History's Secret Heroes
by BBC Radio 4
Helena Bonham Carter shines light on extraordinary stories from World War Two.
Copyright: (C) BBC 2024
Episodes
16. Raymond Gurême: Escape Artist
29m · PublishedA young circus performer from a traveling family in France breaks out of an internment camp and dedicates himself to bringing the Nazis down.
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.
Producer: Suniti Somaiya Edit Producer: Melvin Rickarby Assistant Producer: Lorna Reader Executive Producer: Paul Smith Written by Alex von Tunzelmann Commissioning editor for Radio 4: Rhian Roberts
15. Josefina Guerrero: The Maid of Manila
28m · PublishedAfter contracting Hansen’s Disease, then known as leprosy, Josefina Guerrero makes a remarkable decision. She becomes a spy for the resistance in Manila.
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.
Producer: Suniti Somaiya Edit Producer: Melvin Rickarby Assistant Producer: Lorna Reader Executive Producer: Paul Smith Written by Alex von Tunzelmann Commissioning editor for Radio 4: Rhian Roberts
14. The Unbreakable Navajo Code
29m · PublishedA group of Native American soldiers use their language to devise a secret code for the Allies. Can the Navajo code help win one of the fiercest battles of the war?
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.
Producer: Suniti Somaiya Edit Producer: Melvin Rickarby Assistant Producer: Lorna Reader Executive Producer: Paul Smith Written by Alex von Tunzelmann Commissioning editor for Radio 4: Rhian Roberts
13. Christine Granville: The Spy Who Skied In from the Cold
28m · PublishedThrill-seeker Christine Granville offers to ski across enemy lines and over the deadly Carpathian mountains, into Nazi-occupied Poland to gather intelligence for the British. Churchill would later call her his favourite spy.
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.
Producer: Suniti Somaiya Edit Producer: Melvin Rickarby Assistant Producer: Lorna Reader Executive Producer: Paul Smith Written by Alex von Tunzelmann Commissioning editor for Radio 4: Rhian Roberts
12. Flying High with Johnny Smythe
29m · PublishedIn Sierra Leone, navigator Johnny Smythe becomes one of the first West African airmen to join the Royal Air Force. His fellow crew consider him as a lucky charm, but as he faces a series of terrifying flights, will his good fortune run 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.
A BBC Studios Audio production for BBC Radio 4 and BBC Sounds.
Producers: Suniti Somaiya and Elaina Boateng Edit Producer: Melvin Rickarby Assistant Producer: Lorna Reader Executive Producer: Paul Smith Written by Alex von Tunzelmann Commissioning editor for Radio 4: Rhian Roberts
11. The Extraordinary Cook Sisters
29m · PublishedHow did Ida and Louise Cook, two opera-loving sisters from England, help dozens of Jewish people escape Nazi Germany?
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.
Producer: Suniti Somaiya Edit Producer: Melvin Rickarby Assistant Producer: Lorna Reader Executive Producer: Paul Smith Written by Alex von Tunzelmann Commissioning editor for Radio 4: Rhian Roberts
Introducing History's Secret Heroes Series 2
2m · PublishedHelena Bonham Carter shines a light on extraordinary stories from World War Two. Join her for tales of deception, resistance and courage in History's Secret Heroes Series 2.
Introducing Lady Killers with Lucy Worsley
28m · PublishedJoin Lucy Worsley as she travels back in time to revisit the unthinkable crimes of 19th century murderesses from the UK, Australia and North America.
In this episode Lucy is joined by Evy Poumpouras, former special agent with the Secret Service, where she protected five US presidents as part of the Presidential Protective Division.
Lucy and Evy investigate the case of Mary Surratt, a 42 year-old widow, mother and pious Catholic who was arrested in April 1865 for conspiring to assassinate President Abraham Lincoln. He had been shot by former actor John Wilkes Booth while watching a play at Ford’s Theatre in Washington DC. One of the most sensational trials in US history followed, with prosecutors pushing for death sentences for everyone involved in the murder.
Lucy and Evy want to find out why the authorities were so sure that Surratt was involved in the assassination. They want to know what her story tells us about the lives of women at the close of the American Civil War. And they ask what happens when women step outside the domestic sphere and dare to get involved in protest and politics?
To find out more about the background to the Civil War and Lincoln’s assassination, Lucy asks Dr Nikki M Taylor, Professor of History at Howard University Washington DC, to go to Ford’s Theatre and to the Surratt House Museum, formerly Mary’s Surratt’s tavern in Maryland. Mary Surratt, she discovers, was a slave-holder and, like John Wilkes Booth, was horrified by Lincoln’s intention to end slavery and enfranchise African Americans.
Mary Surratt is an elusive and divisive woman. Lucy wants to know if she was a devoted mother attempting to make her way in the world - or a hard-hearted conspirator, a slave-holder and fanatical Confederate trying to reignite the civil war.
Produced in partnership with the Open University
Producer: Jane Greenwood Readers: Bill Hope, Jonathan Keeble and Laurel Lefkow Sound design: Chris Maclean Series Producer: Julia Hayball
A StoryHunter production for BBC Radio 4
You can hear all episodes of Lady Killers with Lucy Worsley on BBC Sounds - Available Episodes: http://bbc.in/3M2pT0K
10. Arslan Rezniqi and the Besa Code
30m · Published9. Jack King and the Fifth Column
28m · PublishedHistory's Secret Heroes has 19 episodes in total of non- explicit content. Total playtime is 8:21:19. The language of the podcast is English. This podcast has been added on June 4th 2023. It might contain more episodes than the ones shown here. It was last updated on May 12th, 2024 07:40.