Last updated at 12:07 25 April 2007

Secretly-recorded phone conversations from the heart of Robert Maxwell's empire have been revealed for the first time after languishing in a study for more than 15 years.

The 79 cassettes include conversations between finance director Basil Brookes and the tycoon while he was on his luxury yacht, the Lady Ghislaine, just hours before he died.

The tapes had been sitting in a suitcase in the study of Maxwell's former security director and were only discovered when the BBC began work on a drama special about the final stages of the media baron's life.

Extracts from his conversations with Mr Brookes on November 4, 1991 - the day before he died - were broadcast for the first time on the Today programme this morning.

Maxwell, 68, went missing from his yacht as it cruised off the Canary Islands. His body was found floating in the water after an air-sea search.

After his death, it was discovered that his publishing empire was riddled with debt and that he had looted an estimated £400 million from the Mirror Group pension fund.

According to the BBC, the tycoon was keeping tabs on his employees and had asked his security director John Pole to record phone calls of those who stood up to him in a way that made him fear they were disloyal.

This included board members of Mirror Group Newspapers and Maxwell Communications Corporation, and trustees of the Mirror Group pension fund, the Corporation said.

Spare capacity on the internal phone system was used to wire specific phone extensions to a tape recorder, which would be activated whenever an employee picked up their phone.

Wires were discovered in the Mirror building in Holborn after Maxwell's death but the BBC claims nobody has heard the actual recordings until today.

The earliest tape dates to the summer of 1991 and the latest to December 1991, when the scale of Maxwell's frauds became public.

The conversations on November 4 show the pair trying to agree the final wording of Mr Brookes' resignation statement, which was due for release on November 5, 1991.

In the first, during the morning, Maxwell tells Mr Brookes: "I thought we would release it (the resignation statement) this evening", and the finance director agrees.

Then, in the afternoon, Maxwell phones Mr Brookes and asks him to send him the original draft because he has lost it and tells him to "Give it to Minky on a plain piece of paper."

Mr Brookes says: "You want me to give it to Minky and not Charlotte?", to which Maxwell responds: "That's right - there are too many eyes walk around in that office."

A third conversation at 4pm between the pair covers how to word the resignation and the tycoon says he would like to "have this thing wrapped up today" to release in the morning.

In the final conversation, Mr Brookes rings back to check the changes to the statement and Maxwell approves it, before saying he will speak to "Jeffrey" and "Peter" that night.

According to the tape, he told the finance director: "All right, well, I hope you are relieved that I stuck to that promise".

Towards the end of the conversation, Maxwell also promises to "facilitate it" for a man named as Ron to stay on and work in the company's interest but said it would have been "unhelpful" to have delayed Mr Brookes' departure.

Mr Brookes replies: "I do appreciate that Bob" and his boss signs off: "Not in the least - OK. Give my best to your family".

The tycoon's death the next day meant Mr Brookes' resignation was actually put to one side and he remained with the company until it went into administration.

Maxwell, starring David Suchet and Patricia Hodge, will be broadcast on BBC2 at 9pm on Friday, May 4.