Commissioned by the National Army Museum, we were asked to create two films for the Museum's Secondary School workshop: The Cold War: Mission Reconnaissance, featuring BRIXMIS - the British Commanders'-in-Chief Mission to the Soviet Forces in Germany, which was a military liaison mission which operated in East Germany during the Cold War.

This popular workshop helps students enhance their understanding of a key GCSE topic. To boost engagement with this project, we aimed for a lighter tone by creating a short animated activity project that the students could interact with, and inspire creativity through immersion into the world of BRIXMIS.

We also had the amazing opportunity to film an interview with a BRIXMIS veteran, which allowed for some of the remarkable first hand accounts of the top secret work of BRIXMIS to be shown.

This project could have been put down on a simple handout sheet, but it would have lacked any of the excitement, engagement, and immersion needed for an activity that seeks to take students back into the murky world of Cold War espionage. Our films fires the imagination, clearly presents the task at hand, and helps immerse the students into this remarkable period of our history.