Undercover police officer speaks out

You may want to catch this radio programme next week - on Tuesday, BBC Radio Four is broadcasting an interview with an undercover police officer who infiltrated political groups. The officer will be talking about "how it feels to live a life in the shadows", according to the BBC. We have not yet heard the interview but we understand that he spied on activists some years ago. It is a reminder that Mark Kennedy , who spent seven years undercover in the environmental movement, was certainly not the first police officer to be embedded in a political group. On the contrary, the state has for years been spying on those it considers to pose a threat to the established order. The programme has been made by Peter Taylor , a reporter who has long specialised in investigating the state's deepest secrets. He has made a string of programmes on terrorism and Northern Ireland. The interview with the undercover officer is one of four in the programme. Also interviewed is a "Muslim agent who spies on Islamist extremists", according to the BBC. Here's the BBC's publicity for the programme which is due to be broadcast at 9 am and repeated at 9.30pm on August 30. It is part of Radio Four's Secret Britain series - the first programme was reviewed here .