Ring of Spies

‘Ring of Spies’ is a British spy film, released in 1964, which is much based on the true story of the Portland Spy Ring. Filmed in Dorset, it featured Bernard Lee, who later played ‘M’ in the Bond movies, Margaret Tyzack, William Sylvester and David Kossof.

Harry Houghton and his girl friend, Elizabeth ‘Bunty’ Gee were civil servants who worked at the Admiralty’s Underwater Weapons Establishment at Portland. Development work for Britain’s first nuclear submarine was taking place there. Both the heavy drinking Houghton and Gee developed a taste for the finer things in life that their modest Civil Service salaries were unable to finance. Houghton bought a car for which he paid cash and would spend more than his weekly salary on alcohol alone. Bunty was a middle aged spinster, with few friends, who lived with her mother. Until she met Houghton she had lived a sheltered life. Bunty had a reputation for being a particularly bad cook.

Bunty had access to highly top secret files so in league with Houghton the contents of these files were sold to the Russians. At weekends, the couple would travel up to London and meet Soviet agent, Gordon Lonsdale (real name Konon Molody) where the files were exchanged for cash and the occasional theatre ticket. Lonsdale would copy them so that the originals could be returned. Lonsdale’s cover story was he sold juke boxes. Bizarrely, another meeting place to exchange information was the toilet at Alresford station in Hampshire. It has a plaque which reads:

‘Secret information hidden in this toilet was collected periodically by Harry Houghton.’

The couple enjoyed the fruits of their treachery until the British Authorities started to close in. After a tip-off Houghton, Gee and Lonsdale were arrested, in London in January 1961, outside the Old Vic Theatre. After serving prison sentences Houghton and Gee opened a guest house in the Poole area.

Director of ‘Ring of Spies’ was Robert Thomson with screenplay by Frank Launder and Peter Barnes.