"It's clear that Burgess was a louche, hard drinking, dishevelled, outrageous man."
So says BBC Historian Jean Seaton of the picture that emerges of Cambridge spy Guy Burgess from previously unreleased documents published by BBC Archive. The memos, letters and expenses claims are from Burgess's early career while employed at the BBC.
While the documents touch on things like Burgess's unhappiness with his salary and the questioning of his expenses, they also paint a picture of a long-gone much more genteel office world of tea trolleys and unreturned library books.
BBC Archive's other new collection, The Cambridge Spies, covers the gradual exposure of the Cambridge spies over four decades through a fascinating selection of TV and radio programmes.
- Times Online: Guy Burgess 'exploited BBC expenses to make himself a better spy'
- Today Programme: Spy Burgess's documents released
- See all the BBC Archive Collections here.
Paul Murphy is the Editor of the Internet Blog.
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"It's clear that Burgess was a louche, hard drinking, dishevelled, outrageous man."
Good. We need more people like him employed by the BBC, instead of the "namby-pamby leftest wenches" we have now.
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"Good. We need more people like him [Guy Burgess] employed by the BBC, instead of the "namby-pamby leftest wenches" we have now."
I really am not sure if that was meant to be a highly ironic comment or just a comment from someone who doesn't actually know who Guy Burgess was (not completely clear from the blog above if people don't already know, "Cambridge spy" doesn't really tell half the story)!...
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