Official Secrets, a 2019 spy thriller starring Keira Knightley, has landed on Netflix. It dramatises the story of British intelligence whistleblower Katharine Gun who leaked a top-secret memo from the NSA in 2003, something she was able to do as a result of a joint intelligence-sharing arrangement between Britain and the US.
That memo, among other things, exposed a US-UK spying operation. Essentially, the memo included details of a secret plan to bug the United Nations offices of six “swing state” nations. Those nations were crucial to a UN vote approving the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
According to BGR, this story has also been told in other formats, such as during an episode of the fantastic True Spies podcast. In that episode, with actress Hayley Atwell as host, Gun actually talks about events depicted in the movie. Making the episode a good complement to streaming the movie on Netflix.
“If you look at the trajectory of where all of the governments are, the future looks far more draconian than it is even today,” Gun told The Chicago Tribune during press for the movie in 2019. “That’s worrying, the fact that you could get to the point where you literally cannot even speak the truth anymore. It is vital to speak up in a democracy. Otherwise, we are living in dictatorships.”
