Faced with an army mutiny and violent demonstrations against his rule, Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, the leader of Iran since 1941, is forced to flee the country. Fourteen days later, the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the spiritual leader of the Islamic revolution, returned after 15 years of exile and took control of Iran.

In 1941, British and Soviet troops occupied Iran, and the first Pahlavi shah, who they regarded with suspicion, was forced to abdicate in favor of his son, Mohammad Reza. The new shah promised to act as a constitutional monarch but often meddled in the elected government’s affairs. After a Communist plot against him was thwarted in 1949, he took on even more powers. However, in the early 1950s, the shah was eclipsed by Mohammad Mosaddeq, a zealous Iranian nationalist who convinced the Parliament to nationalize Britain’s extensive oil interests in Iran. Mohammad Reza, who maintained close relations with Britain and the United States, opposed the decision. Nevertheless, he was forced in 1951 to appoint Mosaddeq premier, and two years of tension followed.

In August 1953, Mohammad Reza attempted to dismiss Mosaddeq, but the premier’s popular support was so great that the shah himself was forced out of Iran. A few days later, British and U.S. intelligence agents orchestrated a stunning coup d’etat against Mosaddeq, and the shah returned to take power as the sole leader of Iran. He repealed Mosaddeq’s legislation and became a close Cold War ally of the United States in the Middle East.

In 1963, the shah launched his “White Revolution,” a broad government program that included land reform, infrastructure development, voting rights for women, and the reduction of illiteracy. Although these programs were applauded by many in Iran, Islamic leaders were critical of what they saw as the westernization of Iran. Ruhollah Khomeini, a Shiite cleric, was particularly vocal in his criticism and called for the overthrow of the shah and the establishment of an Islamic state. In 1964, Khomeini was exiled and settled across the border in Iraq, where he sent radio messages to incite his supporters.

The shah saw himself foremost as a Persian king and in 1971 held an extravagant celebration of the 2,500th anniversary of the pre-Islamic Persian monarchy. In 1976, he formally replaced the Islamic calendar with a Persian calendar. Religious discontent grew, and the shah became more repressive, using his brutal secret police force to suppress opposition. This alienated students and intellectuals in Iran, and support for Khomeini grew. Discontent was also rampant in the poor and middle classes, who felt that the economic developments of the White Revolution had only benefited the ruling elite. In 1978, anti-shah demonstrations broke out in Iran’s major cities.

On September 8, 1978, the shah’s security force fired on a large group of demonstrators, killing hundreds and wounding thousands. Two months later, thousands took to the streets of Tehran, rioting and destroying symbols of westernization, such as banks and liquor stores. Khomeini called for the shah’s immediate overthrow, and on December 11 a group of soldiers mutinied and attacked the shah’s security officers. With that, his regime collapsed and the shah fled.

The shah traveled to several countries before entering the United States in October 1979 for medical treatment of his cancer. In Tehran, Islamic militants responded on November 4 by storming the U.S. embassy and taking the staff hostage. With the approval of Khomeini, the militants demanded the return of the shah to Iran to stand trial for his crimes. The United States refused to negotiate, and 52 American hostages  were held for 444 days. Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi died in Egypt in July 1980. 

Argo: The true story behind Ben Affleck's Globe-winning film

Ben Affleck's film Argo tells the bizarre story of how in 1980 the CIA - with Canadian help - sprang a group of Americans from Iran after they escaped a US embassy overrun by protestors.  The film, which has received seven Oscar nominations including one for best picture, is based on real-life events. But how much of it is fiction?

When Mark Lijek took Tehran as his first posting in the US foreign service, he knew he wasn't opting for an easy life. "I was asked to volunteer in October 1978 and things in Iran were already pretty bad," he explains. "There were violent demonstrations on the streets and it wasn't at all clear the Shah could survive. Then in January he abdicated and left the country."  Mark did a six-month course in Farsi before arriving in Iran in the summer of 1979, followed by his wife. Cora Lijek wasn't a foreign service official but was given a contract because the embassy urgently needed Farsi speakers.  The couple couldn't have guessed how quickly they would find themselves in extraordinary circumstances.

The US embassy in Tehran consisted of 26 acres surrounded by more than a mile of wall, with only 13 marines to protect it. Not long before Mark's arrival it had been overrun by anti-American protestors who had left after a few hours.  So when demonstrators again broke in, early on 4 November 1979, Mark initially assumed the same thing might happen.  "Mainly the protest was because America had chosen to admit the Shah for medical treatment. The consular building, where Cora and I worked, was at least five minutes from the main chancery building and had its own door onto the street  "The people who broke in forgot about us or initially didn't much care."

Mark Lijek, now retired, is impressed with how Ben Affleck stages the taking of the US embassy in Argo, a sequence filmed partly in Istanbul and partly on location in California.  "It was almost the first time I'd thought deeply about what it must have been like for the 50 or so Americans in the main building," he tells the BBC. "Those scenes were quite difficult to watch."  It is after the six Americans slip away from the embassy that Argo becomes a masterclass in reshaping reality into a Hollywood hit.  The screenplay has the escapees - Mark and Cora Lijek, Bob Anders, Lee Schatz and Joe and Kathy Stafford - settling down to enforced cohabitation at the residence of the Canadian ambassador Ken Taylor.

In reality, after several nights - including one spent in the UK residential compound - the group was split between the Taylor house and the home of another Canadian official, John Sheardown.  Mark Lijek says he can see why Argo makes the switch. "That group dynamic builds the tension, I suppose, and makes it seem more dramatic when there's disagreement.  "However, it's not true we could never go outside. John Sheardown's house had an interior courtyard with a garden and we could walk there freely.  "But it is true we had little to do except read books and play Scrabble. We drank quite a lot too."

The screenplay ratchets up the tension when an Iranian maid at the Canadian ambassador's residence guesses who his guests are. "Kathy Stafford, who was at the ambassador's, calls that a composite character," continues Lijek.  "I think some Iranian employees probably did work out who the Staffords were, but it was a highly theoretical risk."

The central element of the story sounds incredible but is in fact true. The CIA cooked up a plan to spirit the six out of the country on a scheduled flight from Tehran's Mehrabad airport, masquerading as Canadians working on a non-existent science-fiction film.  Mark Lijek recalls that, of the group, he was the most immediately enthusiastic. "I thought it had the right amount of pizzazz. Who but film-makers would be crazy enough to come to Tehran in the middle of a revolution? I had no problem pretending to be in the movie industry."

The truth - which Argo artfully obscures - is that the cover story was never tested and in some ways proved irrelevant to the escape.  There is a sequence in the film where the six go on a location scout in Tehran to create the impression they are movie people. According to Mark, the scene is total fiction . "We could never have done that. Our story was to be that the Canadian ambassador had strongly advised us not to scout for locations because of instability on the streets.

"If asked, we were going to say we were leaving Iran to return when it was safer. But no one ever asked!"  In retrospect, Mark Lijek thinks the value of the cover story was to give the escapees the confidence to get through the ordeal at the airport.  Argo's final scenes are superbly tense, as the six make it onto the plane by the skin of their teeth. The CIA had given them false departure documents for which, of course, there were no matching arrival forms.  The big climax is a heart-pounding chase down the runway as gun-toting members of the Revolutionary Guard try to stop them taking off.  "Absolutely none of that happened," says Mark.  "It's true there could have been problems with documentation - it was our biggest vulnerability.  "But the Agency had done its homework and knew the Iranian border authorities habitually made no attempt to reconcile documents.  "Fortunately for us, there were very few Revolutionary Guards about. It's why we turned up for a flight at 5.30 in the morning; even they weren't zealous enough to be there that early.  "The truth is the immigration officers barely looked at us and we were processed out in the regular way. We got on the flight to Zurich and then we were taken to the US ambassador's residence in Berne. It was that straightforward."

The six were meant to live in Florida under assumed names until the release of other embassy personnel held hostage in Tehran, which came in January 1981. But the plan was dropped when reports of the escape appeared in newspapers.

In 1981, a TV movie called Escape from Iran: The Canadian Caper told the story minus the CIA's involvement. The agency didn't admit its role until 1997.  Mark says it came as a relief when he could finally talk openly about the events in Iran. He's a fan of Argo and takes a wryly amused view of how it burnishes the truth to dramatic effect.  Of course, Mark is wise to the ways of film-makers. Back in the 1980s, he was briefly in movies himself.

BBC World Service - The Fall of the Shah

Fall Of The Shah tracks the collapse of the Shah of Iran and the rise of a forceful new Islamic Republic.

The visceral epic drama is seen from a range of vantage points: within the Shah’s royal circle; in the torturers’ prison; on the bloody streets of Tehran; at the heart of Ayatollah Khomeini’s revolutionary leadership; in the confused reactions within a sometime occupied American Embassy and right up in the White House itself.

The revolution that shook the world. A drama based on real events in Iran 40 years ago. Starring Dame Diana Rigg.