'They have lied and spied for the communists': The suburban spies who sold nuclear secrets to the USSR

The Portland spy ring trial began on 13 March 1961. The BBC reported on a Cold War tale of espionage, adultery, exorcism – and a deceptively ordinary-looking bungalow. The enduring image of a Cold War spy swap is of two freed captives walking slowly from opposite sides of a bleak checkpoint or bridge towards liberty. When Helen and Peter Kroger were released from prison in 1969 in exchange for a British lecturer held in the Soviet Union, it was a different story. Standing beside them on a plane bound for Poland, the BBC's Tom Mangold reported: "Within less than an hour, they'll step onto the communist soil for which they have lied and spied and spent nine years in prison. After nine years: smoked salmon, egg, chicken, champagne and coffee for the Krogers as they sit, sublimely happy, in the seats originally allocated in this first-class lounge to BBC television news." The Krogers had been convicted in 1961 of being part of the notorious five-strong Portland spy ring, one of most significant espionage operations of the era. The couple's ingenious communications set-up involved sending valuable British intelligence files to Moscow. Many felt they were getting off lightly. The focus o