KGB agent Sir Anthony Blunt operated from the heart of the establishment and, when his crimes were finally exposed to the world, it also emerged the trusted aristocrat was a third cousin of the Queen Mum.
Robert Lacey, one of the historians advising the Netflix show, believes the Queen only protected the traitor under extreme pressure. He adds: “I also think there was a hope on the part of the intelligence services that they could get something extra out of Blunt or get something back from the Russians somehow.”
But Robert says: “The Queen has a strong sense of patriotism and would have felt deeply betrayed and terribly hurt by Blunt. She would have been horrified but also bewildered how somebody could do this.
“Blunt, like the other British men in the spy ring he was a part of, had everything on a plate. They were public school and Oxbridge-educated, yet betrayed it all. ”