Mankowitz

In December 1946, the Metropolitan police special branch wrote to MI5 saying that a "Jew name Mankowitz", said to be a Cambridge professor, intended to take up residence in a renovated labourer's cottage at Mistley Heath, near Manningtree, Essex.

To Russia with love: Wolf Mankowitz suspected of bonding with enemy 2010

In December 1946, the Metropolitan police special branch wrote to MI5 saying that a "Jew name Mankowitz", said to be a Cambridge professor, intended to take up residence in a renovated labourer's cottage at Mistley Heath, near Manningtree, Essex.

Film | guardian.co.uk 2010

But MI5 lost interest when Mankowitz cancelled the trip to Moscow because he was filming in the West Indies.

To Russia with love: Wolf Mankowitz suspected of bonding with enemy 2010

The security services warned the BBC that Mankowitz was a convinced Marxist, married to a CP member and "a security risk would exist should Mankowitz have access to classified information".

To Russia with love: Wolf Mankowitz suspected of bonding with enemy 2010

Mankowitz unsuccessfully applied several times for a BBC staff job and in 1957 the corporation phoned MI5 before engaging him on a three-week contract to translate and dub a film of Anton Chekhov's The Bear for television.

To Russia with love: Wolf Mankowitz suspected of bonding with enemy 2010

Both officials, however, agreed that translating Chekhov was unlikely to give Mankowitz access to any classified information.

To Russia with love: Wolf Mankowitz suspected of bonding with enemy 2010

The security service file released at the National Archives today shows that for more than a decade after the second world war, Mankowitz was in MI5's sights as a possible communist agent.

To Russia with love: Wolf Mankowitz suspected of bonding with enemy 2010

The file includes covert surveillance photographs of Mankowitz showing him in the 1950s to be a noted visitor to the Soviet "consulate" in London.

To Russia with love: Wolf Mankowitz suspected of bonding with enemy 2010

Mankowitz, who died in 1998 aged 73, introduced the Bond producers Cubby Broccoli and Harry Saltzman to one another.

To Russia with love: Wolf Mankowitz suspected of bonding with enemy 2010

Even so MI5 felt they had to tell the BBC that Mankowitz had visited Moscow the year before and had been in touch with Soviet officials over a film project.

To Russia with love: Wolf Mankowitz suspected of bonding with enemy 2010