History's Secret Heroes: Series 3: Noor Khan: The Operator

History's Heroes

BBC

Documentary, History, Society & Culture

4.8 • 704 Ratings

🗓️ 4 March 2025

⏱️ 30 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

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

Transcript

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0:00.0	He tells her that she will be sent to France as a secret agent, and if she's caught, she's going to be shot.
0:09.3	I'm Helen Obalam Carter, and this is history's secret heroes, where I shine a light on extraordinary stories from World War II.
0:17.6	What they wanted was someone to get themselves arrested and sent to Auschwitz.
0:22.0	Tales of deception, an incredible acts of resistance and courage.
0:26.3	She was a born soldier.
0:27.4	She's a freedom fighter in its widest sense.
0:29.9	The brand new series of History's secret heroes.
0:32.8	Listen first on BBC Sounds.
0:36.2	BBC Sounds, music, radio, podcasts.
0:40.2	You're about to listen to a brand new series of History's Secret Heroes.
0:46.0	Episodes will be released on Tuesdays, wherever you get your podcasts.
0:50.6	But if you're in the UK and can't wait, you can hear the full series right now before
0:56.2	anywhere else, first on BBC Sounds.
1:00.4	Throughout hours of interrogation by the Gestapo, the agent remained silent.
1:06.3	She revealed no information about other radio operators working with Alan Paris.
1:11.7	Nothing about the French resistance.
1:14.1	Nothing about the information she sent back to Britain.
1:17.5	Finally, the interrogator, Ernest Focht, took a break.
1:22.4	He noted the date, the 13th of October, 1943.
1:27.3	Then he sent the agent up to the cells on the fifth floor of the Gestapo headquarters on Avenue Foch in Paris.
1:35.5	But the agent Noor and Ayat Khan had other plans.
1:40.3	So Noor is determined to escape.
	...

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