Bodmin was alive with Russians at the height of the Cold War when the town became home to a school for spies! Hundreds of Britain's brightest young men came to learn Russian in order to translate Soviet radio transmissions for GCHQ. Playwrights Alan Bennett, Michael Frayn and Dennis Potter were among those who passed through as part of their National Service. Flamboyant Russian lecturers staged avant garde plays in the local church and one even married a local girl.