I don't understand why this man is being treated as a hero. It doesn't matter what his secret work was - he had no right to involve innocent women and sire so many illegitimate children in an era when both the mothers and the children were stigmatized for this. It is never made clear whether he did indeed spin stories of a vast network of spies in Egypt or whether he was telling the truth. It seems to me that it would have been quite easy for the intelligence service to put another Arab speaker on his line and check whether his reports were accurate. His Indian controller claims he was telling the truth - that there was a network of spies in Egypt - if this was so why was it ignored? Why replace him with a liar? It makes no sense. Why sack him? Why not simply move him to a desk job where there was no classified information. One has to ask why he would need a handler for twenty years if he had indeed been sacked from the service in 1942. To watch him? It would have been far easier and effective to kill him. Another question would be why did he work as a hospital porter for years if he was a spy - was this his cover job? How did he keep so many families fed on a porter's wages and his book writing income - he couldn't - his last wife had to go live with her mother to feed the children - so how did his other families live? It seemed like half a story to me. They should have delved deeper into what was really going on.
Can't find a movie or TV show? Login to create it.
Want to rate or add this item to a list?
Not a member?
Reply by genplant29
on May 4, 2020 at 1:53 PM
Hi, Strange.
Good points you've made.
It's been about a year since I watched the miniseries (which I'm rusty about the specifics of at this point). Back then, I also read the Wikipedia article about Alec Wilson. You'll see, via that article, that the miniseries consolidated or/and fictionalized/semi-fictionalized some characters and story lines, so took a number of liberties with Wilson's real-life story.
Reply by Strange Bedfellows
on May 4, 2020 at 2:06 PM
Thank you Genplant29 - I am going to look at that article right now !!
Reply by Strange Bedfellows
on May 4, 2020 at 2:33 PM
update - I have just read it and if anything it makes his life even more incomprehensible. I get the feeling there is a lot that has not been revealed by the intelligence services - who knows why. He was such a fantasist I don't think he knew where fantasy ended and reality began. Maybe MI5/6 feared that he would reveal things about them via his writing that they preferred to be kept quiet because I do believe he did some work for them. I still don't get why they let him live - maybe they figured it was easier to discredit a living person by saying look - this guy is a story teller - he isn't mentally stable - he believes he's the hero of his own books - maybe even have him committed for a while. Nobody would have taken him seriously then. It would have been more merciful than destroying his career and plunging him into poverty - they must have known he had families and children. It seems sometimes Military Intelligence is an oxymoron.