March 1, 1990. The week before Wynne entered Hungary, Penkovsky was captured by the Soviet Union. ", Benedict Cumberbatch on 'The Courier' and update on 'Dr. Childhood pictures of Cumberbatch at a similar age prove why Keir was the perfect fit and he is now appearing as the son of his 45-year-old doppelganger in Cold War thriller The Courier. He and his wife Sheila divorced not long after his release. In researching The Courier true story, we discovered that in exchange for sharing restricted information, Soviet intelligence officer Oleg Penkovsky requested citizenship and military rank in either the U.S.A. or Great Britain. The way they put it, I felt there was no possibility and then I suddenly found myself in an aeroplane and I arrived at East Berlin.. He claims that Penkovsky had been questioned probably 100 times before being shot and cremated. In the movie, they arrest Penkovsky shortly after discovering he was a double agent. In November 1960, Greville Wynne, a 41-year-old British businessman, sat down for a lunch that would change his life. However, in real life, IRONBARK was the codename for the documents that Soviet double agent Oleg Penkovsky had been passing to the CIA. Single use in context. He was senior enough that you could sit down with the agents for hours and explain the entire context of how Soviet intelligence worked.. He later appeared as himself on the May 23, 1967 episode of the American game show To Tell the Truth. Even the official accounts put out by American and Russian authorities regarding the Penkovsky affair include disinformation and spin that he, or any historian, has to navigate through. He was 71. Greville Maynard Wynne (19 March 1919[2] 28 February 1990) was a British engineer and businessman recruited by MI6 because of his frequent travel to Eastern Europe. Greville Wynne is a legend in the history books and his family has also benefited from it. His first wife, Sheila, was present throughout his Moscow trial but divorced him after his release. He did make a life for himself, but Greville Wynne did pay a big price for his service. , updated Mild-mannered salesman Greville Wynne was recruited by MI6 to work with a Soviet double agent on secret missions across the Iron Curtain and now his story is being told in new movie The Courier. But what he did want was to protect his wife and son. Watch an interview with British spy Greville Wynne upon his release from the Soviet prison. His second wife, whom he married in 1970, was Herma van Buren, his constant companion, secretary and interpreter who spoke eight languages. OConnor makes clear that The Courier is not a documentary, even as he explains that he took pains to stick to the facts as much as they could be ascertaineddrawing on works such as Jerrold L. Shecter and Peter S. Deriabins The Spy Who Saved the World: How a Soviet Colonel Changed the Course of the Cold War and other accounts that could be trusted more than Wynnes own inventions. Greville Wynne was a British businessman who had a liking for the drink and the ability to travel between countries without question. This was an encounter that would propel Wynne into a dangerous shadowy world of espionage and on a breathtaking adventure that ultimately helped prevent World War III from breaking out. Therefore, the lives of Andrew and Sheila remained quite private whilst Grevilles activity was broadcasted all around the world. He was asked to bring back crucial intelligence from a Soviet double agent keen to hand Russias darkest secrets to the West. His dining companion, Dickie Franks, revealed himself to be an officer of the British Secret Intelligence Service, also known as MI6, and asked Wynne for his help. He loves his mum too. But his leaked information on Soviet missile capabilities and played a key role in President Kennedy'sstrong, successful stance duringthe Cuban Missile Crisis. Destructive 'Super Pigs' From Canada Threaten the Northern U.S. When it came to writing the screenplay, OConnor laments that the true story of Wynnes experiences may never be known. Khruschev later backed off and ordered the Soviet missiles returned to the Soviet Union after President John F. Kennedy ordered a naval quarantine of Cuba. Greville passed away. Please include what you were doing when this page came up and the Cloudflare Ray ID found at the bottom of this page. Hes such a nice character. Penkovsky gave a huge amount of details about what missiles the Soviets had, how old they were, how there were queues for foodit was an extremely vivid portrait of the country and the people within intelligence, says Duns. Among the explanations are a desire for money or fame, a ruinous case of alcoholism, or perhaps even psychological scars left by his time in Soviet prison or the shame he felt for publicly turning against British intelligence during the trial. An NSA employee-turned-Soviet Spy named Jack Dunlap revealed Penkovsky's treasonous activities to the KGB, despite the KGB having already known about the betrayal. 01:26 GMT 14 Aug 2021. The 12-year-old bears an uncanny resemblance to Benedict Cumberbatch, which caught the eye of the casting director on the Hollywood stars latest film. But as he began researching Wynnes story, he learned that this ordinary man could also tell some extraordinary lies. He appeared on US game show To Tell The Truth. Benedict Cumberbatch: Battled mystery flu, fake crew cut facing Jodie Foster in 'The Mauritanian'. Data security and recovery solutions. The action you just performed triggered the security solution. David Calder played Wynne in the 1985 BBC serial Wynne and Penkovsky. An on this day article from the BBC reveals that Wynne joked to his wife after the sentencing, stating that he didnt expect his time in prison to be a Butlins holiday camp. 0.06 2. Keir told the Daily Mail: My mum chatted to the casting director and said I look a lot like Benedict Cumberbatch, so they asked me for a video of myself, which I did in a cloakroom, and they eventually asked me in for a recall in person and I got the role.. Strange sequel. Wynne left The Ivy restaurant in Seven Dials that day probably wondering what hed let himself in for. The Wynne-Penkovsky coalition kickstarted one of the most covert operations in Cold War history. West maintains that its the result of something all too typical in the intelligence communitywhat he calls post-usefulness syndrome., Imagine that I recruit you and I tell you that whatever you report to me, within an hour, it will be on the presidents desk. Copyright FameChain 2023, All rights reserved. He and his wife Sheila divorced, and Wynne became estranged from his son and only child, Andrew. Cookie Settings, Liam Daniel, Courtesy of Lionsgate and Roadside Attractions, The Santa Claus Man: The Rise and Fall of a Jazz Age Con Man and the Invention of Christmas in New York. Budding actor Keir Hills might have a twin, but theres someone else someone rather famous whos the spitting image of him. He preceded this book with The Man from Moscow: The Story Of . While Angus Wright's character, MI6 agent Dickie Franks, was indeed a real person who worked for Britain's Secret Intelligence Service, according to his 2008 obituary in The Independent, he had nothing to do with the recruitment of civilian Greville Wynne and the claim that he did is based on incorrect reports in the press. | Benedict Cumberbatch lurks in the shadows in The Courier, Greville Wynne in 1964 after being freed from a Russian jail, Greville Wynne when he was arrested for espionage in Budapest in 1962, Greville Wynne pictured at Northolt Airport surrounded by press and police, after his release from a Russian jail, Spy equipment taken from Soviet scientific worker Oleg Penkovsky when the Russians caught him, The Courier tells the true story of espionage behind Russian lines. The man sitting across the table from him revealed he worked for MI6 and that 41-year-old Wynnes frequent trips to Eastern Europe selling British electrical engineering parts to industrial companies would be the perfect cover for a job the secret service needed doing. [12] In April 1964, amid British concerns for his deteriorating health,[6] Wynne was released in exchange for the Soviet spy Konon Molody (also known as Gordon Lonsdale).[13]. We hope you have enjoyed our insight into the story of British spy Greville Wynne and that you have learned about this Cold War story. Speaking about the moment he realised the game was up, Wynne recalled: Four men had appeared as if by magic. Liam Daniel, Courtesy of Lionsgate and Roadside Attractions. Wynne and Penkovsky engage in bland business banter while Wynne's wife (Jessie Buckley) assumes his new secretiveness is to cover up an affair. In The Courier, he plays Andrew, son of Greville Wynne, a real-life businessman who was recruited by MI6 as a spy. For example, his obituaries in The Guardian, The Telegraph and The Times all claim that he did recruit the businessman Greville Wynne, which according to The Independent is false. In Greville Wynne's 1981 book The Man from Odessa, Wynne claims that Penkovsky committed suicide in a Soviet labor camp. Cumberbatch, whose mother is actress Wanda Ventham, is best known for playing Sherlock in the BBC drama and Alan Turing in The Imitation Game. [4], After the Second World War, he traded in electrical equipment, travelling often through Europe and India. They had to go through a show trial, basically, so on the stand Wynne accused MI6 of using him as a dupehe may have just been saying whatever he could say because he worried they might execute him, says Jeremy Duns, an author of several spy novels set during the Cold War as well as the history book Codename: Hero: The True Story of Oleg Penkovsky and the Cold Wars Most Dangerous Operation. Andrew and Sheila lived in Britain whilst Greville served his prison sentence in Moscow. Penkovsky and Wynnes spy activity produced mountains of information, would go on to play a role in the cuban missile crisis, and subsequently lead to their conviction in 1963. [7], Wynne's and Penkovsky's espionage activities were discovered by the KGB. Ameeting between theRussian prisoners, in which Wynne tellsPenkovsky of the import of his information, asdepicted in the film, is drama. "Most experts agreethat what Penkovsky provided on the Soviet's capabilities was extremely useful during the Cuban Missile crisis," saysRobert English, director of Central European Studies at the University of Southern California. At the time, they were largely accepted at face value and sold well. Despite what hed been through, Wynne head shaved while in prison still managed to joke in an interview that the style was the prisons interpretation of a haircut. Benedict Cumberbatch delivers an appealing, technically tricky performance in "The Courier," in which he plays Greville Wynne, a British salesman who in the 1960s became an improbable player . They had one son. Copyright 2023 HistoryvsHollywood.com, CTF Media, Greville Wynne Interview & Related Videos, Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile. Wynne was a middle-class British businessman whose frequent travel to Eastern Europe attracted recruitment by MI-6 to serve as a liaison to high-ranking Soviet official Penkovsky. "And Greville played a big part in that.". During their visits, Penkovsky and Wynne would get out on the town, visiting restaurants, nightclubs and shops under the cover of talking business, with each man proudly showing the other around his home country. Greville Wynne's former partners: . He had just finished a successful day pouring. This Cold War story centers around the spying in the 1960s and, in particular, tensions between Britain/America and Soviet Union. He was 71. [13] He died of throat cancer at the Cromwell Hospital in London on 28 February 1990, aged 70. However, that claim seems unlikely to be true. a divorce from his wife and estrangement from his son, Wynne initially played along with . The film mentions a previous affair, which is part of the reason Sheila is suspicious this time. He was detained at Lubyanka prison. Wynne went along, slightly concerned about whether Penkovsky was on the level and concerned about putting himself into a dangerous situation, kicking off what would be one of the most productive clandestine operations in Cold War history. PC monitoring devices to assist in uncovering the truth. Both Wynne and Penkovsky were convicted of espionage. 113.23.219.119 The almost universally accepted version of events is that Oleg Penkovsky was executed in 1963 for providing top-secret information to the United Kingdom. The President of the Court declared Greville Wynne, aged 44, would serve. 1. Under the guise of a sales trip, he made his first contact with high-ranking Soviet intelligence colonel Oleg Penkovsky in Moscow.The Courier true story reveals that Wynne met Penkovsky eight months after the Soviet double agent had first tried to get in touch with the CIA by handing a bulky envelope of documents to two wary American students in Moscow. His wife Sheila divorced him and he became estranged from his only son Andrew. Cloudflare Ray ID: 7a10a13b9bbf427a Wynne would later relate that as he walked down the steps of an exhibition pavilion, four men suddenly appeared as a car pulled up and Wynne was pushed inside. Greville Maynard Wynne (19 March 1919 [2] - 28 February 1990) was a British engineer and businessman recruited by MI6 because of his frequent travel to Eastern Europe. Well, his journey as a spy began in November of 1960, at the age 41. Even though Wynne wasnt exactly a reliable narrator for what he did during his time as a secret agent, the materials he smuggled from behind the Iron Curtain were the real thing. [9][10][11], Wynne was held at the Lubyanka. Sentenced toeight years in a labor camp, Wynne spent 18 months in Moscow'sLubyanka Prison, where he was subjected to beatings and torture. He said there were no hard feelings from Lewis, who has been very supportive. Includes devices appropriate for a variety of situations and to suit all budgets. In real life, Wynne's wife Sheila divorced him after he was released from the Moscow prison and returned to Britain. If you continue to use this site, we will assume that you are happy with this. Quick Facts Personal Life and Family "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel" star Rachel Brosnahan portrays CIA-contactEmily Donovan, who helps recruit Wynne in "The Courier." Also, see Wynne in his appearance on the American game show To Tell the Truth. The information shared above about the question, TOP 8 what happened to andrew wynne son of greville BEST and NEWEST, TOP 8 what happened to andrew lance BEST and NEWEST, TOP 8 what happened to andrew dice clay BEST and NEWEST, TOP 10 what happened to andreaschoice BEST and NEWEST, TOP 9 what happened to ancient greece BEST and NEWEST, TOP 8 what happened to anastasia romanov BEST and NEWEST, TOP 7 what happened to anakins mom BEST and NEWEST, TOP 8 what happened to amy theismann BEST and NEWEST. He began working for MI6 in 1960, making contact with Penkovsky. He said he first joined the British security services in 1938 and worked for them during World War II. After his release from prison, he prospered as a property developer. However, life wasn't always easy for Wynne after his imprisonment. This means that we may include adverts from us and third parties based on our knowledge of you. We also may change the frequency you receive our emails from us in order to keep you up to date and give you the best relevant information possible. British - Born 70 years ago (April 1952) Mr Andrew Greville Wynne 4 Londesborough Place Lymington SO41 8QB. The moonlighting spy was arrested on a business trip to Budapest in November 1962 and taken to the Soviet Union. Penkovsky was arrested first, and after his interrogation, Wynne was apprehended. Wynne died of throat cancer in Londons Cromwell Hospital on Wednesday, the British domestic news agency Press Association reported. He passed away from throat cancer in London in 1990 at age 70. But he said his training with the MI6 was even worse. And he wrote two memoirs about his time as a spy The Man From Moscow in 1967 and The Man From Odessa in 1981. Greville Wynne had a wife, Sheila, and a son, Andrew. Many Animals, Including the Platypus, Lost Their Stomachs. We are no longer accepting comments on this article. Wynne agreed, and during his visit to Moscow the following month he wound up connecting with Oleg Penkovsky, a lieutenant colonel in the GRU (the Soviet Unions foreign-intelligence agency) who was eager to leak high-level military information to Western powers. Reports suggest Prince Charles will live "in a flat above the shop" when he becomes king. It quoted unidentified close friends. Some of the most advanced and very best spy cameras on the market. The committee was dedicated to developing opportunities for foreigners in science and technology. LONDON (AP) _ Greville Wynne, a British spy who told in his celebrated memoirs how he pried loose some of Moscow's best-kept secrets and who served 18 months in a Soviet prison for espionage, has died. In November 1960, Greville Wynne, a 41-year-old British businessman, sat down for a lunch that would change his life. An uncanny resemblance to Benedict Cumberbatch, which caught the eye of the most advanced and very best spy on. 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