Join us for a British Sign Language (BSL) led tour of our new exhibition 'MI5: Official Secrets'.
Step inside the hidden world of MI5 and explore the extraordinary stories behind the security of a nation.
For the first time, MI5’s history will go on display to the public in a major new exhibition, made possible through an unprecedented partnership between the Security Service and The National Archives.
Explore the ever-changing world of espionage and security threats through original case files, photographs and papers, alongside the real equipment used by spies and spy-catchers over MI5’s 115-year history.
From counter-espionage and daring double-agents during the world wars, to chilling Cold War confessions and the counter-terrorism of recent times, this historic exhibition will take you behind the scenes of one of Britain’s most iconic institutions.
Our BSL guide, John Wilson, will be delivering a BSL tour at 11:00 on Saturday, 30 August 2025. The tour is open to all British Sign Language users.
About the tour guide:
John Wilson was born deaf. He is a freelance consultant working in the field of Deaf Arts and British Sign Language, with a wide range of experience as a deaf arts practitioner, a theatre and television actor, a creative signer, and a director of numerous productions ranging from devised performances to BSL translations of Shakespeare. His work as a sign poet and performer has been well received, and John has been part of several projects both in the UK and internationally to promote creative sign through the medium of BSL.
John works with a long list of major museums and galleries across the UK, including the Tate Galleries, National Gallery, National Portrait Gallery, National Maritime Museum, and the Royal Collection at Windsor Castle and Buckingham Palace. He leads BSL tours at London Zoo and is an accredited BSL guide at Hampton Court Palace and Highgate Cemetery. From 2017 to 2020 he was curator of a programme of BSL tours at the Royal Academy of Arts – the first profoundly deaf person to hold such a role. Likewise in 2020 he was the first profoundly deaf person appointed as External Examiner by the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. John has also previously been a Trustee of the British Sign Language Broadcasting Trust which makes films and TV for the Deaf community in BSL.
