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The Documentary

The Secret History of GCHQ

From Bude to Berlin

Duration: 27 minutes

First broadcast: on BBC World Service AustralasiaLatest broadcast: on BBC World Service News Internet

Available for over a year

Gordon Corera becomes the first journalist allowed to record inside GCHQ's listening station at Bude on Britain’s south-west coast. The station has spied on global communications satellites for decades, sucking in signals from space. He takes us from the Cold War, when GCHQ was quietly eavesdropping on the front lines in Berlin, to the current digital era. And Gordon finds out how, following the revelations of Edward Snowden, the agency has been forced out into the open.

(Photo: GCHQ satellite listening station at Bude in Cornwall. Credit: Getty Images) Show less

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