A wealthy lawyer, debonair ladies man, consummate actor and fearless gambler, Dusko Popov played the role of playboy amongst the top echelons of British society to become one of Germany's most trusted spies. In fact, he was one of Britain's most successful double agents and some say the inspiration for James Bond. Who knew? No, serious question: have any of you heard of this Popov before?

Hover was not only a racist ,he was also very foolish and reckless . He could at least have checked out the intel

Ian Fleming cites Australian entrepreneur, RAF Officer, inventor, photography expert and arms dealer Sidney Cotton as an inspiration for Bond.

This is s an excellent documentary about a man I knew little about. He must have had nerves of steel. Thanks.

Bless this man’s bravery!

It is ironic that the cross-dressing Hoover talks about integrity. Not that there is anything wrong with cross-dressing, but the American people seem to have a easy acceptance of lying politicians.

Dušan/Dusko Popov and his older brother Ivo (also a double agent, codenamed Dreadnought, (German, PAULA)) ran an operation to recruit double agents from Yugoslavia. Ivo Popov identified potential candidates, who were told they would be working for the British. Ivo (Ivan) professionally trained as a physician, during World War II.  Vladan, the youngest of the Popov's brothers, was not as personally close as his brothers and would spend the war years in college.

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Me being a Serb, there is a failure in mentioning that he was an ethnic Serb from Croatia. Like Nikola Tesla, same thing . Makes me proud for what I am as we have a bad reputation because of the CNNs etc, especially if you add that emeperor Konstantin of Rome was a Moesian ( Serbian), the guy who introduced Christianity to Roman Empire. As were 16 other Roman Emperors. Not bad for a nation of 7 million. Before CNN and the current global world’s shady characters we were good guys.History will prove that we still are in spite of our stubbornness. Sorry about the rant, excellent show.

Intelligent, suave and fearless...
traits that evil takes advantage of and
that Freedom utilizes to the fullest.

I wanted to hear more about what happened when he found the man probably responsible for the death of his friend.

this showed the arrogance of Hoover..........information he disreguarded cost many many lives

He was subject of a one-hour television documentary produced by Starz Inc. and Cinenova, titled True Bomd, which aired in June 2007. Two other documentaries recounting Popov's exploits, The Real Life James Bond: Dusko Popov and Double Agent Popov: Inspiration for James Bond, have also been produced. Popov has also been the subject of several biographies, notably Miller's Codename Tricycle (2004) and Loftis' Into tge Lion's Mouth (2016).

Great documentary.Hoover cost us a lot and more than most know

Bond was never a double agent. But, this is a remarkable story.

I don’t know what I enjoyed the most about this documentary, Popov or the narrator. Quite interesting

This would make a fantastic film. I’d cast Adam Driver as Popov.

He was also a great swimmer

Ian Fleming's position (as DDNI) during WW2 would have subjected him to the Official Secrets Act for wartime and beyond. His books and their characters are likely based on his real life encounters BUT the Bond character is likely not based on one person but the antics of several people. If he's written uniquely about the antics of one person then the OSA could have stopped him before the first book. On being demobbed  Fleming declared his ambition to write the spy book of all time, in that he'd be a hard act to follow as he had all the knowledge of real events.

This was very well done. It aligns pretty well with everything I've read/watched/listened to about Popov/Tricycle, Fortitude/Overlord/Etc over the past 40 or so years.

This leaves out a lot of what I thought were the fascinating details in the book Spy/Counterspy (Popov's autobiography).  His introduction to the Abwehr and acceptance by them came about because he was asked (I think by his friend) to come up with someone who would be suitable to collaborate after the German occupation of France... which he did: Pierre Laval.  Up until then, he was still looked on as a questionable individual... but after that, he was their golden haired boy, welcomed with open arms.

J. Edgar Hoover, a (later known) cross dresser, tried to claim the credit for discovering the microdot system for the FBI, but Popov would have none of it, and when Hoover tried to sling mud at a friend who appealed to Popov, Dusko had it out with him.  After much threatening by Hoover, Popov informed him that while yes, he could be thrown out of the U.S., that would not buy his silence, and he wanted the man exonerated.  He got his wish.  And when he heard of the raid on Pearl harbour, he told an FBI contact something to the effect "What the Hell happened?"  as the Gman mumbled about channels, he said "Remember me?  I'm Tricycle!"  Hoover had sat on the information.