I have just finished watching Red Joan, starring Judi Dench as an elderly woman outed for her involvement with Russian intelligence during and after the Second World War. As I watched this I began to remember the case of Melita Norwood, the real-life British spy and it wasn’t until I saw the closing credits that I saw she had been the inspiration behind the film.

I first became aware of Norwood following the publication of The Mitrokhin Archive by Christopher Andrew. At the time it was a remarkable event, a huge outpouring of KGB records which included the sensational outing of Norwood, by then an eighty-seven year old great grandmother who had been one of the Soviet Union’s greatest assets. Unlike the film, Norwood was a passionate believer in Communism and continued to pass secrets until the early 1970s.

The film is a reasonable adaptation based on the book by Jennie Rooney and offers the argument of ensuring there is no one great superpower. In the film it is the devastation caused by the atom bombs in Japan that persuades ‘Joan’ to give the Russians the atomic plans Britain had been working on.

What is factually correct is the depiction of that hotbed of potential spy recruitment at English universities. Indeed Marwood was considered more important to the Soviets than the Cambridge Five, these young, impressionable idealists who saw the Spanish Civil War as a class struggle between communism and fascism were easy fodder for the recruiters and this is well portrayed in the film. Fast forward to the modern day and like Norwood, Joan’s children are completely unaware whilst the husband is extremely understanding to say the least.

Dench gives her usual standard and it’s an enjoyable film albeit a lighter take on the real spy in question.