"In the mid-1950s, the small Cornish town of Bodmin I found itself at the centre of a Cold War scheme to teach 5,000 national servicemen to speak Russian."
John Sergeant tells the intriguing story of the Joint Services School of Linguists and its part in Britain's intelligence efforts against the Soviet Union.
The school attracted some of the brightest talents of a generation - from Alan Bennett, Dennis Potter and Michael Frayn to the former governor of the Bank of England, Eddie George. These former pupils remember their time at the JSSL and reflect on the way this early exposure to the Russian language influenced their future careers.