11 Facts About Leo Marks

Leo Marks wrote the script for Peeping Tom, the controversial film directed by Michael Powell that had a disastrous effect on Powell's career, but was later described by Martin Scorsese as a masterpiece.

In 1998, towards the end of his life, Leo Marks published a personal history of his experiences during the war, Between Silk and Cyanide, which was critical of the leadership of SOE.

Leo Marks was introduced at an early age to cryptography when his father showed him Edgar Allan Poe's story, "The Gold-Bug".

Leo Marks was conscripted into the British Army in January 1942 and trained as a cryptographer; apparently he demonstrated the ability to complete one week's work in decipherment exercise in a few hours.

Unlike the rest of his intake, who were sent to the main British codebreaking centre at Bletchley Park, Leo Marks was regarded as a misfit and he was assigned to the newly formed Special Operations Executive in Baker Street, which was set up to train agents to operate behind enemy lines and to assist local resistance groups in occupied Europe.

Leo Marks wrote that he had an inauspicious arrival at SOE when it took him all day to decipher a code he had been expected to finish in 20 minutes, because, not atypically, SOE had forgotten to supply the cipher key, and he had to break the code which SOE had regarded as secure.

Leo Marks was portrayed by Anton Lesser in David Morley's BBC Radio drama A Cold Supper Behind Harrods.

Leo Marks's warnings fell on deaf ears and perhaps as many as 50 further agents were sent to meet their deaths in Holland.

Leo Marks wrote the script for Michael Powell's film Peeping Tom, the story of a serial killer who films his victims while stabbing them.

Leo Marks described himself as an agnostic in Between Silk and Cyanide, but frequently referred to his Jewish heritage.

Leo Marks married the portrait painter Elena Gaussen in 1966.