Hi. Mark here for the
Kensington Minute.
As brilliant as he was flamboyant, Guy Burgess was the subject of many books and several movies. At Eton College and then at Trinity College, Cambridge he was the center of gay student life. He was never in the closet about his homosexuality but became very quiet about his scarlet politics at the BBC. From there he joined British Intelligence and service competently and enthusiastically during World War Two.
He was now a committed communist and a spy for the Soviet Union. He joined the Foreign Office after the war and shot through the ranks quickly to nobody’s surprise. But he began to decompose emotionally and to drink incessantly. And he was not a good drunk. His lack of sobriety caught the attention of his superiors who disciplined him several times. Finally, he was recalled from his post in Washington DC. In London, he, with fellow spy Donald Maclean defected to the Soviet Union.
Proletarian life did not agree with him in Moscow. He was lonely and drunk most of the time. He missed high tea and cricket and often sported his Eton old school tie. Alan Bennet wrote a play about an chance encounter he had with a traveling British actress. What was the name of the play and movie?
If you said An Englishman Abroad, then, by jove, you would have been correct. Alan Bates played Burgess and John Schlesinger directed it. Pauline Kael opined that the film was “the finest hour of television I’ve ever seen.” This film won a slew of awards. You might also be interested in the BBC series Cambridge Spies. Please take the Kensington Challenge at Kensington Security Consulting. Out here.
