It is well known that Bertolt Brecht, during his time in the United States of America, attracted the surveillance of anti-communist forces, with Brecht's sly testimony to the House Committee on Un-American Activities becoming one of his most famous public performances. Recently declassified files from Her Majesty's Government reveal that Britain, too, undertook extensive campaigns to monitor and censor Brecht and the Berliner Ensemble. James Smith considers material from British governmental agencies such as MI5, the Foreign Office, and the Cabinet Office, which detail the activities undertaken by the British government concerning Brecht and the Ensemble. Such activities took the form not only of monitoring Brecht and his circle, both in Britain and overseas, but also of active attempts to block the visits of Brecht and the Ensemble, and to pressure theatre festivals and promoters into refusing to facilitate tours. The issue of the Berliner Ensemble caused debates at the highest levels of Whitehall, influencing the delicate area of British and NATO policy regarding the diplomatic status of East Germany during the Cold War. James Smith has completed a doctoral dissertation at Cambridge examining the influence of Brecht on British theatre. He currently teaches modern drama in the Faculty of Education and at Homerton College, Cambridge.