logo
episode-header-image
May 6
29m 55s

History's Secret Heroes: Series 3: Ita E...

Bbc Radio 4
About this episode

After twelve weeks of nightly bombings, tensions are running high in London’s air raid shelters. Can warden Ita Ekpenyon stop a riot from breaking out?

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.

Contact: historys.heroes@bbc.com

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

Producer: Emma Weatherill Assistant Producer: Rachel Oakes Executive Producer: Paul Smith Written by Alex von Tunzelmann Ita Ekpenyon read by Jude Akuwudike Commissioning editor for Radio 4: Rhian Roberts

Up next
Jul 8
BONUS: Saving Face With Harold Gillies Part 2
How did Harold Gillies transform plastic surgery? An interview with the actor Daniel Gillies and his father Doctor John Gillies, on their descendant’s complicated legacy.Stories of bold voices, with brave ideas and the courage to stand alone. Historian Alex von Tunzelmann shines ... Show More
26m 13s
Jul 1
Rodgers & Hammerstein in the South Pacific
In 1949, a new musical production debuts on Broadway, holding up a mirror to the racial prejudices of American society. Stories of bold voices, with brave ideas and the courage to stand alone. Historian Alex von Tunzelmann shines a light on remarkable people from across history.A ... Show More
28m 37s
Jun 24
Katharine Hepburn: Queen of the Screen
How did the actor Katharine Hepburn challenge the conventions of Hollywood’s studio system?Stories of bold voices, with brave ideas and the courage to stand alone. Historian Alex von Tunzelmann shines a light on remarkable people from across history.Archive courtesy of The G.Robe ... Show More
28m 45s
Recommended Episodes
Nov 2023
Series 2: Josh Baker Answers Listener Questions
Josh answers your questions about Shamima Begum and the making of the multi-award winning series. Recorded in front of an audience at the BBC’s Radio Theatre in London, Naga Munchetty puts your questions to Josh including: what is it about this story that captures the imagination ... Show More
53m 6s
Nov 2024
Blitz: London's Burning (Part 1)
4pm, 7th September 1940, London. The first bombs on the Empire's capital fall. Death, shock and devastation rain. What happens next? We Have Ways tackles the people's war in this new series, taking a forensic dive into the history of the Nazi bombing raids that terrorised the UK ... Show More
52m 40s
May 28
Fidel Castro Part 5: The Bay of Pigs
A man who was right there tells us the tale of one of history’s most notorious military failures. Castro’s former lover is given a handful of poison capsules and dispatched to Fidel’s hotel. A Havana schoolboy crosses his fingers as the American bombing begins. And a young activi ... Show More
1 h
Oct 2022
British Academy Book Prize 2022
Deafness and communication, writing Chinese, women as killers in Chile, German postwar history, testimony from a Swedish village and a global history of science are the topics explored in the books shortlisted for this year's prize for Global Cultural Understanding run by the Bri ... Show More
45m 2s
May 2024
Episode 6: The Trials
The Belgrano affair reaches its climax as the stories of Narendra Sethia and Clive Ponting connect. The two whistleblowers appear in court and the diary makes its final journey. The Belgrano Diary is a new six-part series from the Documentary Team at the London Review of Books, h ... Show More
1h 1m
Oct 2023
The Abercrombie Guys: 5. Midnight in Marrakesh
A model is made a lucrative offer to meet the Abercrombie Guys in Morocco: “I'm going to Marrakesh, this is awesome!” But events, he says, take an unanticipated dark turn. Why was the event in Marrakesh, according to another man, “one of the sketchiest times”? Have you got a stor ... Show More
41m 34s
Sep 2024
The Rebel's Cinema—Frantz Fanon on Screen #2, with Kazembe Balagun and Brent Hayes Edwards
Last April, Film Comment invited writer Adam Shatz on the Podcast to talk about The Rebel’s Clinic: The Revolutionary Lives of Frantz Fanon, his new biography of the Martinican writer, psychiatrist, and anti-colonial revolutionary. The Podcast explored Fanon’s lasting impression ... Show More
50m 41s
Sep 2024
Jacqueline Wilson, JRR Tolkien poetry, BBC TV thriller Nightsleeper
Dame Jacqueline Wilson talks about Think Again, the long-awaited adult novel which is the sequel to her much-loved Girls series of books. Actors Alexandra Roach and Joe Cole discuss their roles in BBC One's latest Sunday night drama series Nightsleeper, a thriller in which a nigh ... Show More
42m 26s
Jun 27
Central Intelligence: Series 2: Episode 2
The story of the CIA, told from the inside out by long-serving CIA agent Eloise Page. Starring Kim Cattrall, Ed Harris, Johnny Flynn, Stephen Kunken and Kelly Marie Tran.In Episode 2.2, CIA’s maverick agent, Colonel Ed Lansdale attempts to bring South Vietnam behind one leader – ... Show More
30m 28s
Feb 2021
Series 1: 9. The rest be damned
After years of insisting she’s innocent, Sam pleads guilty and Moussa’s exes reveal more about the man that led her to Syria. Sam’s team claims she was “a wife under the thumb of her violently abusive and radical husband” but the prosecution says she has “credibility issues” and ... Show More
33m 32s