani in judgement

Melting Kentucky

I just finished Pynchon's V. so this is hitting extra hard

twinkbraincellholocaust

thank u liz and brace and young chomsky, i love you all in a deeply unhealthy parasocial way

Ari Curtis

This is an all-timer. Great guest, fascinating subject, excellent conversation!

Ash

i thought stewart copeland’s dad was Miles Jr.

Isaac

Off topic, but this news about Virginia Giuffre is awful.

Colin S

I was watching The Prize (1991 doc on amzn now, it’s great) last week and the 5th or 6th ep they talk about Kim Philbys dad, Jack who became sorta untethered from the empire once he found the Saudis. Why was his son so trusted and singularly critical when his own dad was a prominent empire-philanderer??

ResilientBastard

Really want to know who dated Philby’s daughter. My total unfounded hunch is Yanni’s Varoufakis.

Alexis

For this to come out when I'm deep in the middle of a Le Carre reread...

Alex C

FOR BRITISH EARS ONLYYYYYYYY

B

this is my liberation day

k

The nature of Sir Keir Starmer's dome

NYCM&AHole

Lol the blackmail part probably comes from the UK ruling class’s penchant for pedophilia

Lulu

😔

Morgan

This is the slowest talking Italian ive ever heard

——

What does “shot at such close range that the bullet was found in his blazer” mean? That doesn’t make any sense

Louis Balmer

British women are quite shiny, and the men are doughy. And our clothes are too tight. We're a pretty ugly nation on the whole. 🇬🇧🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

k

I assumed he was talking about the casing

Hunter

Speaking of Brace doing British accents, does anyone remember the episode where Brace does his British colonialist voice and says something to the effect of “I’m going to India, I am to be a vicar”? I think it was in an episode last summer and for some reason it’s been bothering me that I can’t find it

Stick

Scusi

Blank

“Not [kissing] on the mouth” Liz low-key coming in hot 🌶️

Inmybirkin

Patrick Seale who wrote the Assad book?

Christian Bendillo

Will there be an audiobook version? I really want to listen to this while I’m driving for work.

Inmybirkin

Oh lmao Nevermind this gets mentioned

k

Brace referring to the guest, an Italian guy living in London, as Monsieur Midolo with a French accent was so funny

drizzly_november

The battlefields and bedrooms of Cold War Britain proffered many an opportunity for a Gay Pussy-eater…

JZ

How many pig skulls has Keir copulate with? It’s the only way I can keep track of British PMs. The number of pig skulls fucked. Obviously Thatcher holds the record.

Sneb

Chomsky what happened to the Audio quality ?

bobore

A great what-to-do, my good man

Connor Mc.

Brace complaining about knowing about British private schools as an American is how I feel knowing what Bushwick is when I live in Georgia

ERIC

Where did this scilian learn English? Guy sounds like he had a cockney tutor.

Monica

Was that a Big John reference from Brace at the beginning? Love that for my nation

Shiv

not since Julian Feeld has a Western man had such a mashup of influences

Shiv

and a sex-negative podcast

James Emma

I cannot tell what this sichillian is saying !!!

Sexual Harry Potter

Can you PLEASE be more rude and play upon tropes of National or ethnic origin more when introducing guests??? Brace really half assed it this time. I hate to see my favorite podcast sell out to the woke SJW mob.

salt terminal

The best Le Carre adaptations are hands down the BBC Radio 4 plays, enjoy: archive.org/details/TheCompleteGeorgeSmileyBBC

B JAMBOR

Loved this one, started listening to it right after I told a customer of mine about how much I love a good spy caper

KR666

i think he meant the case

Michael S. Judge

There's SO much foul dirt on the Copeland family, and it goes a lot deeper than anything you can look up on the internet. Truly, deeply frightening people

Michael S. Judge

Also, L. Ron Hubbard convinced himself that SMERSH was trying to kill him, and accordingly went into hiding for years, because he saw it in a James Bond movie

TrueAnonPod

I love these I used to listen to them all the time!

Nite Life Jesse

yea gimme that cold war cia intrigue, when the villains of empire were just normal lizardmen, not pathetic memeboys

G

Huawei ep pls

Jacob

I've been watching to much severance I totally misread this

Iain

Pretty sure you’re thinking of the episode about the Titanic submersible imploding

Normiequeen

Brace you sound a little sick….. let me care for u…

Robin Palmer

These are not deep cuts but they’re classics for a reason so ‘Spy who came in from the cold’ to start off as it’s short and brilliant. Then the Karla trilogy ‘tinker tailor’ ‘honourable schoolboy’ ‘smileys people’ all work well alone but are wonderful as an arc. I love the Smiley/older stuff because the manual tradecraft and the sense of posh old brits fumbling around as they lose their grip on a world that was once theirs makes for a brilliant read. You can’t really go too wrong though, and if you enjoy one LeCarre you’ll likely enjoy it all. I’ve heard Brace mention Le Carre a number of times over the years and have always been curious what his fave is.

Max Fennig

Secret MI6 Twink Farm would be my personal Big Rock Candy Mountain

Timo

Incredible episode!

drewb

He's bringing the gong to Belfast for the 12th

grace

hard time listening to the british :/

A

10/10 ep. And the TTSS BBC series with Alec Guinness is an all-time classic, as is Smiley’s People …

CJ

Especially ones from The Times which is now basically full of anti-"woke" gobshites... Also has always been Tory-heavy and v connected with the British establishment... Gives me a weird vibe with this episode tbh...

Fiddypea

The Sunday Times?

Brian Ward

It's a podcast? 🤔

Jonas

Really enjoyed this episode!!

Christian Bendillo

The guy they’re interviewing wrote a book about this. Did you listen to the episode? Lmao

Alyx Kapoor

as a twinked up god fearing communist, I would absolutely do that

Sunder

Tim Powers’ novel Declare has Kim Philby as a character; strongly recommend if you like World War 2 resistance into Cold War spy craft, and supernatural efforts to control djinn. Features discussions of why Kim Philby owned a pet fox, his miraculous escapes from death. Five stars ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ if you like soldiers succumbing to madness, the heavyside layer, Paris, the Lubyanka, Beirut, Turkey, the division of Berlin, spies, incomprehensible djinn; and Mount Ararat

henry b

I ate a big thick piece of bread whilst listening to this yorkshire

Brennan

pooty tang is comin back in a big way yallll

Juan Mayez

I didn’t know Tim Westwood wrote for the Sunday Times

Chris Atwell

100th comment! lol April Fool’s

Michelle C

Lol this guy's assessment of Americans is so appropriately low

diptherio

Nice Burn After Reading reference at the end there, Liz.

Nick

I liked his accent :)

SH

Anyone have recs for good books on Kim Philby?

Holden Willard

As a guy who’s name is Holden, this was confusing for me

mexicanhalloween .

god, can you imagine the power and the majesty of the Chinese twink farm

Kevin Price

A really fun supplemental reading for this is John LaCarre’s non fiction novella (?) An Unbearable Peace. Its about a Swiss guy who gave up Switzerlands war plans to a soviet agent because he had a lil crush on the agent/wanted the agent to fuck his wife

Robbie

This guy sounds like Konstantin Kisin if he was not evil

Jolene

My favorite Liz commentary was at 1:41:57

n

My private war by Kim Philby

Dick Waglin

Working on the twink farm

DC

@KGBtwinkFarmer

Marina

“Pathetic memeboys” is so iconic and I will be stealing it, bless you

Paul Brewer

For my part, I would be delighted if Brace never did another accent again.

Paul Brewer

Luke Savage’s British accent is way better than Brace’s 🇨🇦

Cameron

Maybe I missed it but does anyone know if the physical book will be released in the US?

Discount Cagliostro

Philby's dad is also an interesting character. Muslim convert and long-time advisor to Ibn Saud

Mr Internet dot biz

Brace just sounds like a constipated Aussie but YC sounds like a proper upper class cad, like he’s about to hop out of the Jag and give some blighter a damn good thrashing with a riding crop.