Episode 1

Published: Feb. 14, 2022, 5 a.m.

What\u2019s the key to bringing home Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, the British woman who has been held hostage in Iran for almost six years? And how closely linked is Nazanin\u2019s release to a tank deal debt more than 40 years old?

In episode 1 of Nazanin, former Today programme editor, Ceri Thomas, explores the origins of the debt, the apparent corruption which surrounded the deal which created it, and its long, difficult legacy. It\u2019s a story which begins in the freewheeling 1970s when the need to \u2018grease the wheels\u2019 of big arms deals seemed barely controversial, and when the Shah of Iran and a notorious middleman known around Whitehall as \u2018Mr 1%\u2019 were able to pocket millions in commissions paid by the UK. And it leads back to the fate of more than one hostage today.

Presenter: Ceri Thomas \nProducer: Matt Russell \nOriginal music: Tom Kinsella \nA Tortoise Media production for BBC Radio 4