The Service

The day John Daniell turned 10, his mum told him she had been a spy. Now, he and Guyon Espiner are investigating a family story that could reveal New Zealand's biggest Cold War secret.

Hosted by Guyon Espiner and John Daniell

A large open eye in black and white appears between a family photo with the eyes blacked out and an old audio recorder on the left, and the NZ parliament building on the right. Below are documents with stamps and images. Bold text in the centre reads 'The Service'.

Follow this podcast

RSS
Follow onApple Podcasts Follow onSpotify Follow onIHeartRadio Follow onYouTube Podcasts

Get this podcast straight from the source in the free RNZ app: Apple App Store or Google Play

One Night in Wadestown

Episode 1
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...
John Daniell playing rugby as a 10 year-old.

The Wilderness of Mirrors

Episode 2
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?
Dimitri Razgovorov running from his meeting with Bill Sutch, Aro St, Wellington, September 1974

A Full Court Press from the KGB

Episode 3
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.
CANWAR protesters on a yacht in Wellington Harbour, protesting against the entrance of American nuclear warships into Wellington, August 1976. From Evening Post

The Club

Episode 4
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?
Geoffrey Palmer (R) with David Lange at the Labour Party conference, Michael Fowler Centre, Wellington, August 1986. Ross Giblin, Dominion Post

The Raid

Episode 5
In the final episode, we close in on the details around the joint MI6/SIS operation targeting the Czechoslovakian Embassy. Finally, someone who was on the raid breaks their silence. But there's a twist...
The cypher pad believed to have been used to encrypt and decrypt coded messages between KGB agents

More Raids Confirmed

Bonus episode
More raids. More embassies. More breaking of international law. Ongoing investigations have uncovered other break-ins by New Zealand's SIS to bug and steal from embassies in Wellington, teaming up with the CIA as well as MI6.
Illustration of declassified documents on The Beehive

New Revelations

Episode 6
Guyon and John break radio silence with new revelations about SIS operations, the reactions from Iran and India and news about surveillance of one of New Zealand's most renowned writers. And Guyon re-thinks his conclusions.
Work by Dick Frizzell based on Denis Glover poem The Magpies

Introducing: The Service

Trailer
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.
The Service

Other podcasts
like this one

More podcasts with similar themes or ideas that you might enjoy.

  • A snowy volcano with the words "White Silence" appear in front of it, with the wreckage of an Air NZ plane wing strewn at the bottom third below the text.

    White Silence

    Erebus: NZ's deadliest disaster, how it happened and what came next.

  • An illustrated portrait of Peter Ellis that looks distorted by glass. A bold 'CONVICTION' sits on top.

    Conviction

    Who can you believe? Go deep into the Christchurch Civic Creche case.

  • A dark green background with stars, the title "Gone Fishing" in bold letters with a red target overlay, and the tagline 'Mayhem. Murder... Maybe.' Below, a winding road with a red car and silhouetted trees.

    Gone Fishing

    Mayhem. Murder. Maybe... Did Gail Maney do it or not?

  • A silhouetted figure stands in the "O" of the word "Lost". Clouds are in the top of the image and the ground is made up of a newspaper headline about a disappearance.

    The Lost

    The true stories of New Zealand's missing people... & those left behind.