Ludovic Kennedy investigates one man's involvement in the Cambridge spy network - a scandal which shocked the British establishment. Michael Straight, son of a wealthy and distinguished American family, was an active Communist during his student days at Cambridge in the 1930s. He was a leading member of the Apostles, a secret society popular among left-wing homosexuals. His colleagues included Guy Burgess, who later defected to Russia, and Anthony Blunt, who ordered Straight to feign a mental breakdown and return to America as a Kremlin agent.
'They have instructed me to tell you that this is what you must do,' said Blunt. For 26 years Michael Straight agonised over whether or not to expose his Cambridge friends whom he knew to be spies for Russia. Eventually, in 1963, he revealed all to the FBI, forcing the then Sir Anthony Blunt, Surveyor of the Queen's Pictures, to admit finally to his treachery. But did Straight betray his country and ours? Why did he delay the exposure of Burgess? And are there any more traitors to unmask?