Episode 1

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

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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

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