Membership is informal. Discretion is not.
In this on-location series, Angus Blair and David Ludlow take you inside the real rooms where espionage history was made — the corner tables, hotel suites, smoky clubs and quiet side streets where spies exchanged envelopes and empires quietly shifted.
These are not fictional thrillers. These are the real stories of charming traitors, elegant double agents and the cities that made them.
New city. New spy. Same bad behaviour.
Meet us in the lobby.
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Join us and our guest Dr Patrick Bury, counter terrorism specialist and former soldier, as we explore the fair city and examine how Collins built his legendary intelligence operation under the noses of the British during the Irish War of Independence.
For further background on this and all episodes of Spy Cities please check out https://www.spycities.com/Episodes (https://www.spycities.com/Episodes)
We’d love to hear your feedback. Please drop us a message - coded or not - to Control@spycities.com (mailto:Control@spycities.com)’
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28 Oct 2026
Spy Cities: Geneva
Geneva: The Early Days of Spy Fiction.
Somerset Maugham, the 20th century British writer, drew on his First World War experiences as a British agent in Geneva when he created one of the early heroes of espionage fiction - Ashenden. We travel in his footsteps in the company of a former British intelligence officer.
For further background on this and all episodes of Spy Cities please check out https://www.spycities.com/Episodes (https://www.spycities.com/Episodes)
We’d love to hear your feedback. Please drop us a message - coded or not - to Control@spycities.com (mailto:Control@spycities.com)’
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14 Oct 2026
Spy Cities: Season Two Trailer
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30 Sept 2026
Spy Cities: Season Mid-break Q&A
We caught up with hosts Angus and Hove after they'd visited a dead drop location during the season break. They produced a sheet of questions from our listeners and here we gain some fascinating insights into their favourite drinks, hotels and places that we've visited throughout season one of Spy Cities.
For further background on this and all episodes of Spy Cities please check out https://www.spycities.com/Episodes (https://www.spycities.com/Episodes)
We’d love to hear your feedback. Please drop us a message - coded or not - to Control@spycities.com (mailto:Control@spycities.com)’
This has been a Chatterbox Audio Production https://chatterboxaudio.com/ (https://chatterboxaudio.com/)
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9 Sept 2026
Spy Cities: Prague
PRAGUE: CARLOS THE JACKAL AND THE COLD WAR SECRET POLICE
In Cold War Prague, capital of communist Czechoslovakia, sanctuary was offered to Carlos the Jackal and a group of unstable Palestinian militants. The Czechoslovak secret police lived to regret it. Dr Daniela Richterova, author of the groundbreaking Watching the Jackals, guides us through this extraordinary Cold War espionage story, set against the beautiful medieval streets of Prague.
For further background on this and all episodes of Spy Cities please check out https://www.spycities.com/Episodes (https://www.spycities.com/Episodes)
We’d love to hear your feedback. Please drop us a message - coded or not - to Control@spycities.com (mailto:Control@spycities.com)’
This has been a Chatterbox Audio Production https://chatterboxaudio.com/ (https://chatterboxaudio.com/)
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2 Sept 2026
Spy Cities: Shanghai
SHANGHAI: SPIES, SORGE AND THE PRE-REVOLUTIONARY UNDERWORLD
Step back into the espionage underworld of 1920s and 30s Shanghai, one of the most dangerous and lawless cities on earth. Our guide is Mark Logan, former British Member of Parliament, Shanghai-based diplomat and fluent Mandarin speaker. We track down the spies who worked this treacherous ground: future premier Zhou Enlai, Soviet master agent Richard Sorge, a young Wallis Simpson, and Ursula Kuczynski (Agent Sonya). This is the spy history that shaped modern China.
For further background on this and all episodes of Spy Cities please check out https://www.spycities.com/Episodes (https://www.spycities.com/Episodes)
We’d love to hear your feedback. Please drop us a message - coded or not - to Control@spycities.com (mailto:Control@spycities.com)’
This has been a Chatterbox Audio Production https://chatterboxaudio.com/ (https://chatterboxaudio.com/)
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26 Aug 2026
Spy Cities: The Hague and Haarlem
NETHERLANDS: THE DUTCH RESISTANCE FIGHTS BACK AGAINST THE NAZIS
Stand on the beach where a real James Bond-style landing took place — dinner jacket worn under a wetsuit. Take breakfast at the Konditorei whose Jewish owner ran a dead-letter drop for MI6 at the outbreak of war. Then cycle the calm lanes of picturesque Haarlem, where teenage sisters Truus and Freddie Oversteegen assassinated German officers and their Dutch collaborators.
For further background on this and all episodes of Spy Cities please check out https://www.spycities.com/Episodes (https://www.spycities.com/Episodes)
We’d love to hear your feedback. Please drop us a message - coded or not - to Control@spycities.com (mailto:Control@spycities.com)’
This has been a Chatterbox Audio Production https://chatterboxaudio.com/ (https://chatterboxaudio.com/)
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy (https://acast.com/privacy) for more information.
19 Aug 2026
Spy Cities: The Hague and Venlo
THE HAGUE & VENLO: BRITAIN’S GREATEST INTELLIGENCE DISASTER?
The 1939 Venlo Incident - the Gestapo’s kidnapping of two British MI6 officers on the Dutch–German border - remains one of the Allies’ greatest intelligence disasters of the Second World War. The German Englandspiel radio deception, run out of The Hague, only deepened the catastrophe. Join us as we investigate the background, and explore some intriguing locations pointed out by our contacts in Dutch intelligence…
For further background on this and all episodes of Spy Cities please check out https://www.spycities.com/Episodes (https://www.spycities.com/Episodes)
We’d love to hear your feedback. Please drop us a message - coded or not - to Control@spycities.com (mailto:Control@spycities.com)’
This has been a Chatterbox Audio Production https://chatterboxaudio.com/ (https://chatterboxaudio.com/)
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12 Aug 2026
Spy Cities: Tangier
TANGIER: SHADY PEOPLE IN A SUNNY PLACE
Gibraltar’s southern twin among WWII espionage hubs, this ancient Moroccan port city has seen it all. One OSS officer branded it a “nest of vipers,” and Ian Fleming stayed at the El Minzah Hotel in 1941 while planning Operation Goldeneye. A visit to the chaotic Grand Socco is a must: this was the beating heart of the Tangier International Zone (1924–1956), where spies of every stripe operated with impunity.
For further background on this and all episodes of Spy Cities please check out https://www.spycities.com/Episodes (https://www.spycities.com/Episodes)
We’d love to hear your feedback. Please drop us a message - coded or not - to Control@spycities.com (mailto:Control@spycities.com)’
This has been a Chatterbox Audio Production https://chatterboxaudio.com/ (https://chatterboxaudio.com/)
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5 Aug 2026
Spy Cities: Gibraltar
GIBRALTAR: SPIES ON THE ROCK
Guarding the Strait of Gibraltar — the all-important sea lane linking the North Atlantic to the Mediterranean — this tiny relic of the British Empire hides a labyrinth of wartime secrets in its tunnels and fortifications. A WWII espionage playground for British SOE commandos, German Abwehr agents and daring Italian frogmen, the narrow streets beneath the towering Rock of Gibraltar are still redolent of intrigue, sabotage and deception.
For further background on this and all episodes of Spy Cities please check out https://www.spycities.com/Episodes (https://www.spycities.com/Episodes)
We’d love to hear your feedback. Please drop us a message - coded or not - to Control@spycities.com (mailto:Control@spycities.com)’
This has been a Chatterbox Audio Production https://chatterboxaudio.com/ (https://chatterboxaudio.com/)
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29 Jul 2026
Spy Cities: London Part Two
LONDON: THE DOWNFALL OF THE CAMBRIDGE FIVE
75 years on from the flight of Donald Maclean and Guy Burgess to the Soviet Union, we follow their alcohol fuelled final days in London. From upmarket hotels to station bars; from sophisticated gentlemen's clubs to louche night clubs. A tale of conspicuous consumption...
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22 Jul 2026
Spy Cities: Berlin
Germany · 1961–1989
Checkpoints, tunnels and the cafés along the Wall where East and West watched each other over the same cup of coffee.
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15 Jul 2026
Spy Cities: Washington
Cold War & after
Dead drops in suburban parks and long lunches near Langley, where America’s most damaging moles sold the store one envelope at a time.
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8 Jul 2026
Spy Cities: Istanbul
Türkiye · the long game
Two continents, one Orient Express platform, and a hotel bar where half the room was reporting on the other half.
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1 Jul 2026
Spy Cities: Lisbon
Portugal · 1939–1945
Neutral, sun-drenched and crawling with agents. We check into the casino at Estoril where every table was a listening post.
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24 Jun 2026
Spy Cities: London
The Spying Starts Here
Where the modern game was invented and professionalised.
In episode one of Spy Cities come and walk with us around the streets of London where we'll share stories of fact and fiction, and maybe a cocktail or two...
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10 Jun 2026
Spy Cities: Trailer
We’re Angus Blair and David Ludlow. We met at Cambridge at a time when a discreet chat over a sherry with a well connected tutor or an intriguing letter in your pigeon hole were still key entry points to the secret world.
We chose a safer life… and then decided to spend it retracing the footsteps of people who didn’t.
In this series, we’re travelling to the world’s great espionage capitals visiting the real bars, hotels, safe houses and backstreets where spies lied, flirted, betrayed and occasionally changed history.
From the Cambridge Five to Mata Hari, from double agents to double-crosses we’re meeting them where it all happened.
Pull up a chair. Just don’t say who sent you.
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Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.
Apple Podcasts (US)
3.5 / 5
2 ratings
Spotify
5.0 / 5
11 ratings
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