History's Secret Heroes: Series 2: Christine Granville: The Spy Who Skied In From The Cold

History's Heroes

BBC

Documentary, History, Society & Culture

4.8 • 704 Ratings

🗓️ 15 April 2024

⏱️ 29 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Thrill-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

Transcript

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0:00.0	Did you know that you can listen to many of your favourite podcasts first on BBC Sounds?
0:06.6	Like Desert Island Discs, where you can hear castaways like Cher, Gareth Southgate and Nick Cave,
0:12.7	and enjoy longer versions of the music they've picked.
0:15.7	Good things come to those who don't wait.
0:18.7	Listen to your favourite podcasts first on BBC Sounds BBC Sounds music radio
0:26.5	podcasts you're about to listen to brand new history's secret heroes episodes will be
0:33.6	released on Mondays wherever you get your podcasts but if you're in the UK and can't wait,
0:39.2	you can hear the full series right now, before anyone else.
0:42.8	First on BBC Sounds.
0:46.2	December 1939, St James's, London, the headquarters of the British Secret Service.
0:53.6	George Taylor was told that a member of the public had just stormed into the foyer.
0:59.0	She wanted to speak to a senior agent.
1:01.6	She is banging on the door, and not so much volunteering as demanding, to be taken on.
1:06.9	Reluctantly, Taylor agreed to see her.
1:10.3	He rounded up some colleagues.
1:12.6	The doors swung open to reveal a young woman of extraordinary charisma.
1:17.6	And you can just imagine the look on those men's faces.
1:20.6	In his notes, Taylor described a very smart-looking girl simply dressed.
1:26.6	Her name was Countess Christina Skarlbeck.
1:30.9	She's a Polish national.
1:32.5	And the first thing you have to be to work for the British Secret Intelligence Services is actually a British national.
1:37.1	So she's disqualified immediately.
	...

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