The Spy Who Raised Me Podcast

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Episodes

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Conversations between a daughter, Jane Craigie, and her father, Iain Craigie. Iain spent a career in Intelligence from the late 1950s until the early 2000s, living in the UK, Cyprus, India, Turkey, Hong Kong, Saudi Arabia and Labuan. The podcast covers the technology used, the methods of spying, the targets, the relevance of place and time and the historical context. The observations and intrigues of a life in surveillance make compelling listening, as well as what it was like having an adventurous ‘spy’ as a Dad.

Episodes

Revisiting Cyprus after 50 years

Send us a text Iain Craigie and daughter Jane revisit Cyprus after over 50 years. The island is now divided between the Greek and Turkish ruled areas, after separation in 1974. The island remains strategically hugely important, given its location in the middle of the Mediterranean sea and the unrest in the middle east. Iain and Jane, also visited Famagusta, where the Craigies lived in the late 1960s. As part of one of these visits they went to Varosha, the ghost town where Greek families fled in...

Jul 19, 2024•39 min•Ep 1•Transcript available on Metacast

Diplomacy, Ukraine and the consequences of Putin

Send us a text In this episode, Jane Craigie and her Dad, Iain Craigie, look back into Iain's career in intelligence to hear his take on what is happening following the upheaval and displacement caused by Russia's invasion of Ukraine. This was recorded at the height of this summer's UK heatwave before Russia permitted the first shipment of grain from Ukraine.

Sep 04, 2022•39 min•Ep 4•Transcript available on Metacast

The early years - the life & natural world of Kingston on Spey

Send us a text In this episode, Iain Craigie remembers his early life - in the 1940s and ‘50s in a little North Eastern Scottish village, Kingston-on-Spey. The rich conversation with his daughter, Jane Craigie, covers a young boy’s relationships with nature, the long-lost shopkeepers and the ebb and flow, and immense freedom of living in a coastal village at the end, and immediately after World War II. If you love conversation, our natural environment and Scotland, we hope that you’ll enjoy this...

Dec 29, 2021•58 min•Ep 3•Transcript available on Metacast

Ankara, Turkey - 1989-91

Send us a text In this episode, Jane asks her Dad, Iain about his time in Ankara working for GCHQ. His post was senior, he was responsible for staff at the British Embassy in Ankara, and also 100 staff at the Black Sea site at Sinop. The posting was at a pivotal time for the Middle East, just ahead of the first Gulf War. Arguably, the start of the current wave of unrest in the region. A key responsibility for Iain was regular liaison with the General of the Turkish Army. There’s a lengthy delay ...

Jun 08, 2021•1 hr 5 min•Transcript available on Metacast

Reflections on Hong Kong, China, politics, community and life

Send us a text A rich conversation between Jane Craigie and her father, Iain Craigie covering Iain’s two postings in Hong Kong in the late 1950s and late 1980s. Not only does the discussion delve into China’s might in our world, it also covers the power of politics, community and health. The podcast is fascinating and also gives inspiration to anyone thinking that old age should diminish a person. Iain proves that it clearly doesn’t....

Oct 25, 2020•52 min•Transcript available on Metacast

Unlikely connections - the Hindu Kush and Pine Gap

Send us a text In this episode, Jane Craigie talks to Iain Craigie about the instability of Afghanistan and Pakistan and the coming together of the international intelligence community to create the facility at Pine Gap in Australia to understand and mitigate this threat. The discussion also covers Iain's views on how power might shift towards countries like China as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. "China is in a very strong position," he said. Iain talks about the value of dip...

Jul 24, 2020•54 min•Transcript available on Metacast

Turkey in the 1970s - Istanbul, Gallipoli and the Black Sea coast

Send us a text This episode capture the conversation between Jane Craigie and her father, Iain Craigie, about three precious years based in Istanbul in the 1970s. Iain’s time was as a more senior intelligence manager with GCHQ, their ‘target’ was Russia. Iain explains the start of using satellites for intelligence gathering - courtesy of the Americans who owned them. Discussions include how the British diplomatic service viewed British intelligence in postings like Turkey where there was so much...

Jun 07, 2020•54 min•Transcript available on Metacast

India 1969-70 And 2020 and Holidaying in Afghanistan

Send us a text In this episode, father and daughter, Iain and Jane Craigie talk about life in India from 1969-72, holidaying in India’s hill stations, into the Hindu Kush and Afghanistan. Their return to India in February 2020, and why GCHQ had, and still has, an interest in the region. The conversation spans who the intelligence ‘targets’ were - India and Russia - and how the terrain made ‘listening’ extremely challenging. Iain and Jane also talk through the Indian caste system, the religious t...

May 17, 2020•44 min•Ep 6•Transcript available on Metacast

Buckie, Bletchley and Cyprus

Send us a text In this podcast, accompanied by the snoring of Lily, a 16-year-old Jack Russell, Jane explores the early part of her father, Iain’s, life in the tax office in Buckie, in North East Scotland. The conversation charts the start of his career at Bletchley Park, and his first GCHQ posting, as a young married man to Cyprus, with a new baby (Jane). The episode discusses how intelligence officers in the 1960s ‘listened’ to gather information with what is now considered very rudimentary te...

Apr 13, 2020•50 min•Ep 5•Transcript available on Metacast

Iain Craigie’s early life in Morayshire - 1939-1950s

Send us a text My Dad, Iain Craigie was born in Salisbury, Rhodesia where his father had worked as an engineer. In 1939, aged one, the family moved back to their native Morayshire in north east Scotland. Their first home was a rented one bedroom cottage in Urquhart, near Elgin - by then there were five members of the family, my grandfather, Naylor, and grandmother, Susan (nee Junner). The cottage was on the flight path of German bombers flying back to base from London and Cambridge, so Iain and ...

Mar 15, 2020•30 min•Ep 4•Transcript available on Metacast

Saudi Arabia, training Saudi soldiers to set up their own intelligence capability

Send us a text In this conversation between Jane Craigie and her father, Iain Craigie, the discussion centres on Iain’s posting to Jeddah in Saudi Arabia between 1979 and 1980. Iain was based there as one of five GCHQ operatives. Their role was to train Saudi Arabia’s national guard - mainly Bedouin - on how to set up the country’s own intelligence systems. The posting was challenging, because most of the tutees were near illiterate, and the subject matter was highly technical. The time there wa...

Mar 01, 2020•44 min•Ep 3•Transcript available on Metacast

1950s posting to Hong Kong and Labuan

Send us a text In this episode Iain Craigie talks to daughter, Jane Craigie, about his posting to Hong Kong with a secondment to Labuan. It was in the late 1950s, so WWII was still fresh in minds and diplomacy. Iain’s bases were Direction Finding (DF) Stations - rudimentary huts using HF radio. His Hong Kong posting was near the Chinese border. The conversation will take you through the importance of DF stations, how they were connected, the British intelligence interest in, and the secrecy of t...

Feb 15, 2020•23 min•Transcript available on Metacast

The Spy Who Raised Me Podcast

Send us a text In this first episode, Jane Craigie talks to her father, Iain Craigie, about his early life in Intelligence in the 1950s. His career started when he signed up for voluntary service as a Radio Officer in the RAF. His preliminary training was at Beaumanor Hall and Bletchley Park. The primary targets for surveillance, the Russians.

Jan 20, 2020•22 min•Transcript available on Metacast