Mr Stephen Dorril

Biography

BSc(Hons) Behavioural Sciences, Huddersfield Polytechnic (1977)

CQSW Diploma in Social Work, Huddersfield Polytechnic (1989)

Author, researcher and investigative journalist since 1986. Written articles for the major newspapers and appeared on radio and television programmes as a consultant and specialist on the security and intelligence services.

Consultant to BBC 's Panorama programme (MI6), Channel Four 's Media Show (Profumo Affair), Secret History (Harold Wilson, The sinking of the Struma), Channel Five (British Intelligence), Hungarian, French, Polish and Canadian television, and numerous other documentaries (codes, technical intelligence, Cold War and Northern Ireland). Also regularly appeared on Radio Four 's The Message, The World at One, Front Row, Night Waves; Scottish and Irish radio news programmes and documentaries.

Researcher for newspapers, and for authors, including Anthony Summers (Marilyn Monroe, J Edgar Hoover) and Paul Routledge (Peter Mandelson and Airey Neave).

Member of the Study Group on Intelligence

Research & Scholarship

My central interest is in the relationship between states/government and the security and intelligence services, principally in the British context.

The following books are to be published :

2011 The Dogs in the Street: British Intelligence and the Troubles (Fourth Estate)

2010 Gladio: MI6 and the European Stay-Behind Network during the Cold War

2011 Revised edition of my book on the Profumo Affair, Honeytrap

Ongoing research into the relationship between MI6 and journalism - to be published as a book, Agents of Influence. I also have an interest the Alternative Press and the future shape of journalism and the development of local 'micro' newspapers.

Talks, interviews etc.

8 November 2006 - Interviewed by Justin Shubow for article on Slate magazine (US) published 16 November 2006

13 November 2006 - Contribution to Today programme BBC Radio 4 on the OSA and the Queens Speech

November 2006- 'Blackshirt ' named book of the year by Ferdinand Mount in the Spectator

16 November 2006 - Talk to the Yorkshire European Movement on the 'Secret Origins of the EM ', Holmfirth

17 November 2006 - Interviewed for Channel Five television programme on JFK and his women

23 November 2006 - Interviewed by Shaun Stowell for BBC One Look North on Dr Cannon and his relationship with Mosley

29/30 November 2006 - Part One and Two of Look North piece broadcast

1 December 2006 - Interviewed by Iranian documentary film-maker Bahman Maghsoudlou on the 1953 Iran Coup for a film.

5 December 2006 - Interviewed by Noor Tonkens of Dutch magazine TED on the intelligence world

7 December 2006 - Interviewed by Andrei Matisak, Pravda (Slovakia), on the world of intelligence

7 December 2006 - Article, 'Wil de Ware James Bond opstaan? ', in TED (no. 59)

12 December 2006- 'JFK 's Women: The Scandals Revealed ' broadcast Channel Five

23 January 2007 - Interviewed and filmed by Insight productions for a film documentary on the 1953 Iran Coup

February 2007 - Deposit of eight boxes of research files for the Blackshirt book at the Special Collection British Fascism section at Sheffield University under the title 'Blackshirt collection '

15 March 2007 - Interview with Mr Tadakazu Kimura of the Asahi Shimbun, the world 's second largest newspaper in the world, on the development of a centralised intelligence service in Japan

March 2007 - publication of the paperback edition of Blackshirt

26 March 2007 - Interview for Radio Scotland on claims by Tommy Sheridan that his car had been bugged

28 March 2007 - Interview for BBC World Service on MI6 and its treatment of former agents

24 April 2007 - BBC Parliamentary programme on Blackshirt

28/9 April 2007 - 'Choices for Western Intelligence: The Security Challenge of the Twenty-First Century ' Conference, University of Wales

29 May 2007 - Contribution to article in the Yorkshire Post on the 30th anniversary of the release of the film Star Wars

12 June 2007 - Interview for BBC Radio News on release of MI5 file identifying the names of 'Double-Cross ' agents

June 2007 - Review article in the Times Higher Education of Valentin Groebner 's book, 'Who Are You? Identification, Deception and Surveillance in Early Modern Europe

8 August 2007 - Interview for article in the Irish Times on British Intelligence in Ireland

5 October 2007 - Interview for Northern Ireland BBC current affairs programme, Spotlight, on MI5 and Northern Ireland

11 October 2007 - Interview for 1.00 pm World News, BBC World Service, on current MI6 activities in Russia

5 October 2007 – Interview for Northern Ireland BBC current affairs programme, Spotlight, on MI5 and Northern Ireland

11 October 2007 – Interview for 1.00 pm World News, BBC World Service, on current MI6 activities in Russia

15 February 2008 – Radio Five Live morning phone-in programme on bugging of MPs’ conversations in prison

21 February 2008 – BBC Radio programmes on Princess Diana and MI6

March 2008 – Consultant on proposed BBC series on the history of British Intelligence

10 June 2008 – Interview BBC Newsdrive Radio Scotland on MI5

July 2008 – profile in Huddersfield University alumni magazine, Encore (Issue 14, Spring/Summer 2008)

July 2008– Podcast for www.corbettreport.com on post-war MI6 in Germany and Gladio

9 July 2008 – Interview for Japanese magazine Choice (Sentaku) on MI6

23 November 2008 – article for Sunday Post on the intelligence services

6 December 2008 – BBC Radio 4 programme, Archive Hour, on Fascism in the 1930s

June 2009 – Interviewed by BBC Radio News, Radio Five Live and BBC Wales on the appointment of the new Chief of MI6.

30 August 2009 – Interviewed by BBC North for documentary on author David Peace (book GB84) and the Miners’ Strike

1 September 2009 – Interviewed for Italian television (RAI) documentary on ‘Gladio’

1 October 2009 - Interviewed by Sebastian Borger (Rhienscher Merkur, Germany) for article on soon to be published history of MI5

1 October 2009 – Interviewed for BBC Radio Wales on MI6 recruitment

Research Outputs

Areas for Research Supervision

Stephen is happy to supervise research students (MA by Research, MPhil, PhD) in aspects of post-war activities of the British intelligence services, the history of journalism and cultural studies. He is a member of the Study group on intelligence and attached to the University’s Centre for Oral History and welcomes enquiries associated with those fields. The following are some of the areas that he is interested in as potential research projects:

1. The role of British intelligence and security services in the post-war period with particular reference to foreign policy and politics.
2. The role of the intelligence agencies in the conflict (The Troubles) in Northern Ireland.
3. The relationship and interplay between the intelligence agencies and the media.
4. ‘Gladio’ - the cold-war European-wide stay-behind units.
5. The history of the press with particular reference to the alternative or underground press.
6. British scandals such as the Profumo Affair.
7. Sir Oswald Mosley and British Fascism.
8. ‘New Hollywood’ Cinema of the 1970s.