MI5: Official Secrets Exhibition Wins National Award

Published date: 14 May 2026

MI5: Official Secrets, a National Archives exhibition co-curated with MI5, has won the Museums + Heritage Award in the category, Temporary or Touring Exhibition of the Year (Budget more than £80,000).

Saul Nassé, Chief Executive of The National Archives said:

‘We are thrilled to win this award. The exhibition was our most popular ever at Kew, with 55,000 visitors coming to discover more about MI5, its history, and the power of archives. The award is not only recognition of a very successful collaboration between The National Archives and MI5, but also proof that archives inspire, educate and entertain.’ 

Sir Ken McCallum, Director General MI5 said:

“Congratulations to The National Archives on their well-deserved success at the Museum + Heritage Awards. MI5: Official Secrets was a hugely successful exhibition which brought to life some fascinating historic stories of MI5 and its people working to keep our country safe. Many of these continue to resonate today. We are proud to have partnered with The National Archives on this exhibition, and I am delighted that they have won this prestigious award."

MI5: Official Secrets was a groundbreaking exhibition giving public access to 115 years of MI5 secrets. The partnership meant that The National Archives could tell MI5’s unique story and examine the real work of extraordinary people. 

The unassuming appearance of the several thousand files transferred to The National Archives from MI5 belie the often dramatic, fascinating stories they contain, including those of Double Cross, the Cambridge Spy Ring and Cold War secrets. The exhibition presented a selection of these files to the public in an unprecedented way, and supplemented them with objects, such as a 110-year-old lemon that helped convict a spy, and loans from MI5’s collections, including a dark leather briefcase left at the Reform Club in London by Cambridge spy Guy Burgess before he fled to Moscow in May 1951 and his passport which was exhibited for the first time.

The exhibition ran from 5 April- 23 November 2025 at The National Archives in Kew.