As famous for inspiring the hit BBC comedy series, "The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin", the mystery of the ex-Labour Government minister John Stonehouse's disappearance demonstrated that truth clearly was stranger than fiction.
A minister in Harold Wilson's government from 1967-1970, Stonehouse was strongly rumoured to have been recruited as a spy by the Czech security services in the early 60s, at a time of course, when Czechoslovakia was one of the satellite countries of the then USSR. This now appears to have been corroborated by evidence emanating from four separate Czech agents all of whom claimed to be assigned to Stonehouse at that time.
It was however in December 1974 that Stonehouse really leapt into the headlines when he sensationally disappeared from his Miami Beach hotel, leaving behind him on the beach only his clothes and passport in an apparent suicide. For days afterwards his name was everywhere on the news media until remarkably he was traced, alive and well in Australia where he'd started living under a false name. In the media scrum which followed as he was returned to England to face trial, details of his financial improprieties emerged as well as the revelation of an affair with his young, glamorous secretary, effectively humiliating his loyal wife who had been staunchly defending him from the beginning.
The point is made that the successive governments of Wilson, James Callaghan and even the Conservative Margaret Thatcher, were all happy to sweep any rumours of spying against him under the presumably red carpet, no doubt for reasons of national security, but in the end he was sent to prison for seven years for the deception he'd practiced, finally dying of a heart-attack at the age of only 62, his reputation by then in shreds, a sorry end for a man once tipped as a future Labour leader and possible Prime Minister.
This hour-long Channel Four documentary, rather plays up the spy-element, even combining at least two James Bond titles in its name, but couldn't persuade either his wife or lover, later his second wife, or any other member of his family to make personal contributions other than on historical footage of the times. It relies instead on contemporary interviews with his then solicitor and other political commentators. Utilising a jazz-influenced influenced soundtrack as well as one of those voguish but sometimes confusing back and forward digital calendars rather than relating the story in linear fashion, this documentary probably did the best with what it had and just about got the job done, would be my verdict.
While watching it, I said to my wife that this would make a great movie or Netflix series and I see that in fact, this actually happened in 2023 in a high-profile ITV series which I somehow missed. Perhaps it will have a little more content than was seen here...
