BBC Radio 4 adaptation of The Russia House by John le Carré—starring Tom Baker as Barley Blair.

The story unfolds during the late Cold War era, amid the thaw of perestroika. Barley, a jazz-loving, hard-drinking British publisher, unexpectedly finds himself drawn into the world of espionage when he receives a mysterious manuscript from Moscow. The document, smuggled out by a Russian woman named Katya, claims to expose the Soviet Union’s nuclear capabilities as a bluff.

Reluctantly recruited by British intelligence (and shadowed by the CIA), Barley is sent back to Moscow to verify the manuscript’s authenticity and make contact with its source. But as he grows closer to Katya, his loyalties shift from the intelligence services to the people caught in the crossfire of geopolitics. What begins as a spy mission becomes a deeply personal journey—one that challenges Barley’s ideals and forces him to choose between duty and love.