The Service

Introducing: The Service

Just before he died, John Daniell's step-dad told him a secret from his time as a spy. A secret that was possibly New Zealand's biggest of the Cold War and that has never been revealed. Until now.To see more images and details about the series, vist the website here.In the midst of the Cold War, first John Daniell's mum and then his step-dad worked for New Zealand's Security Intelligence Service (SIS). Spies stayed in the spare bedroom. His step-dad went out on missions. And John kept secrets.Over five episodes, John Daniell and his friend, RNZ journalist Guyon Espiner, search for the truth behind a family story that might just be one of New Zealand's biggest Cold War secrets. For nearly a year John and Guyon have been investigating this closely guarded secret. Having spoken to former Prime Ministers, senior officials, experts on intelligence services and even former spies themselves, they can now reveal this never-before-told story. Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

One Night in Wadestown

On his 10th birthday, John Daniell's Mum tells him she used to work for the SIS. But that's just the start of the secrets...To see more images and details about the series, vist the website here.John Daniell grew up in a house where spying was the family business. His mum had worked for New Zealand's Security Intelligence (SIS) before he was born and his step-dad worked for them throughout his childhood. Through the tense years of the Cold War, John's step-dad, who we're calling Jim Stewart, went out on missions and the family kept New Zealand's secrets. The SIS - known as The Service - works on a need to know basis. But one night, not long before he died, Jim told John a story about one particular mission; a raid on a foreign embassy right here in New Zealand that has remained a closely guarded secret. Until now.Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

The Wilderness of Mirrors

New Zealand has Cold War spy stories we know about - and some we don't. Even now, it's hard to get people to talk. The big question is: who do you trust?To see more images and details about the series, vist the website here.Throughout the Cold War a front-line of sorts stretched around the world, with intelligence officers in the trenches. It reached even to New Zealand, as the two nuclear superpowers squared off over political ideology and power. Since 1956 New Zealand has been part of the Five Eyes intelligence network, spying on friend and foe alike alongside the United States, Britain, Canada and Australia. The raid on the Czechoslovakian embassy revealed in this podcast was just one operation amongst a world of intrigue. A wilderness of mirrors, where spies fought over information and influence. In Episode 2 we tell the stories of top New Zealand civil servant and alleged Russian agent Bill Sutch, the expulsion of USSR ambassador Vsevolod Sofinsky, and, from Australia, the Skripov Affair. We hear how the Soviets used "useful idiots" and John's mum chases a target across Wellington.Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

A Full Court Press from the KGB

In the mid-1980s, New Zealand's anti-nuclear policy is attracting international attention. With the ANZUS alliance in crisis, the KGB see an opportunity.To see more images and details about the series, vist the website here.The world lived under the shadow of the nuclear bomb through the 1980s and New Zealand briefly took centre stage in the debate when it went nuclear-free in 1986. It angered the Americans and put pressure on the Five Eyes intelligence network. Soviet Russia saw an opportunity and, according to then-deputy prime minister Geoffrey Palmer, became "extremely active" in New Zealand. After a year of investigation, Guyon Espiner and John Daniell reveal more stories of what the NZSIS and its enemies got up to during the Cold War.In Episode 3, Palmer and reveals new details of Russia's "full court press" in this country, and former SIS officer Kit Bennetts explains the "frog kissing" they were doing at the time. Former Soviet diplomat Rouben Azizian gives Moscow's thinking, we delve into the stories of KGB colonel and defector Oleg Gordievsky and Wellington-based spy Sergei Budnik, and reveal what the SIS were doing to former Labour MP Richard Northey. Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

The Club

The Five Eyes is an intelligence alliance with roots that go all the way back to World War II. It's a tight club - but just what does membership demand of us? To see more images and details about the series, vist the website here.As the Iron Curtain came down across Europe at the end of World War II and allies united against Nazism splintered into Capitalist and Communist camps, a fraternity of intelligence agencies was created, known as Five Eyes. It was a tight-knit club and one that demanded cooperation and loyalty.The Five Eyes alliance was a group of countries whose leaders traditionally were, as former GCSB boss Sir Bruce Ferguson put it, White Anglo Saxon Protestants (WASPs). They shared a common world view. It began with a treaty between the United States and Britain, who were then joined by Canada, Australian and, in 1956, New Zealand.Former Prime Minister and Attorney-General, Sir Geoffrey Palmer, says membership comes with obligations."There is a sort of feeling that we have to earn our stripes, if you know what I mean. And so there's that kind of pressure to be super cooperative".Ferguson disagrees, but admits the relationship is "intimate".In Episode 4, Paul Buchanan, a former security analyst at US intelligence agencies and the New Zealand-based founder of 36th Parallel Assessments, says those shared bonds have been impervious to political disputes, such as the stoush over New Zealand's nuclear-free policy. Former Prime Minister Helen Clark argues membership is a net positive, but is concerned we are once again getting too close to these traditional allies.We look at how Russia's efforts in New Zealand in the 1980s compare to their attempt to influence American elections in recent years, the Five Eyes' attempt to influence governments around the world and learn about Sir Bruce's golf games with the CIA and FBI. And we get closer to the details of that raid on the Czechoslovakian embassy.Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details