The Courier

Is a dramatization of real life events. It's 1960, the height of the Cold War as both the US and Soviet Union have nuclear bomb capabilities which could destroy the world if they were ever to use them. Colonel Oleg Penkovsky, now a member of the GRU but who has a "day job" front as a member of the State Committee for Scientific Research, has become disillusioned with the rhetoric of Soviet President Nikita Khrushchev, and fearing nuclear war, has managed to smuggle word covertly to the US purely in a "planned" moment of opportunity that he wants to stop it from happening by providing them with intelligence on the Soviet progress of such. With they having a limited presence in Moscow, Emily Donovan with the CIA approaches her British counterparts at MI6 to put in place an operative in Moscow as Penkovsky's messenger to the west, aka a courier. Due to Penkovsky's high visibility, Donovan fears a trained agent would immediately be noticed, she convincing them that the operative should be a civilian who would be in the Soviet Union on his or her day-to-day life. Dickie Franks with MI6, who has a front with the Board of Trade, believes a good candidate is British businessman Greville Wynne, who is in sales with international clients, he who does not yet have such in the Soviet Union, but which would be a natural extension as he already has clients in Eastern Europe. It is also matched on the Soviet side as Wynne, as a businessman, would have to meet with a representative of the State Committee for Scientific Research. In meeting with "Board of Trade representatives" Franks and Donovan, Wynne understands the coded request made of him to expand his business contacts to the Soviet Union, he ultimately agreeing despite his apprehension. This arrangement becomes all the more vital with what looks to be the build-up of a Soviet arsenal in Cuba, within easy striking distance of the US. While Penkovsky is used to secrecy in all aspects of his life, including from his wife Olga, especially on such matters, it is a new situation for Wynne who cannot tell his wife Sheila, and yet secrecy in the form of infidelity once cost them their marriage which probably could not withstand she believing he once again cheating on her. What happens between Penkovsky and Wynne is partly affected by the bond that forms between them and whether each is willing to betray the other if it meant his own safety and security, and that of their respective family.