Angry TV film-makers stop release of lauded Iranian documentary

Coup 53, which charts MI6's role in the shah's restoration, has been blocked by makers of an 1985 show, who say it sullies their names

Coup 53 was heralded by critics this summer as a powerful and authoritative" documentary as gripping as any thriller", and judged by historians as crucial to understanding Britain's relationship with the Middle East.

Made over 10 years by Walter Murch, the celebrated editor of Apocalypse Now and The English Patient, in collaboration with the Anglo-Iranian director Taghi Amirani, it tells the story of covert British intervention in Iran after the second world war and stars Ralph Fiennes, left, as an MI6 spy in a reconstruction of a key incident.