ITVX drama A Spy Among Friends tells the gritty yet glamorous tale of Kim Philby – a British secret agent turned mole for the Russians.
The upper-class British gentleman (played by Guy Pearce) passed secrets to Russia for more than 30 years, including throughout the Second World War.
He was responsible for the deaths of dozens of British agents. And his private life was as lurid as his professional one.
A Spy Among Friends tells his story through the lens of his friendship with fellow British spy Nicholas Elliott.
So who was Kim Philby, why did he betray his country and where is he now?
Here’s everything you need to know about the man behind the ITVX drama…
Was Kim Philby British?
Kim Philby was born in “British” India in 1912 where his father was working as a British civil servant.
His father St John was also an explorer who spent 20 years charting unexplored areas of Saudi Arabia on a camel, and crossed paths with Lawrence of Arabia!
Philby moved to England as a young child and attended posh private schools, including Westminster.
His birth name was Harold, but nicknamed ‘Kim’ after a spy in the Rudyard Kipling novels.
Then he went up to Cambridge, graduating with a degree in history and economics.
It was during his time at university in the early 1930s that Philby became a Communist sympathiser.
A Spy Among Friends: Why did Kim Philby help the Russians?
Some historians believe Philby felt Communism was the only was to stand up to the fascism being promoted by the Nazis.
At University, in the period between the first and second world wars, he became close friends with fellow students Guy Burgess and Donald Maclean.
All three were fascinated by Marxism.
They felt it offered a better and fairer future for everyone.
Philby said he found British society “corrupt”.
What did Kim Philby do?
In 1933, the year he graduated, the Soviets recruited Philby.
They tasked him with penetrating British intelligence.
He joined The Times as a journalist and reported on the Spanish Civil War – but was secretly passing what he learned to Soviet agents.
Then in 1940 his Cambridge friend Guy Burgess – a British spy who was also secretly a double agent working for the Russians – recruited him to the British Secret Intelligence Service.
With his upper-class background and contacts, Philby slotted straight in to the old boys’ network and gentlemen’s clubs, rising quickly through the ranks.
In 1944 he was made head of the secret service’s anti-Soviet section!
He was a classic James Bond spy, known for his charm.
A Spy Among Friends: Was Kim Philby the “third man”?
In 1949 Philby was sent to the US to liaise between British and American intelligence services.
While there, he discovered that the Americans were about to unmask his friend Donald Maclean as a Russian double agent.
So Philby hatched a plan for their friend and fellow spy Guy Burgess to warn Maclean.
But Burgess feared he, too, would be unmasked. So in 1951 both Burgess and Maclean fled to Moscow.
Authorities feared that a “third man” in what became known as the “Cambridge spy ring” had tipped off Burgess and Maclean.
It was Philby – but they didn’t yet know it.
A Spy Among Friends: How did they catch Kim Philby?
Suspicion began to fall on Philby – he was a close friend and drinking buddy of Burgess and Maclean.
MI5 interrogated him. Philby quit and returned to work as a journalist.
In 1955 a newspaper accused Philby of being “third man”, forcing the British government to state publicly there was no evidence for it.
Philby gave a press conference in his mother’s flat stating he was not a communist.
But the Americans continued to investigate and by January 1963 the evidence against him was overwhelming. MI6 knew Philby was a double agent.
Who confronted Kim Philby?
The Special Intelligence Service (SIS) called Philby’s close friend and spy Nicholas Elliott into a meeting and presented the evidence to him.
MI5’s head Sir Roger Hollis – played by Adrian Edmondson in A Spy Among Friends – wanted answers.
Elliott felt deeply betrayed by a man he had known for almost 30 years.
He volunteered to go to Beirut – where Philby was working as a journalist – and confront him.
In Beirut, the pair spent days talking – secretly taped by MI6 and the CIA. Philby confessed.
Elliott – played by Damian Lewis in A Spy Among Friends – offered Philby immunity from prosecution and a new life in the country with his wife and family – in exchange for information.
He thought Philby would jump at the chance, and returned to London with typewritten pages about his early contacts, expecting Philby to follow.
A Spy Among Friends: When did Kim Philby defect?
In January 1963, after Elliott left, Philby defected to Moscow.
Reports differ on how he got there, but many believe he fled hidden on a cargo ship.
Some historians believe MI6 helped him.
MI5 questioned Elliott extensively but found no evidence of this, and he denied any involvement.
The information Philby gave to Elliott proved useless.
Philby later told the Sunday Times that MI6 had let him defect to spare their embarrassment.
The Soviet press reported that Philby became a Soviet citizen, holding the rank of Colonel in the KGB, and granted the Order of Lenin.
Was Kim Philby married?
Kim Philby married four times, and his double-dealings extended to his private life!
His first wife was Litzi Friedmann.
Philby worked in Vienna as an activist helping refugees and Friedmann was an Austrian Communist.
They wed in 1934, shortly after he left Cambridge, to help her escape persecution, and later separated.
In 1940, he met Aileen Furse and had five children with her, marrying her in 1946 after his divorce came through.
But, after the Burgess and Maclean scandal, Aileen’s mental health deteriorated. The couple lived separately and she died in 1957.
While living in Beirut, Philby met Eleanor Brewer, wife of a New York Times correspondent.
They began an affair and, after Aileen’s death, wed in 1959.
When Philby defected in January 1963, Eleanor couldn’t believe he would abandon her and his children unless forced to.
So a few months later she travelled to Russia to be with him.
In Moscow, Philby welcomed her with open arms. The couple spent a lot of time socialising with double agent Donald Maclean and his wife Melinda who were also in Moscow.
Then, after a five month trip back to the US, Eleanor returned to Moscow. But something was wrong.
Philby confessed to having an affair with double agent Donald Maclean’s wife, Melinda.
Then he lived briefly with Melinda before she returned to her husband in 1968. Reports say Philby slashed his wrists in despair.
Eleanor and Philby divorced.
In 1971, aged 59, Philby married a 38-year-old Russian-Polish woman, Rufina Pukhova.
Is Kim Philby still alive?
Philby continued to work for the KGB as a consultant, helping spies prepare for missions .
He lived in a small flat in Moscow.
He missed his gentleman’s life in the UK, continuing to follow the cricket and read the Times every day.
In 1988, when he was 76, Kim Philby died in Moscow of unknown cause.
In 2011, his last wife Rufina Pukhova told a Russian newspaper he tried to drink himself to death.
She claimed he was “disillusioned with communism and tortured by his failings” – although towards the end of his life he restricted himself to two glasses of cognac a day.
Kim Philby is buried in Moscow’s Kuntsevo Cemetery.
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All episodes of A Spy Among Friends air on ITVX (the new ITV Hub) from Thursday December 08 2022.
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