Barnaby Kayâs gripping drama explores what really happened during 1966 prison breakout by Russian spy 14 January, 2021 â By Lucy Popescu BREAKING Blake opens in October 1966 with a memorable football match â England against Northern Ireland â and a prison breakout. George Blake (Michael Maloney), a Russian spy, has just escaped from Wormwood Scrubs. It was initially assumed that the KGB had masterminded his escape, but Barnaby Kayâs gripping drama explores what really happened. In 1961, two anti-nuclear campaigners, Michael Randle (Elliot Levey) and Pat Pottle (Tony Gardner), were imprisoned after entering a US air force base in Essex. They were charged under the official secret acts â for attempting to stop nuclear weapons being loaded onto a plane â and received 18-month sentences.