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Nov 2019
50m 26s

Britain's secret propaganda war

Bbc World Service
About this episode
Subversive warfare and 'fake news' in World War Two, the scandal which exposed horrific Indian police violence in the 1980s, two sides of the Iran hostages crisis in 1979, the woman who transformed cancer treatment, and a defining Berlin Wall rock concert. Photo The actress and singer Agnes Bernelle, who was recruited to be a presenter on a fake German radi ... Show More
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