Parting Shots - Series 2 - Cold Warriors and the perils of forecasting

Matthew Parris opens classified Foreign Office files to discover valedictory despatches from behind the Iron Curtain. British diplomats used the traditional last telegram home from a foreign post to recount the strains of life under Communism - and its occasional upsides. The programme reveals landmark despatches from Britain's last ambassadors to the Soviet Union, released for the first time under Freedom of Information, as well as a wealth of earlier material from the depths of the Cold War. This episode also looks at the perils of forecasting; the valedictory was a place where ambassadors would chance their arm with predictions about the direction of future events abroad. Producer: Andrew Bryson.