Dominic Sandbrook

So at 21 years old, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi is the new Shah of Iran.

He has a double taint.

So first of all, he's the son of a usurper who seized the throne in a British-backed coup in 1921.

And he only got the throne himself 20 years later because the British basically gave it to him.

So there's this impression of being a foreign puppet, and this is confirmed a decade later in one of the most controversial, if not the most controversial, moments in Iranian history.

So in 1953, Iran had a democratically elected prime minister called Mohammad Mosaddegh, who's this very kind of wily old bird, this experienced reformist...

Liberal politician.

And he has pledged that he will nationalise this Anglo-Persian oil company, BP.

And the British, understandably, I suppose, they hate this idea because they want to keep all the money for themselves.

And they basically persuade the CIA to organise a coup.

And there's a coup.

About 250 people are killed.

Mossadegh is toppled and he's put under house arrest for the rest of his life.

Now, the Shah, who's the sort of, you know, he's the figurehead of Iran, he knew about this coup.

He kind of supported it.

He spent most of it hiding in a hotel in Rome and then coming back to Iran.

And a lot of people in the Iranian elite conclude at the end of 1953, you know, the Shah, he's basically a complete coward and a wimp.

And he is a Western puppet because he did nothing to resist this coup.

But then from the late 1950s onwards, with Mossadegh gone, the Shah starts to assert himself.

He becomes more than a figurehead.