Nicholas Elliott

Solomon was an old acquaintance who had also known Eileen.

Her testimony gave investigators something more direct than the accumulated suspicions surrounding Burgess and McLean, and helped bring the long argument within British intelligence toward the confrontation between In January 1963, Nicholas Elliot, Philby's friend and former MI6 colleague, questioned him in Beirut.

Elliot offered immunity in return for a full account.

Philby admitted Soviet recruitment and supplied a written statement, but his corporation was calculated and incomplete.

And Gordon, last time we left off with...

Kim, having made this dramatic, really a dramatic showdown with his friend, Nicholas Elliott of MI6 in Beirut, this dramatic flight from Beirut, we, I think, teased a bit where he might have gone.

Listeners may have been able to guess.

But now Kim Philby is ensconced in Moscow.

He's got the Westminster scarf.

And he might talk about being a communist, but you can see them kind of puzzling almost.

And, you know, trying to work out, well, what, you know, what is he really up to? They also wonder, well, did the Brits encourage him to go? You know, the kind of Nicholas Elliott confrontation in Beirut.

They're sitting there going, that was a bit strange.

And I'm Gordon Corera.

And we left off last time with MI6 officer and Kim Philby's friend, Nicholas Elliott, arriving in Beirut to confront Kim in this feels like a final bid to extract a confession from his friend about his past and about his work for Soviet intelligence.

Now, Philby has been in tight spots before.

He's been brought in for questioning, as we discussed in several of the episodes in the series.

So let's set the scene.

The two men shake hands.

Nicholas Elliott asks about the bandage.

Remember, Kim's got this bandage on his head from the...

It's 1960, and things are looking up for Kim Philby in Beirut, and he also has a good friend who's coming to visit him

himThat's right, because Nicholas Elliott, his old pal, his protector at MI6, has been appointed MI6 station chief in Beirut.

[laughs]

What could be better? And on his first day, he sees Philby for lunch.