The Iranian Embassy Siege - The True Story of the Greatest SAS Hostage Drama | How To Academy

Mon, 9 September 2024

7:30 pm - 8:45 pm BST

The Iranian Embassy Siege – The True Story of the Greatest SAS Hostage Drama

Ben Macintyre and special guests Sim Harris and John Gunn

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Britain’s best-selling historian Ben Macintyre tells the extraordinary story of the SAS storming of the Iranian embassy in London – joined live on stage by the people who were actually there.

On April 30, 1980, six heavily armed gunmen burst into the Iranian embassy in London. They took 26 hostages, including embassy staff, visitors, and three British citizens. A tense six-day siege ensued as millions gathered around screens across the country to witness the longest news flash in British television history, in which police negotiators and psychiatrists sought a bloodless end to the standoff, while the SAS laid plans for a daring rescue mission: Operation Nimrod.

Now Britain’s bestselling historian, Times columnist and SAS expert Ben Macintyre joins us to tell the definitive story of the embassy siege, accompanied on stage by former hostage Sim Harris, whose leap from the balcony of a burning room was broadcast live across the nation and remains the most iconic image of the siege, and John Gunn CBE, Professor of Forensic Psychiatry who played a key role in advising on the likely impact of extreme stress upon the behaviour of both the gunmen and the hostages, and supporting the police.

Drawing on unpublished source material, exclusive SAS interviews, and the testimony of the key actors, this is a chance to hear a thrilling minute-by-minute account of one of the major historical events of our time from the people who were actually there.

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Ben Macintyre

Bestselling historian and Times columnist

Ben Macintyre is the multimillion-copy bestselling author of books including Colditz, Agent Sonya, SAS: Rogue Heroes, The Spy and the Traitor, Agent Zigzag, Operation Mincemeat and A Spy Among Friends. He is a columnist and Associate Editor at The Times, and has worked as the newspaper’s correspondent in New York, Paris and Washington. Several of his books have been made into films and television series, including Operation Mincemeat, A Spy Among Friends and SAS: Rogue Heroes.