Gordon Carrera

So, you know, just to say to people, if you want to go back and hear some of that deep history, we talked in our opening episodes, the first episode to the rest is classified about how the Shah of Iran is restored and put in power after the CIA MI6 coup in 1953.

and is backed by his Western allies, particularly from the CIA, from that period in the 50s, right until we get to the start of our story, really, which is January 1979, when his regime is falling.

Yes.

And so the protests start, you get strikes, you get demonstrations.

1978, you get repression, you get clamped down.

You, of course, have this exiled Shia cleric, Ayatollah Khomeini, who is one of the kind of key figures who's been leading from the Islamic side, the opposition to the monarchy.

And then in January 1979, the Shah and his wife fly out of Tehran.

And he says, I think he's going on holiday, doesn't he?

But he's never going to return.

And then Ayatollah Khomeini comes back from his exile and returns to Tehran.

He's not yet seized power yet.

There's a provisional government.

It's kind of a febrile atmosphere, isn't it?

And at this point, you get the first tensions, particularly with the US.

And the US is getting targeted for interesting reasons, isn't it?

It's partly because, of course, the Shah has been backed by the United States.

He's been their backer.

And of course, you've got the kind of Islamist dislike of the United States.

The US embassy is a target, isn't it?

And that's got implications because if we fast forward, we are obviously fast forwarding through a lot of things that happened that year, to later in the year, you get to Sunday morning, 4th of November 1979 in Tehran, a grey, cold day.