Coup 53 is a 2020 documentary about the MI6 and CIA-led coup to remove democratically elected Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh in Iran in 1953.
It draws heavily on the 1985 Granada TV documentary End of Empire: Iran and in particular on the transcript of a research interview we taped with an MI6 agent, Norman Darbyshire, who managed the coup. This transcript, along with other background research conducted by us, was willingly shared with Coup 53’s film makers Amirani Media in 2014. Between 2014 and 2018 we supported and helped Amirani Media’s project because we believed that the story of Britain’s role in Iran and the coup should be retold to a new generation. We facilitated their access to a complete set of our programme “rushes” stored at the BFI and all our interviews with politicians, diplomats, CIA staff, and businessmen some of whom had directly participated in the coup itself. Coup 53 uses many of these interviews (without credit) to tell the story of the coup.
Coup 53 builds a bogus narrative in its first hour, using two major falsehoods :
- It alleges that the Darbyshire transcript was not a research interview but that of a filmed interview, despite clear documentary evidence to the contrary.
- To explain the absence of film footage in the rushes it peddles a bogus conspiracy theory: that Granada TV’s End of Empire team–Brian Lapping, Norma Percy, Alison Rooper and Mark Anderson–colluded with MI6 or another government agency to remove a filmed Darbyshire interview from our programme.
Two of the three witnesses in Coup 53 who appear to support this false narrative have since retracted their statements but the the film makers have refused to remove their contributions. (see below)
This is a thoroughly scurrilous use of false claims which sacrifices the truth in service of spicing up a dramatic narrative. It is also an attack on the End of Empire film makers and their professional integrity as investigative journalists. The film suggests that the transcript of the Norman Darbyshire interview was “discovered” by them in a basement in Paris – rather than shared with them by us in 2014. Coup 53 effectively implies that our clear assurances on film that Darbyshire was not filmed and not censored are lies.
In 2019 Coup 53 premiered at the London Film Festival and in 2020 at US festivals before it was given a virtual cinema release in the UK in August 2020. This was the first opportunity we had to view the film and point out its untruths. We immediately contacted Amirani Media requesting they correct the falsehoods, supplying them with detailed evidence that disproved their claims. We urged them to amend their film to remove the falsehoods. They refused to do so, but hired lawyers who advised they make some minor commentary amendments and add captions at the end of the film making our position clear – by way of a right to reply.
The cameraman who believed he had filmed Darbyshire expressed his doubts to Amirani Media as early as 2019 when he first was shown Coup 53. He has since withdrawn his evidence believing he was misled by Amirani Media. Read his testimony here
The film’s MI6 expert witness, author Stephen Dorril, has called Coup 53 ‘f***ing bullshit’, ‘fraudulent’ and without integrity. Despite these retractions, the film still includes their statements. A third interviewee, Paris based programme consultant Heda Matin Daftari misremembers what we told him about our contact with Darbyshire.
Amirani Media’s small amendments do not remedy the untruths and falsehoods which still scar Coup 53. We continue to urge its film makers to amend their film – an otherwise gripping and well-told story of a shocking event of great historical importance.
End of Empire: Iran 