logo
episode-header-image
Jul 2023
29m 21s

History's Secret Heroes: Series 1: The M...

Bbc Radio 4
About this episode

His codename was Garbo. The identity of one of World War Two’s most successful double agents, a man who diverted the German Army away from the D-Day landings, is finally revealed.

Helena Bonham Carter shines a light on extraordinary stories from World War Two. Join her for incredible tales of deception, acts of resistance and courage.

A BBC Studios Podcast production for BBC Radio 4 and BBC Sounds.

Producer: Clem Hitchcock Executive Producer: Paul Smith Written by Alex von Tunzelmann

Up next
Yesterday
History's Toughest Heroes: Margery Kempe: Ministry of Tears
<p>Margery Kempe always tells it like it is. But in Medieval England, such straight-talking can get a woman killed...</p><p>In History's Toughest Heroes, Ray Winstone tells ten true stories of adventurers, rebels and survivors who lived life on the edge.</p><p>Born in Kings Lynne ... Show More
28m 22s
Nov 18
History's Toughest Heroes: Henry Johnson: Hellfighter
<p>A Black soldier from the American South makes headlines when he fights off an entire German party in World War One. But his fame comes at a price.</p><p>In History's Toughest Heroes, Ray Winstone tells ten true stories of adventurers, rebels and survivors who lived life on the ... Show More
28m 35s
Nov 11
History's Toughest Heroes: Hugh Glass: The Real Story of The Revenant
The real-life Revenant who survived a savage bear mauling and crawled hundreds of miles across the American plains to confront the scoundrels who abandoned him.In History's Toughest Heroes, Ray Winstone tells ten true stories of adventurers, rebels and survivors who lived life on ... Show More
28m 29s
Recommended Episodes
Feb 2020
1: Over And Out
An American soldier is killed in the Second World War. Kim battles to save refugees. Their worlds collide through a glitch in reality.Starring Peter Bankole (Peaky Blinders), and written by Tom Crowley, a regular actor and writer on the hugely successful audio drama podcast ‘Wood ... Show More
28m 43s
Apr 2024
Hollywood Spy: The British WW1 Hero Who Helped Japan Attack Pearl Harbour
<p>Frederick Rutland was one of Britain's finest naval pilots and a celebrated hero of the First World War. And yet in the interwar period, he would become a turncoat, feeding information to Japanese intelligence whilst living undercover in the glitz and glamour of 1930s Hollywoo ... Show More
25m 28s
Nov 2019
Britain's secret propaganda war
How sex, jazz and 'fake news' were used to undermine the Nazis in World War Two. In 1941, the UK created a top secret propaganda department, the Political Warfare Executive to wage psychological warfare on the German war machine. It was responsible for spreading rumours, generati ... Show More
13m 55s
Mar 2023
The Making of 'All Quiet on the Western Front'
<p><em>All Quiet on the Western Front</em> is the 2022 film adaptation of Erich Maria Remarque's famous anti-war novel. Told from the German perspective, it presents a gruelling depiction of life and death in the First World War, emphasising the despair and disillusionment of the ... Show More
24m 20s
Jun 2023
Toto Koopman: Socialite, Vogue Model and WWII Spy
<p>Toto Koopman was remarkable; she was a high society socialite who risked her life wining and dining with Italian blackshirts in order to gather information for the Dutch intelligence service in WWII. When she refused to work as a spy for the Italians, she was thrown in a deten ... Show More
28m 34s
Nov 2023
1 - Eisenhower’s masterplan and the Airborne assault
Tuesday, 6 June 1944 was barely an hour old when Major John Howard and the men of D Company, Ox and Bucks Light Infantry, hurtled out of the night sky above Normandy. Behind them the largest invasion force ever to set sail was approaching the French coast. After four long and bru ... Show More
52m 43s
Jan 2023
6. The National Dictatorship is Here!
In what became known as the Beer Hall Putsch, the Nazis seize power in Munich, now intending to march on Berlin and announce a national dictatorship led by Hitler. But first they must take control of all the police forces and the infantry barracks, and it’s essential they shut do ... Show More
22 m
Mar 2024
The man who ran Auschwitz: the real story of The Zone of Interest
The Oscar-nominated film The Zone of Interest is one of the most acclaimed and talked about films of 2024. Directed by Jonathan Glazer and loosely based on a novel of the same name by Martin Amis, The Zone of Interest focuses on the life of Rudolf Höss and his family during the S ... Show More
39m 39s
Jun 2022
The Bayeux Tapestry
Greg Jenner is joined by special guests Dr Janina Ramirez and Lou Sanders in 11th-century Europe to take a close look at the Bayeux Tapestry. They explore the history of this famous artefact which is in fact, not a tapestry at all! Who commissioned it, and more importantly who ma ... Show More
55m 11s