Intrigue

4.7 (16K) · SOCIETY & CULTURE · UPDATED WEEKLY

Extraordinary stories from around the world, told by the BBC World Service. Each series follows a single story — espionage, conspiracy, or extraordinary human drama — across multiple episodes.

5D AGO

Series 9, Episode 8: The Reckoning — What Happens After a Spy Is Caught

The final episode of Series 9, following the extraordinary story of a British intelligence officer who passed secrets to Moscow for twelve years. This episode examines the aftermath of his arrest, the diplomatic fallout, and the question that haunts everyone who knew him: how did none of us see it?

12D AGO

Series 9, Episode 7: The Exfiltration

The operation to extract a burned asset from Moscow was one of the most complex intelligence operations of the decade. Using newly declassified information and interviews with retired operatives, this episode reconstructs the 96-hour operation that ended in an airport in Helsinki.

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Intrigue Archive: The Full Uncut Interviews from Series 7

Unedited interview recordings from our most acclaimed series — the story of the Singapore banking fraud. Includes interviews that didn't make the final edit, including a 40-minute conversation with the prosecutor who finally brought charges.

26D AGO

Series 9, Episode 6: The Lies He Told

A portrait of the spy at the center of this season — the man himself. His former colleagues describe a charming, brilliant officer who seemed completely reliable. His family describes a husband and father who traveled constantly and asked them not to ask questions about where.

33D AGO

Series 9, Episode 5: The Money

The financial forensics of a spy case are always revealing. This episode follows the money that Moscow paid for intelligence — the offshore accounts, the cash drops, the unexplained wealth that colleagues noticed and HR never investigated.

40D AGO

Series 9, Episode 4: Suspicion

The counterintelligence officers who eventually identified the mole describe the process of narrowing a field of several hundred suspects to one. The investigation took three years. The specific tell that finally broke the case open is more mundane than any spy thriller would allow.

47D AGO

Series 9, Episode 3: First Contact

How do you approach Russian intelligence if you want to sell secrets? The answer, it turns out, is surprisingly straightforward. This episode follows the initial contact between the mole and his handlers — the dead drops, the coded messages, and the specific moment he passed his first document.

54D AGO

Series 9, Episode 2: The Disillusionment

Why does a loyal intelligence officer become a traitor? The psychological literature on this is substantial and surprising. This episode examines the specific grievances — real and perceived — that turned a decorated officer into Moscow's most productive asset in Western Europe.

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Hosts & Guests

Georgia CattHost & Series Producer

4.7

out of 5

16K Ratings

The BBC at its absolute best

The BBC World Service has resources no other podcast producer can match, and Intrigue uses every single one of them. The access, the reporting, the production quality — this is what narrative journalism looks like when done at the highest level.

BBCListener · Mar 6, 2026

Better than any spy thriller

I read spy fiction compulsively and nothing I've read this year has been as compelling as Intrigue Series 9. Real intelligence stories are always more interesting than fiction because the people in them are completely human — which fictional spies never quite are.

SpyFictionFan · Feb 21, 2026

Genuinely essential journalism

Intrigue isn't just entertainment — it's important journalism about how states actually operate and what happens at the intersection of loyalty, ideology, and money. The BBC World Service is a national treasure and Intrigue is one of its best products.

GlobalJournalism · Feb 6, 2026

About

Intrigue is the BBC World Service's flagship narrative podcast series. Each series tells a single extraordinary story in depth — stories of spies and double agents, of conspiracies uncovered and crimes unpunished, of people caught in the machinery of geopolitics and history. The BBC World Service has reporters in more countries than any other news organization, and Intrigue draws on that global network to tell stories that simply cannot be told from a single national perspective. Past seasons have covered Russian intelligence operations in London, a billion-dollar corporate fraud in Southeast Asia, and the story of the world's most successful con man. Each season is a masterclass in narrative journalism.