Her lawyer son Nick (Ben Miles), who is stupefied and enraged by the revelations about his mother, in the end stands by her side, as her attorney, as she reads her statement. "She thought of Stalin in those early days as a sort of Clement Attlee figure. The charge: providing classified scientific information . Then in 1999 an extensive archive of KGB material was uncovered by a defector. Changes have been made to consolidate the nature of Norwoods spycraft: instead of being a secretary affiliated with Britains atomic weapons research, Joan Stanley is a physicist in her own right who grows disillusioned with the win-at-all-costs mentality of her fellow scientists. Red Sonja is probably the most famous "chick in chain mail.". He was absolutely determined that this material should be available for the world to see. While the elderly Joan Stanley protests that she wasnt a Communistthat joining Communist clubs and attending demonstrations was just the thing everyone was doing in universityMelita Norwood didnt need to be deceived and led astray by cosmopolitan, attractive Jews with questionable approaches to morality, because Norwood already believed in the cause. As always you can unsubscribe at any time. I made the approach.". Get email updates with the day's biggest stories. Joan's voice is almost a whisper. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! Through Sonya, Smith meets and falls in love with the intense intellectual, Leo. After graduating, Joan works as a research assistant for nuclear scientist Max (Stephen Campbell Moore), the only man who seems to immediately recognize her value, and with whom she inevitably has an affair. And in April 2019, a film adaptation premiered in the U.K. and the U.S. starring Judi Dench as Joan Stanley, the fictional counterpart to Melita Norwood, the real-life spy. As secretary at the company storing the top-secret information on metals like uranium, the real Norwood was in the unique position to pass on information that, according to The Telegraph, helped the Russians develop their own atomic bomb two years ahead of schedule. Kim Philby is often regarded as Britains most notorious double agent but these documents reveal the Russians valued a secretary from Bexleyheath named Melita Norwood far higher. The documents contain details of Burgess sex life, including a number of affairs he had while in America. The collection was painstakingly compiled by Russian spy Vasili Mitrokhin, who worked as a senior archivist in the KGBs foreign intelligence headquarters. In fact, Melita Norwood was the Soviet Unions longest-serving British spy. In 2013, author Jennie Rooney published a novel, Red Joan, loosely based on Norwoods life. She continued to believe it through all the evidence of Stalins purges and show trials. . The association was actually conducting secret nuclear weapons research in a joint project with the Americans codenamed 'Tube Alloy'. HISTORY reviews and updates its content regularly to ensure it is complete and accurate. Sonia was working as a teacher while her husband was carrying out barbaric attacks on young women across the North. The charges? In technical terms, its a proficiently made film by the evergreen Trevor Nunn or it would be if it were not so determined to embrace all the cliches of the moment, both about British spies and films for women. Finally, Joan is able to convince him that her actions were motivated only by the desire to stop nuclear weapons being used again and he agrees to defend her, standing by her as she faces the tabloid journalists outside her home. 23-year-old Damon "Dada" Ferguson was hit by gunfire on Vanessa . "She once said to me she didn't agree with spying against one's country. Nunn swiftly takes us back in time to 1938, when Joan (a gracefully convincing Sophie Cookson) was a green but genius physics student at Cambridge, grabbing onto new inspirations and expanding her political horizon while growing into her sexuality. Striking Cambs teachers say they've been forced to 'tighten belts' as hundreds rally in city centre, Around 400 teachers and other teaching staff gathered in Cambridge on Wednesday as part of an ongoing pay dispute, County lines drug dealer operating in Huntingdon ordered to repay 30k, He was found with 15k cash, expensive watches including brands such as Cartier and Rolex and gold coins, Cambridge Kebab van wins Kebab Van of the Year at the Turkish Restaurant Awards, The Arbury Road site scooped the prize at its award at the recent Turkish Restaurant and Takeaway Awards, M11 blocked after crash near Cambs border, Two lorries are involved on the southbound carriageway - updates as we get them, A45 closed after 'serious' crash near Cambs border, Striking Cambs teachers say they've been forced to 'tighten belts', Cambs primary school where pupils 'switch off' vows to improve, The school was rated poorly in all key areas, including quality of education, personal development and management, Live updates as Cambridgeshire teacher strike causes 'disruption' at schools across county, Disruption is likely across Cambridgeshire as tens of thousands of teachers strike across England and Wales due to a pay dispute, Pictures of Prince and Princess of Wales at Welsh Guard St David's Day parade, The royal couple met with soldiers and their families and enjoyed a number of performances before posing for an official picture, Sniffer dog finds illegal cigarettes during Cambs police raid, Video shows police smashing their way into the property, Firefighters called to crash on major Peterborough road, Emergency services were called to the scene on Tuesday afternoon. Judi Dench gives us the painful memories and rickety joints of the old Joan, tending a garden in the suburbs in 2000 when Special Branch police arrest her for espionage. She was never prosecuted for anything. She's a very good person, very strong and totally unmaterialistic," she told The Daily Mail at the time. The following year, she agreed to spy for Russia. Snow forecast in Cambridge, Peterborough and Ely next week as temperatures plummet, The BBC weather forecast suggests "sleet showers" are on their way in Cambridgeshire - with temperatures set to hit lows of -3C, Death and funeral announcements across Cambridgeshire this week, We offer our deepest condolences to all those who have lost a loved one, Resident slams safety of 'pitch black' Cambs footbridge used by thousands daily, The resident said: "I told my (female) housemate not to walk over it". She continued to do so for 40 years and was extremely highly regarded in Moscow. With Judi Dench, Nina Sosanya, Laurence Spellman, Nicola Sloane. The real Melita was not reluctant. They claim she handed British secrets on atomic weaponry over to the Soviet Union in her youth, and in the new film Red Joan, out April 19, we see her full story unfold. Later in the film, while the elderly Joan is being interrogated after her arrest, her sona member of Parliament and a barristerasks how she could have done it, how horrible it is that she betrayed her country and did this all for a murderous dictator.. His Democratic Party opponents, far from opposing this, are attacking the fascistic occupant of the White House as soft on Russia! As the old Joan settles into an interrogation session in a drab room (and repeatedly denies every accusation), the films lengthy flashbacks chart Joans opinionated past in thoughtful increments. Her lofty motivations are a far cry from Norwood's deliberate choices. FACT CHECK: We strive for accuracy and fairness. Her lawyer son, Nick Stanley, first agrees to defend her but then disavows her when he learns that she did provide intelligence to the Soviet Union. Joan, who is studying physics, meets two Russian-born students at Cambridge: Sonya (Tereza Srbova) and Leo (Tom Hughes). Hence, she didnt consider herself a spy, a point made by the fictional Joan in the movie. What we get instead is the beat of a romantic heart, with punts: Joan loves Leo (sigh), cut to Gothic spires and tea shops. British intelligence only confirmed she was a spy in the 1990s after the fall of the Soviet Union, when the former KGB officer Vasili Mitrokhin defected to the United Kingdom and turned over six. International Committee of the Fourth International. The date was April 8, 1912, and although the Henies had a handsome son, four-year-old Leif, the new daughter had a special lock on their hearts, especially Wilhelm's. Whatever Sonja wanted, she . Red Joan tells the story of Joan Stanley, a retired British librarian in her 80s who is suddenly confronted by Scotland Yard officers and arrested in her suburban living room, accused of having spied for the Soviet Union more than five decades earlier. This isand wasa lie. He said: The only reason these papers are here is because of Vasili Mitrokhins courage. It became clear later, when Pavel Sudoplatov of the Russian Ministry of State Security admitted it was 'sources' from Great Britain that helped with such problems, that it was Norwood who gave them the final puzzle piece. Joan, though attracted by the struggle in Spain and the growing danger of war, resists joining the Stalinists. It is certain that Joan and the other student Communists at Cambridge would have known all this. She did, however, escape capture several times; notably when another Soviet spy ring was discovered at Woolrich Arsenal in 1937. Some had happy endings and, for others, the . Feb 10. In Glading's notebook he noted Norwood's codename 'Hola' several times. Her work continued after the war and there's no question what she handed over was useful to the Soviets. Once on his way out of a pub he was seen dropping on the floor the file he had to hand over from the Foreign Office.. Capably lensed by cinematographer Zac Nicholson with a focus on the periods earthy colors and textures and costumed to perfection by Charlotte Walter (who also dressed Their Finest with the same level of attention to the eras knitwear and suiting), Red Joan leaves a lasting impression mostly with its flashback scenes. Unapologetically feminine in the vein of Lone Scherfigs overlooked gem Their Finest, Red Joan resolves into a genuine study of an intelligent and ideologically budding young woman. [13] A review in The Guardian said that the film "can't disguise its mediocrity",[14] and that the film "squanders its greatest acting asset". In one revealing and historically quite plausible scene, several of the CP students read aloud, at a campus meeting, excerpts of the fraudulent confessions of Russian Bolsheviks Grigori Zinoviev and Lev Kamenev, from the first of the infamous Moscow Trials, in 1936. She began passing information to the Soviets in 1937 when she was hired as an aide to the director of the British Non-Ferrous Metals Research Association, a generic organizational name that hid the sections actual task: beating the rest of the world to the atom bomb. She'd potter around the streets after her morning cup of tea, out of her Che Guevera mug, and deliver copies of the Communist Party newspaper, The Morning Star. Because spies dont go to the University College of Southampton, even in movies. . [3] Norwood worked at the British Non-Ferrous Metals Research Association as a secretary and supplied the Soviet Union with nuclear secrets. The real Melita Norwood died in 2005. Sonia, now 70 years old, was born on August 10, 1950. Admittedly, the expected attributes of a slick espionage thriller (like globe-trotting mystique and heart-pumping moments of suspense) aren't great in number here. The film is based on a novel of the same name written by Jennie Rooney, which was itself inspired by the life of Melita Norwood. By the time Dave's teenage daughter arrived home from school that day, 90 percent of the furniture was gone . He said: "Melita was not a hard-line Stalinist. In the first six months of 1945, Burgess handed over 369 top secret files to the Russians but his record was blotted after the Second World War. "It's just what you did" she says. Theodore Rothstein was one of the people in their group. Sonya (Tereza Srbova) and her cousin Leo (Tom Hughes), two German Jews, lead Joan into a world of dark-roomed film screenings and heated discussions of Soviet political purges, where, of course, only Joan is wise enough to question Soviet propaganda. 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