I was shocked that Argo won the Bafta for Best Picture yesterday. For those who haven't seen it, Argo tells the story of how six American diplomats were smuggled out of Iran in 1979 following the fall of the Shah. There's no doubt it's a ripping yarn – you can read the magazine article that inspired the film here – but the director Ben Affleck has completely ignored the role of the British in the whole affair.
In the film, the six Americans are shunned by the majority of their diplomatic colleagues after they make their escape from the US Embassy compound. "Brits turned them away, Kiwis turned them away," says a senior CIA officer played by Bryan Cranston. In fact, they were given sanctuary when they turned up at the British Embassy's summer compound in Northern Tehran and various New Zealand officials were instrumental in spiriting the Americans out of the country.
"It is not the truth that they were turned away from the British Embassy," says Sir John Graham, Britain's ambassador to Iran at the time. "My immediate reaction on hearing about this was one of outrage."
Arthur Wyatt, who was the British charges d'affairs in Tehran in 1979, stresses the risks he and his colleagues took. "If it had been discovered we were helping them I can assure you we'd all have been for the high jump," he says.
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