In April 1980, a group of armed men invaded the Iranian Embassy in London, taking hostages, and issuing demands in the name of a cause almost no one had ever heard of.

The 'Group of the Martyr', a collection of Iranian Arabs, wanted independence for their province of Iran, but their demands were impossible for the British Government to meet, and so the then-little known Special Air Service (SAS) were told to plan an invasion of the building to rescue the hostages.

They had taken 26 people hostage, including staff, visitors and a police officer named Trevor who was guarding the building at the time of the attack.

What followed was a six-day siege, that was eventually broken by the SAS.

Their storming of the embassy galvanised the world, as people watched it all unfold on live television.

Historian and author Ben McIntyre takes a deeper look at this dramatic siege and rescue operation, uncovering the real, powerful story of ordinary people responding as best they could to lethal jeopardy.

Further information

The Siege is published by Penguin Random House.

This episode was recorded live at the 2025 Sydney Writers' Festival.

It explores Iran, Tehran, terrorism, violence, threats, diplomacy, rescue missions, epic history, western democracy, dictatorship, foreign affairs, global politics, east vs west, occupation, war, civil war, BBC, journalism, live television, media ethics, Afrouz, MI5, Hyde Park, surveillance, Stockholm Syndrome, Mustapha Karkouti, Syria, Operation Nimrod, Jassim Alwan al-Nasiri, Abbas Lavasani, murder, execution, Saddam Hussein, Iraq, Iran-Iraq War, the Middle East, history books, writing.

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