Cambridge Five spy Guy Burgess interview unearthed by CBC

A lost 1959 interview with infamous Cold War spy Guy Burgess was found in our archives.
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[@DanielHewsonPianist]

Why can't they just play the interview in full & not talk over him?

[@josephtheis5862]

+DHewson Piano agreed!!!! That just drives me insane.

[@sebastianmelmoth685]

Probably still have something to hide.

[@sonjak8265]

Because they want to ridicule him.

[@justaroot4315]

​@sebastianmelmoth685 yep..generational games for/generational wealth by committing generational abuse of hidden heirs' inheritances.

[@garfieldfarkle]

Who not play the entire 9 minute interview, then bring in the commentators? It's not too bright to hide the star of the show.

[@gregcampwriter]

Rather than yammering about the video, why not just show the whole thing?

[@garfieldfarkle]

This show needs to be redone. First, play the whole thing. Then bring in a few experts, say, Christopher Andrew, Ben Macintyre and perhaps a retired MI6 officer to discuss the film rather than make short, superficial, unconnected comments. It was a terrible idea to only play about a minute and a half. A great opportunity was lost.

[@CBCTheNational]

VIDEO: A lost interview with infamous Cold War spy #GuyBurgess has been found in our archives.

[@colinstewart1432]

Yet you chose to constantly interrupt it with meaningless drivel. Should've been a small bit at the beginning to provide context. Then play the film and afterwards the impressions of those watching.

[@patof72clune51]

Ironic now that the CBC.... has become an arm of jdeo-bolshevist propaganda itself..... But don't worry the cbc days are counted as with all things against truth.

[@carolking6355]

Amazing. Thanks for posting

[@alexislavigne4516]

Dear editor...the human eye still need more than half a second to read a name.

[@jamesbowden4871]

And of course the CBC can't be bothered to show us the interview with Burgess in its entirety.

[@esmeephillips5888]

And Guy is billed last on the guest list... after Edith Sitwell and Billy Rose.

[@esmeephillips5888]

Next up: The scandalous story of how CBC managed to mislay footage of such importance for half a century.

[@treesm4479]

They didn't mislay anything.. they just updated the narrative a touch. Now we perhaps have clearer perception of how we are played. Academics pretending, or maybe even believing, its all real. Or just more actors. Burgess for the cold war, snowd on etc for the current era.. And they enjoy rummaging in 'archives'.. real 'journalism' being pretty much non-existent.

[@treesm4479]

They didn't mislay anything.. they just updated the narrative a touch. Now we perhaps have clearer perception of how we are played. Academics pretending, or maybe even believing, its all real. Or just more actors. Burg3ss for the cold war, sn0wd 0n etc for the current era.. And they enjoy rummaging in 'archives'.. real 'journalism' being pretty much non-existent.

[@treesm4479]

Comment as so often disappears.. this is the real situation.. censorship. That way there's no contesting the stories they tell us. I may try again to comment.

[@treesm4479]

They didn't mislay anything.. they just updated the script a touch.

[@treesm4479]

Can't reply.. not even in simple words.. disappears immediately.

[@PopeLando]

I love the "The Day Today"-style over-animated flashy name captions.

[@alastairgordon-forbes3139]

I reckon the BBC was told to ignore it by the government of the day.

[@cacampbell3654]

My mother (Canadian) worked for British Intelligence during WWII in Washington and New York City. I bet she saw this interview and had some understanding of it's implications in 1959! She'd probably get quite a rush over this if she were alive now!

[@keithrogers4170]

I wonder if she could confirm if Roger Hollis was a soviet agent?..she may even have been there when the RCMP and Hollis interviewed soviet defector Igor Gouzenko in 1945...

[@colinstewart1432]

@@keithrogers4170 This is a very murky affair. Hollis & Jane Archer interviewed him and apart from the mysterious ELLI, nothing came of it.

[@keithrogers4170]

@@colinstewart1432 Except that Gouzenko divulged the code names & therefore identities of dozens of soviet agents in Canada and the USA, so this is a proof of the integrity and reliability of his evidence. For this reason, his information about “Elli” should be taken extremely seriously, and in all his unique defining features,”Elli” only corresponds with one security services figure:Roger Hollis.

[@keithrogers4170]

@@colinstewart1432 Also-nothing came of it because Hollis- then head of Mi5 soviet counter-intelligence-suppressed it and tried to discredit it.Funnily enough, he’d been asked to go and interview Gouzenko by Philby-his opposite number in Mi6.Perhaps this indicates collusion between the two most powerful soviet agents in Britain?

[@colinstewart1432]

@@keithrogers4170 Ah yes Philby. His initials were H.A.R.P. he certainly played the Brit Establishment like one. Hollis on the other hand, I was never quite sure if he was a Spy, if he were, it would make sense to send him.

[@Pad_See_Ew]

"The Walrus" and Michael Flynn brought me here...

[@ianreynolds8552]

Half of this vid was taken up by sheer assessment and interrupted by people making assessment.

[@analiensaturn]

Britain didn't want his answers, not in public anyway.

[@system1912]

Wish they just showed the whole interview instead of talk over it and interrupt.

[@jojojojo4332]

fun fact, Doctor who has multiple episodes that are found all throughout places that once where part of the empire, and as a result these tapes are from places such as tanzania and transfered back to the bbc in britian

[@allthewarsintheworld1823]

skip to 5:00

[@jamesbernie9465]

I was amused when she said the Reform was ‘once a gentleman’s’ club’. I think that some of the current members think it still is.

[@esmeephillips5888]

Probably means it has gone co-ed.

[@billbarrett6285]

Unstable? He had no trouble outwitting British intelligence did he?

[@of5458]

He did so with the help of several other traitors.

[@marekohampton8477]

I have a signed copy of "Don't Shoot The Yanqui" by Erik Durschmied, that I picked up in a charity shop in 1996 for about £1. Brilliant book. I'd never heard of Durschmied before, but upon reading the book, I realised I had watched many of his reports and documentaries on TV all through the 1970s and early 80s.

[@oldtimer7635]

8:06 Simple, they wanted to forget the whole thing, it was way too embarrassing!

[@BelatedCommiseration]

Yeah...for God's sake...why do these anchor people love the sound of their own voice so much that they can't just shut up for a few minutes and let us hear the whole interview! Its maddening...I want to hear what Guy Burgess had to say, not some vacuous blonde bint prattling on with her own summery in the background! Burgess is a fascinating character...and it seems to counter intuitive to me what he did to who he was! He needn't even defected as impetuously as he did, and in fact caused Philby problems and damaged his own cause by so doing. Also, he seemed the most ineffably english of them all. Ideally suited to the whole backroom english club world in which he moved...and he was so miserable when he ended up in Russia because he was away from all that sustained him in that world! It seems madness for him especially to have done it...whether he truely believed in a socialist creed or not (which, given his lifestyle and habits, I sort of doubt...but then...maybe people need to prove something to themselves...especially if they have that imp of the perverse in them!)

[@cacampbell3654]

Adrienne Arsenault is not, never has been, never will be a "vacuous blonde bint"! She is one of Canada's most courageous, committed, progressive, intelligent and distinguished journalists. The fact that you would feel entitled to define her as such, and in a public forum, says far far more about you than it does anything about her.

[@BelatedCommiseration]

C A Campbell She may very well be all those things you mentioned...but it still doesn't necessarily rule out her liking the sound of her own voice...or from offering inane commentary in this particular segment, over the top of the actual news story itself. I suppose its not very nice to call anyone a vacuous blonde bint...but I was an expressing a genuine frustration at the format of a lot of news, where even in something of historical interest, there is still this agenda which feels the need to 'explain' or interpret the news to what it must view as the dumb masses, rather than simply presenting the news so that people can make up their own minds. Also, you must agree, your Adrienne Arsenault does, in how she looks and talks, does suffer somewhat from the oft cited TV anchor 'clone' syndrome...just another blandly attractive face offering bland analysis rather than letting me hear the opinion of a genuinely interesting historical figure like Anthony Burgess, whom they admit did very few actual interviews, and spoil it by talking over most of what he had to say!

[@stephenmcdonald664]

I absolutely agree. Good comment. This interview would have been historically interesting but obviously CBC is more interesting in self-promotion. Shame on them.

[@stephenmcdonald664]

'Courageous??' Christ...give us a break!

[@stephenmcdonald664]

I could not agree more and I think the title 'vacuous blonde' is accurate. However, the fault is with the CBC in how they presented the story. The story is the actual interview with Burgess. So, let's watch the interview...in full...uninterrupted.

[@fredhoupt4078]

Too funny. In Canada you say? Pity....remember that line? Good heavens....too funny.

[@mandykhoo2473]

He brought his swimming trunks

[@odobrovolskiy87]

They had "Skype" in 1959?

[@spib65]

let's hear him then! for heavens sake

[@esmeephillips5888]

We got around one minute of a nine-minute interview.

[@peterheide2019]

Is it to be found without those smirking upperclass twits ?

[@cosmicmusicreynolds3266]

I just wanted to see the interview with Burgess not the bullshit comments from jounaliist Let us make up are own minds

[@clearcreek69]

Could The National finally give us the truth about the Avro Arrow. Canadians want to know.

[@gniewomirbartoszewski6835]

Some say they where heroes.... funny He would be a real comi hero if he went to ussr and build socialism by hes own hands. I think they were fools and when the understood they're error it was to late to withdraw, from thad moment they've become traitor's. I would give some money to see their look when they understood how in fact the communism looks like. Also we need to remember thad during II WW, there were many peoples thad flet from soviets and they described how communism looks like. Cambridge spy's weren't children, they know how things looked like behind the iron curtain. Sry for my Eng.

[@jeremyclapham394]

I see him there in the company of that voracious and predatory homosexual, Tom Driberg, (what that fellow got up to would make your eyes water) I need see no more.

[@cyberhermit1222]

And Lord Rothschild

[@guyimagine534]

I would imagine he initially believed the hype and then only found out further down the line that he was literally buggered and in a nightmarish situation.

[@guyimagine534]

Yag Shemash I'd say Stalinism trumps on the misery score.

[@guyimagine534]

Yag Shemash Yeah, you would’ve gone with ‘Malenkov’ who declared that the 900-day-long defence of St Petersburg “a myth designed by anti-Soviet traitors trying to diminish the greatness of comrade Stalin.”

[@guyimagine534]

Yag Shemash Famines purges gulags which led to millions of deaths are all accomplishments of Soviet socialism. Vasily Blokhin was an exemplar of your workers paradise.

[@guyimagine534]

Yag Shemash Well pardon me, but if i can't speak my mind for fear of death then that's a pretty miserable state of affairs! Soviets and Nazi's are two sides of the same coin.

[@guyimagine534]

Yag Shemash Would you prefer it if I substitute Lenin for Soviet then?

[@christopherfritz2834]

Just came to this after finishing chapter 39 of "Stalin's Englishman". Dammit! They couldn't view the part where they asked "What is your life like?". Read the book for his answer..

[@dianamincher6479]

Many thanks!

[@mrpeel3239]

What was the host's name?

[@w108dab1]

WHY IN THE HELL would anyone ever betray their country for the Soviet Union ???!!!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

[@TheRightONe-et3gh]

Because he was a good man and wanted to fight evil.

[@craigmignone2863]

Burgess was a sophomoric toffee-nosed twit and killer somehow I feel he would have fit well in the U.S. State department...........

[@Marzy5821]

A pint of Bitter and watch some cricket it never fully goes away.

[@fredshred5194]

They didn't drink pints, that was for the plebs, they were elitist snobs that thought the sun shine out their arse.

[@ianreynolds1264]

This recording has been deliberately put away and only by chance not destroyed. There are probably more that have been. Think carefully as many don t want this man to have been heard.

[@josephtheis5862]

+Ian Reynolds exactly my thought. I wouldn't doubt if the BBC were the ones to hide it in the first place considering he worked for them!

[@billthestinker]

Amazing that old Guy didn’t end up in the fruit cellar

[@lucasgrey9794]

Treason against Britain and the U.S is a good thing. "Traitors" to Britain and America are heroes to every country those two disgusting nations have victimised.

[@jonathanbywater2063]

A rather comical interview. Clipped accent, old school tie, pompous attitude then claims to be a socialist. No wonder he spent most of his life drunk.

[@ianreynolds8552]

I think burgess gave up every fighting fascism

[@koaasst]

this was a more USA vs Russia by proxy of Britain the more i study it. they must have thought Russia would win in a war against America,and world war 3 was about to drag everyone down the hole. i dont think they had malice for Britain, they just wanted to aid who they thought would be the victors.

[@marycahill546]

Quite a coup for CBC. Congratulations.

[@uttaradit2]

burgess is surrounded by 2nd raters and hopeless doubters here

[@paulmitford5189]

Waste of time.

[@edcrowley3666]

Amazing Guy. Too good for England.

[@lucasgrey9794]

Exactly! Treason against Britain and the U.S is a good thing. "Traitors" to Britain and America are heroes to every country those two disgusting nations have victimised.

[@sebastianmelmoth685]

So, blah-blah-blah - no interview. Very unhelpful.

[@ianreynolds8552]

Listen

[@winstonmaraj8029]

Am so sorry that most of them did not make it to see that we won the Cold War. But I am IMMENSLY pleased that Good Ole Aunt Sonia did see all her (and others) work turn to ashes.

[@spencada]

Burgess was a hero that changed his whole life for his ideas. None of those people sitting on that couch watching him and smirking would have had the guts to do what he did.

[@markpage9886]

He betrayed those who believed in him. He was trusted. He was defended.

[@gniewomirbartoszewski6835]

He would be a real comi hero if he went to ussr and build socialism by hes own hands. I think they were fools and when the understood they're error it was to late to withdraw, from thad moment they've become traitor's.

[@Cesarc2]

Burgess fue un homosexual borracho y traidor a su país.

[@morepewpew6721]

Ho hum. What more, I suppose, can one expect from the appalling American media. The main criticism seems to be Burgess's membership of the British upper middle class. Something most Americans, especially the wealthy, envy and aspire to but, to their well known and longstanding frustration, will never achieve.

[@herbertwells8757]

I jumped to the actual Burgess video, so I don't know what the "main criticism" HERE is, but the main criticism elsewhere is that Burgess, Maclean, and Philby gave the Soviets zillions of British and American secrets directly leading to the deaths of hundreds or thousands of people. I don't consider that a "ho hum" matter.

[@sandrabrown427]

LOL. Don't think so. Even Americans of the lower classes would NEVER bow to a German family. You twat.

[@ianreynolds8552]

Guy Burgess was a fighter of fascism even though the country he saw as anti fascist had extremes of its own

[@erniemccracken2429]

Better to be a fighter of both forms of authoritarianism, whether fascism or communism.

[@jeremyclapham394]

I see him there in the company of that voracious and predatory homosexual, Tom Driberg, (what that fellow got up to would make your eyes water) I need see no more.

[@stephenmcdonald664]

From what I've read, Driberg was an unstable person. I'm quite surprised that Lord Beaverbrook would hire him to write his biography. Puzzling.

[@RW-kp3wr]

predatory homosexual? wtf

[@chestrockwell6547]

@@stephenmcdonald664 ko