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BBC Radio 5 Live

A new investigative series from the production team behind ‘Where Is George Gibney?’

This new series will focus on another figure who lived a double life and was eventually forced to live under cover. And it’s a story, like the George Gibney one, that many would prefer was never told.

So, from this point on, this feed will be renamed ‘Cover.’ Series 1 one of which was ‘Where Is George Gibney?’ and series 2 is Stakeknife.

In Northern Ireland from 1978 to 1994, the IRA killed over 40 alleged informers; people accused of passing information to the police and the British Army. But the man who often found, tortured, and sometimes killed these men and women was himself an informer, a secret British Army Agent with the codename Stakeknife.

Using secret recordings, reporter Mark Horgan traces the astonishing double life of Freddie Scappaticci. Why was he protected? How did he walk the tightrope between the IRA and British Army intelligence for so long and when murders, often of entirely innocent people, were sometimes allowed to take place despite state security force surveillance, who gets to play God?

This series is about far more than just one man; it’s about the state structures that protected him. From the production team behind the international award-winning ‘Where Is George Gibney?’, Stakeknife tells the story of one of the most-contested and darkest episodes of the Troubles. When neither side wants the story of Stakeknife to come out, how does society try to reconcile the truth about what happened? 

You can continue to contact our production team about either series via our new email cover@bbc.co.uk and rest assured, any significant future movements in the story of George Gibney will also be covered right here. Talk to you again next week.

Where Is George Gibney?

Mark tells the story of a man called Joe Fenton and how he was connected to Stakeknife. We learn there was a hierarchy of agents, where some were saved and some were not.

Credits

Reporter: Mark Horgan
Produced and written by: Mark Horgan and Ciarán Cassidy
Co-Producer: Paddy Fee
Editing and Sound Design: Ciarán Cassidy
Composer: Michael Fleming
Sound mixing: Ger McDonnell
Theme tune by Lankum
Artwork by Conor Merriman
Assistant Commissioners for BBC: Lorraine Okuefuna and Sarah Green.
Commissioning Editor for BBC: Dylan Haskins

Stakeknife is a Second Captains & Little Wing production for BBC Sounds.

4. The (Estate) Agent

Brendan Hughes wants to question Joe Fenton and find the “main mover.” Is Stakeknife suspected? We meet the former IRA man who interviewed Hughes and whose hero was Scappaticci.

Credits

Reporter: Mark Horgan
Produced and written by: Mark Horgan and Ciarán Cassidy
Co-Producer: Paddy Fee
Editing and Sound Design: Ciarán Cassidy
Composer: Michael Fleming
Sound mixing: Ger McDonnell
Theme tune by Lankum
Artwork by Conor Merriman
Assistant Commissioners for BBC: Lorraine Okuefuna and Sarah Green.
Commissioning Editor for BBC: Dylan Haskins

Stakeknife is a Second Captains & Little Wing production for BBC Sounds.

5. Someone Bigger

Orla and Kevin Coyle tell the story of their father who was killed as an alleged informer by the IRA. The profound shadow cast by their father’s death has lasted almost 30 years.

Credits

Reporter: Mark Horgan
Produced and written by: Mark Horgan and Ciarán Cassidy
Co-Producer: Paddy Fee
Editing and Sound Design: Ciarán Cassidy
Composer: Michael Fleming
Sound mixing: Ger McDonnell
Theme tune by Lankum
Artwork by Conor Merriman
Assistant Commissioners for BBC: Lorraine Okuefuna and Sarah Green.
Commissioning Editor for BBC: Dylan Haskins

Stakeknife is a Second Captains & Little Wing production for BBC Sounds.

6. Playing God

Episode 7 is available on Friday, January 3rd on BBC Sounds.

A message to listeners - one week break

In 1990, a man called Sandy Lynch was tied up, blindfolded and interrogated by Scappaticci. He survived to document his experience. Marks speaks to an IRA man who “guarded” Lynch.

Credits

Reporter: Mark Horgan
Produced and written by: Mark Horgan and Ciarán Cassidy
Co-Producer: Paddy Fee
Editing and Sound Design: Ciarán Cassidy
Composer: Michael Fleming
Sound mixing: Ger McDonnell
Theme tune by Lankum
Artwork by Conor Merriman
Assistant Commissioners for BBC: Lorraine Okuefuna and Sarah Green.
Commissioning Editor for BBC: Dylan Haskins

Stakeknife is a Second Captains & Little Wing production for BBC Sounds.

7. The Beginning of the End

We return to the solicitor’s office in West Belfast as Mark meets three crucial people to discuss the end of Scappaticci’s time in the IRA and his eventual uncovering as the agent Stakeknife.

Credits

Reporter: Mark Horgan
Produced and written by: Mark Horgan and Ciarán Cassidy
Co-Producer: Paddy Fee
Editing and Sound Design: Ciarán Cassidy
Composer: Michael Fleming
Sound mixing: Ger McDonnell
Theme tune by Lankum
Artwork by Conor Merriman
Assistant Commissioners for BBC: Lorraine Okuefuna and Sarah Green.
Commissioning Editor for BBC: Dylan Haskins

Stakeknife is a Second Captains & Little Wing production for BBC Sounds.

8. The General and the Agent

Shauna tells the story of her mother Caroline Moreland. We hear how her campaigning has helped others connected to the the Stakeknife case and how other families have come forward to Mark since the start of this series.

Credits

Reporter: Mark Horgan
Produced and written by: Mark Horgan and Ciarán Cassidy
Co-Producer: Paddy Fee
Editing and Sound Design: Ciarán Cassidy
Composer: Michael Fleming
Sound mixing: Ger McDonnell
Theme tune by Lankum
Artwork by Conor Merriman
Assistant Commissioners for BBC: Lorraine Okuefuna and Sarah Green.
Commissioning Editor for BBC: Dylan Haskins

Stakeknife is a Second Captains & Little Wing production for BBC Sounds.

9. No Harm Will Come to You

Mark travels to where Freddie Scappaticci lived after he disappeared from Belfast. A news report we featured from 1987 inspires a man to get in touch with the podcast.

Credits

Reporter: Mark Horgan
Produced and written by: Mark Horgan and Ciarán Cassidy
Co-Producer: Paddy Fee
Editing and Sound Design: Ciarán Cassidy
Composer: Michael Fleming
Sound mixing: Ger McDonnell
Theme tune by Lankum
Artwork by Conor Merriman
Assistant Commissioners for BBC: Lorraine Okuefuna and Sarah Green.
Commissioning Editor for BBC: Dylan Haskins

Stakeknife is a Second Captains & Little Wing production for BBC Sounds.

10. Frank

A famous Olympic coach charged with child sexual abuse never stood trial. Instead, he vanished.

Reporter Mark Horgan travels across Ireland, the UK and the US on his trail. 

Credits

Reporter: Mark Horgan
Produced and written by: Mark Horgan and Ciarán Cassidy
Co-Producer: Maria Horgan
Research and fact checking: Killian Down
Editing: Ciarán Cassidy 
Composer: Michael Fleming
Sound mixing: Ger McDonnell

Theme tune by Aaron Dessner

Executive Producer for BBC: Dylan Haskins
Commissioning Editor: Jason Phipps

Where is George Gibney? is a Second Captains Production for BBC Sounds

Introducing... Where is George Gibney?

It’s 5am, it’s dark. We’re in a car outside a house where we think the former celebrity coach now lives. The neighbourhood gets suspicious. A garage door opens…

Credits

Reporter: Mark Horgan
Produced and written by: Mark Horgan and Ciarán Cassidy
Co-Producer: Maria Horgan
Research and fact checking: Killian Down
Editing: Ciarán Cassidy
Composer: Michael Fleming
Sound mixing: Ger McDonnell

Theme tune by Aaron Dessner

Executive Producer for BBC: Dylan Haskins
Commissioning Editor: Jason Phipps

Where is George Gibney? is a Second Captains Production for BBC Sounds

This podcast refers to child sexual abuse and contains interviews that some listeners may find upsetting, as well as occasional strong language.

If you've been affected by any of the issues in this series, please contact support organisations in your own country.

For a list of organisations in the UK that can provide support for survivors of sexual abuse, go to bbc.co.uk/actionline.

A message to listeners - one week break

Lyssna när som helst, var som helst

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