logo
episode-header-image
Mar 2025
29m 20s

History's Secret Heroes: Series 3: Noor ...

Bbc Radio 4
About this episode

A female agent, codename Madeleine, is sent to the heart of occupied France to transmit messages back to the Allies. Will the Nazis detect her?

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 Audio production for BBC Radio 4 and BBC Sounds.

Producers: Emma Weatherill and Suniti Somaiya Executive Producer: Paul Smith Written by Alex von Tunzelmann Commissioning editor for Radio 4: Rhian Roberts

Up next
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
Nov 4
History's Toughest Heroes: Constance Bulwer-Lytton: Suffragette Rebel
Constance Lytton was raised an aristocrat. But when she wakes up to women's suffrage, she goes undercover in solidarity, joining her working-class comrades in prison and staging a series of dangerous hunger strikes.In History's Toughest Heroes, Ray Winstone tells ten true stories ... Show More
28m 56s
Recommended Episodes
Sep 2024
Introducing Lady Swindlers
In this brand new series of Lady Killers with Lucy Worsley we switch our attention to the swindlers, conwomen and hustlers. This is where true crime meets history - with a twist. Join Lucy Worsley and a team of all female detectives as they travel back in time to revisit the auda ... Show More
3m 47s
Sep 14
Bletchley Park
During World War II, a country house in Buckinghamshire hosted some of the UK’s top minds as they worked to crack enemy communications, most famously the German Enigma cipher. It is estimated that breakthroughs at Bletchley Park shortened the conflict by at least two years, savin ... Show More
57m 32s
Jan 2024
Count Dracula
Maisie Adam, Stevie Martin and Johnny Cochrane prise open the coffin to assess the undead legend in the cold light of day. Superhero powers, seductive charm and also looks great in a cape. Genius, surely? Producer: Beth O’Dea Evil Genius with Russell Kane is a BBC Audio Bristol p ... Show More
46m 45s
Jun 2025
Napoleon
Napoleon Bonaparte. Was he a tiny tyrant who ruled with an iron first? Or a military mastermind who revolutionised warfare forever? Russell Kane reads from Napoleon's romantic fiction, tells of his battlefield exploits, and even shocking party trick that left women in tears. Cely ... Show More
40m 41s
Oct 19
The Cold War
For decades after the Second World War, the Soviet Union and the United States of America were locked in a conflict of ideology that took the planet to the brink of catastrophe. Known as the Cold War, it was an era of paranoia, fear and mutual suspicion, where the contest for sup ... Show More
57m 50s
Sep 28
86. Mossad Pager Attack: The Long War with Hezbollah (Ep 1)
"The smartphone is a lethal collaborator. " This was the stark warning from Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah in February 2024. In the wake of intense conflict with Israel, the group made a fateful decision to abandon high-tech communications. They knew that their phon ... Show More
52m 11s
Sep 7
80. The Man Who Saved The World: Making of a Traitor (Ep 1)
What makes a spy betray the very system that raised him? How does a loyal KGB officer, born into the service, become Britain’s most valuable Cold War agent? And how did one man’s intelligence reports help stop the world from sliding into nuclear confrontation? This is the story o ... Show More
45m 34s
Sep 30
87. Mossad Pager Attack: Crippling Hezbollah (Ep 2)
Hezbollah thought they’d found the perfect solution to Israeli surveillance: the pager. In the midst of their paranoia, they negotiated a cut-price deal for thousands of new devices, but what they received was a trap. The mass explosions on September 17 2024, injured 3,000 people ... Show More
47m 34s
Apr 2025
5. The Moment of Impact
First Officer Murdoch takes evasive action, attempting to swerve around the iceberg. As Titanic sustains multiple hull breaches, water starts flooding in. As chaos engulfs the engine room, Jimmy McGann and his pals do their best to shut down the engines. And the two wireless oper ... Show More
35m 34s