E53 - You might have heard of
December 2016 Fifty years after World War Two, a farewell party was held for Veterans of the Government Code and Cypher School, at the ramshackle site where they had carried out vital intelligence work. It was about to be bulldozed for housing, but the party bolstered a burgeoning desire to save and preserve it for future generations. Then, more so than now, Codebreakers from all levels of the...
59m Dec 11, 2016
59m
E52 - Everything but the work
November 2016 Fun, food and friendships at 1940s Bletchley Park were among the most popular topics of conversation at the party that saved the site. Travel back 25 years for another dip into the memories shared by the Veterans that day in 1991, about everything but the work - from digs to dances. It was quite a party, carefully timed to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the letter sent to...
59m Nov 15, 2016
59m
E51 - The Party that Saved Bletchley Park
October 2016 The Party that Saved Bletchley Park takes you back 25 years, to the first Veterans’ reunion. On 19 October 1991 Bletchley Park was about to be bulldozed for housing. A group of local historians organised the first - and, they thought, last - reunion of Veterans of the Government Code and Cypher School in the very buildings where they did their war work. They believed it would be ...
59m Oct 18, 2016
59m
E50 - The Welchman Connection
September 2016 Action This Day! In our historic anniversary-based series, It Happened Here, we look at a paper-based act of daring which changed the course of history. Seventy five years ago Winston Churchill visited Bletchley Park, amid the utmost secrecy. He understood how important the intelligence being produced was, and valued it highly. He gave a morale-boosting speech to the Codebreake...
54m Sep 11, 2016
54m
E49 - Enigma from the other side
August 2016 Hear from a German Enigma operator for the first time in the August 2016 episode of the Bletchley Park Podcast, Enigma from the other side. Sharing her unique story as part of Bletchley Park’s Oral History Project, Irmgard Enge, later Copley, tells how she was part of a secret operation to make sure the Allies did not find out how badly German aeroplanes and munitions factories we...
55m Aug 11, 2016
55m
E48 - Pinches and Breaks
July 2016 Dive into stories of stolen intelligence treasures which helped turn the tide in the Battle of the Atlantic in the July 2016 episode of the Bletchley Park Podcast, Pinches and Breaks. As part of the historic anniversary-based series, It Happened Here, we hear from Arnold Hargreaves, a seaman aboard HMS Bulldog, who boarded the captured German submarine, U110, and still has the spoil...
58m Jul 13, 2016
58m
E47 - No Sleep on VE Day
June 2016 No Sleep on VE Day, a brand new episode of the Bletchley Park Podcast, is out now. Cynthia Humble was an intercept operator in the ATS from 1944 and was stationed at Forest Moor in the Yorkshire countryside. There she listened intently to enciphered Morse signals which were whisked off to a place she and her colleagues knew only as Station X. Her memories of the intense work, the so...
52m Jun 12, 2016
52m
E46 - The Bismarck
May 2016 This month in the Bletchley Park Podcast’s It Happened Here series, we tell the story of The Bismarck. The iconic German battleship was sunk by the Royal Navy 75 years ago. While this clearly did not happen at Bletchley Park, but in the Atlantic Ocean, codebreaking and some of the pioneering techniques developed as part of it played a crucial role in locating the flagship of the Germa...
55m May 10, 2016
55m
E45 - Punch Cards, Porridge and a Pittance
April 2016 This episode of the Bletchley Park Podcast, Punch Cards, Porridge and a Pittance, celebrates five years since Bletchley Park’s Oral History project began in earnest. This rich archive has grown to more than three hundred interviews and this month we begin to celebrate its fifth anniversary, by sharing the very first interview that was carried out under its auspices. Doris Marshall...
47m Apr 11, 2016
47m
Extra - E49 - Bletchley's Foreign Relations with Tony Comer Part 2
March 2016 In November 2015, the GCHQ Departmental Historian made a rare public appearance as part of the Bletchley Park Presents lecture series. Tony gave a talk titled International Partnerships - Bletchley's Foreign Relations. In this second part of his talk he picks up the story with the fundamental work on Enigma carried out by Polish Codebreakers in the years running up to the start of W...
27m Mar 29, 2016
27m
Its significance resonates down to today
March 2016 Dr David A Hatch, NSA Historian, explains the huge historic significance of the letter sent by General Dwight D Eisenhower, the five-star general in the United States Army during World War Two who served as Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces in Europe, to the Chief of MI6, Stuart Menzies, at the end of the war, thanking him for the intelligence produced by Bletchley Park. In it...
3m Mar 16, 2016
3m
E44 - Bombe Girls
March 2016 In this month’s brand new episode of the Bletchley Park Podcast, Bombe Girls, meet some of the trailblazing women who were assigned to Special Duties X or posted to HMS Pembroke 5 when they joined the Wrens (Women’s Royal Naval Service or WRNS). These women found themselves at Bletchley Park - or, in many cases - at one of its huge, industrial outstations on the fringes of London -...
59m Mar 10, 2016
59m
Extra - E48 - Bletchley's Foreign Relations with Tony Comer Part 1
March 2016 In November 2015, the GCHQ Departmental Historian made a rare public appearance as part of the Bletchley Park Presents lecture series. Tony gave a talk titled International Partnerships - Bletchley's Foreign Relations. In this first part of his talk he examined how foreign partnerships became an integral part of British signals intelligence shortly before World War Two. Although pa...
29m Mar 03, 2016
29m
E43 - The Special Relationship
February 2016 75 years ago, a tentative meeting was held late at night, aided by sherry, in the office of Alastair Denniston, then Head of the Government Code and Cypher School. It was to prove an important turning point in the history of both the UK and the US. That night, as intelligence secrets were shared, the Special Relationship was founded. That alliance continues to be crucial to both...
59m Feb 10, 2016
59m
E42 - It Happened Here
January 2016 Throughout 2016, the Bletchley Park Podcast will tell stories of the Codebreakers’ successes and agonies - all of which they kept completely secret. This month, it’s not German and it’s not Enigma. With help from Bletchley Park’s Research Historian, Dr David Kenyon, we look into the high level Italian ciphers being broken by Bletchley Park, which impacted significantly on the war...
57m Jan 10, 2016
57m
Celebrating family pride
December 2015 Veterans’ families encouraged to join community and buy a brick Pride burns bright in relatives of the men and women whose secret work at Bletchley Park and its outstations helped shorten World War Two. The Bletchley Park Trust is in touch with more than 1,500 Veterans of the clandestine codebreaking organisation, the Government Code and Cypher School. Many more are no longer w...
4m Dec 29, 2015
4m
The Petard Pinch
December 2015 A story full of heroism and tragedy is now told at Bletchley Park in a new mini exhibition. The Petard Pinch was the seizure of vital codebooks from a sinking U-Boat in which two young men drowned. But they didn’t die in vain - the intelligence treasures they captured were extremely valuable. They allowed the Codebreakers at Bletchley Park to break back into the naval Enigma net...
4m Dec 17, 2015
4m
E41 - Best Ever Year
December 2015 Bletchley Park has had its best ever year. In the whole of 2014, 196,000 people came to discover the secret world of World War Two codebreaking and this year, with nearly a month still to go, the figure stands at more than 280,000 thousand. New exhibitions which opened this year included The Road to Bletchley Park, about codebreaking during World War One, and the little-known st...
59m Dec 10, 2015
59m
Extra - E47 - How computers were used against Hitler
December 2015 Professor Jack Copeland, Director of the Turing Archive for the History of Computing, celebrated another forgotten hero of Bletchley Park, Max Newman, as part of the Bletchley Park Presents lecture series. His August talk ‘How Computers Were Used Against Hitler’, was a huge success. Professor Copeland explored the story of little-recognised Codebreaker Max Newman, whose work was...
42m Dec 04, 2015
42m
Extra - E46 - Last chance to see That is All You Need to Know
November 2015 Time is running out to see That is All You Need to Know, an original play which shines a light on the Home of the Codebreakers. Created by theatre company, Idle Motion, the work pulls together three different strands of Bletchley Park’s history; Alan Turing and his team breaking the Enigma code during World War Two, Gordon Welchman writing his ground-breaking book, The Hut Six S...
10m Nov 24, 2015
10m
Did Churchill know Coventry was about to be bombed?
November 2015 In the throes of war, difficult decisions have to be made. Prime Minister Winston Churchill was fully aware that Bletchley Park was breaking German codes, and even received regular digests of the intelligence gleaned, known as Hut 3 Headlines. However, a myth was born in the mid-1970s that remains in circulation even now. The theory was that messages decoded by Bletchley Park wa...
5m Nov 13, 2015
5m
E40 - The Coventry Myth
November 2015 Hindsight can be cruel. The conspiracy theory that Churchill allowed Coventry to be bombed beyond recognition, killing hundreds of civilians, in order to protect the Ultra secret - that Bletchley Park was breaking German codes - is a myth. In this episode we bring you memories of the devastating air raid on Coventry, which took place 75 years ago, on 14 November 1940. Hear from ...
59m Nov 10, 2015
59m
When she speaks of Bletchley, a light comes into her eyes
November 2015 Sarah Harding’s mother remembers Bletchley Park as a happy place. Dorothy Harding, nee Thompson, worked as a Morse slip reader in the Communications Centre from 1943 to the end of the war. Many years later, Sarah directed the hit ITV drama, The Bletchley Circle, about four fictional women who worked at the Government Code and Cypher School during World War Two and, some ten year...
1m Nov 06, 2015
1m
Extra - E45 - Anthony and Michael de Grey - Cementing Family Ties
October 2015 The Bletchley Park Trust is reaching out to Veterans’ families, to create a worldwide community of people with a special link to this unique piece of British history. The Trust is inviting relatives of the Codebreakers to cement their family ties with the breath-taking achievements of the Bletchley Park operation during World War Two. Their names and the importance of what they di...
29m Oct 24, 2015
29m
E39 - Forgotten Genius
October 2015 In Forgotten Genius, the October 2015 episode of the Bletchley Park Podcast, we take you to the opening of a brand new, fascinating exhibition about Gordon Welchman, Bletchley Park’s Architect of Ultra Intelligence. Hear from Welchman’s granddaughter, Jennifer, who flew in specially to be at the launch and from his Hut 6 colleague, Jimmy Thirsk, who at the age of 101 is one of the...
59m Oct 10, 2015
59m
Last chance to see The Imitation Game, The Exhibition
October 2015 You’ve seen the Oscar winning film, now visit the set and get a rare insight into how the story of genius Codebreaker Alan Turing was brought to life. Benedict Cumberbatch said Filming at Bletchley Park was amazing. It was a very important part of the film. In the Ballroom and Billiard Rooms of the Mansion, this atmospheric exhibition is all about the making of The Imitation Game...
3m Oct 02, 2015
3m
Extra - E44 - Commander Dennistons Granddaughters
September 2015 On 29 July Bletchley Park’s Royal Patron, HRH The Duke of Kent, officially opened the major new exhibition, The Road to Bletchley Park, telling the story of codebreaking during World War One. Many of those World War One Codebreakers went on to work at Bletchley Park during World War Two. Among them was Alastair Denniston the first operational head of the Government Code and Cyph...
19m Sep 30, 2015
19m
Rory Cellan-Jones - Loebner Prize Judge
September 2015 Chatbots have yet to fool the judges of the Loebner Prize into believing they’re human at the Loebner Prize. The 25th annual Artificial Intelligence competition, which puts the Turing test into practice, has ended without any of the judges being duped. The BBC’s Technology Correspondent, Rory Cellan-Jones, was one of the four judges. He says it was easy to tell which of the con...
7m Sep 21, 2015
7m
Bletchley Park Presents Gordon Corera
September 2015 On 18 October the BBC’s Security Correspondent, Gordon Corera, will give a talk at Bletchley Park about his new book which traces the intertwined history of computing and espionage, Intercept – The Secret History of Computers and Spies. The computer was born to spy. Under the intense pressure of the Second World War and in the confines of Bletchley Park, the work of men like Al...
3m Sep 17, 2015
3m
E38 - We Meet Again
September 2015 Nearly ninety Veterans of the Government Code and Cypher School and its many outstations gathered at Bletchley Park on Sunday 6 September, to reminisce and meet old friends and new. After a summer of 70th anniversary commemorations, it was a chance for people who worked in secret at both Bletchley Park and its outstations to remember their contribution. They took the opportunit...
59m Sep 10, 2015
59m
VJ Day - when it was still a secret
August 2015 Seventy years ago on the 15th August 1945, small group of young women were quietly at work in Hut 16 at Bletchley Park. They included twins Valerie and Mary Glassborow, who later married brothers and among whose grandchildren was a girl who became HRHThe Duchess of Cambridge. Marion Graham (later Body) was also in that room in Hut 16, which Hut 6 was renamed as the codebreaking fa...
4m Aug 14, 2015
4m
E37 - Royal Patron
August 2015 In this episode we take you to the royal launch of a major new exhibition, which looks at the roots of codebreaking as we know it. The Road to Bletchley Park was officially opened on July the 29th by Bletchley Park’s Royal Patron, HRH, The Duke of Kent. We have interviews with the designer, a sponsor, our friendly GCHQ Historian & family members of two of the WW1 codebreakers. Thi...
59m Aug 10, 2015
59m
The Road to Bletchley Park
Today Bletchley Park’s Royal Patron, HRH The Duke of Kent, will officially open a major new exhibition telling the story of Codebreaking in World War One, The Road to Bletchley Park. The Duke will meet representatives of the exhibition’s sponsors, BAE Systems and Ultra Electronics, as well as visiting new displays and exhibitions updated since his last visit in 2009. Timed to coincide with the...
3m Jul 29, 2015
3m
E36 - Find a Codebreaker in your family
July 2015 This brand new episode celebrates five years of the Roll of Honour, which aims to record all those who worked at Bletchley Park and its outstations during World War Two. It now holds nearly 11 thousand names, as well as a rich archive of memories, anecdotes and photographs. Also this month, hear from Bletchley Park Veteran Betty Webb MBE, about how keeping news of her honour secret ...
51m Jul 12, 2015
51m
E35 - The Road to Bletchley Park
June 2015 This month’s episode provides a peek at a major new exhibition at Bletchley Park, aboutcodebreaking during World War One. The roots of Bletchley Park’s codebreaking success in World War Two can be clearly traced back to WW1, when several of the key figures of the Government Code and Cypher School were already engaged in the business of snooping into the enemy’s communications. The Ro...
54m Jun 10, 2015
54m
E34 - Remembering VE Day & Beyond
May 2015 First this month we talk to our official photographer Shaun Armstrong who’s pictures help to tell the story of our new exhibition; Bletchley Park Rescued and Restored. Shaun was on hand to capture images from the start of the £8 million phase one restoration project, right through to the official opening in June 2014 by HRH The Duchess of Cambridge. Sarah Harding, director of the 2nd...
59m May 11, 2015
59m
Bletchley Park Veterans remember VE Day
May 2015 70 years ago on May the 7th 1945 General Jodl signed the unconditionalsurrender of all German forces inEurope. The next day thenbecame Victory in Europe Day. In this clip we bring you some of the sounds from those two monumental days along with the memories of someof our amazing Veterans that we havehad the honour to interview over nearlythree years now. This clip includes, Betty F...
4m May 07, 2015
4m
E33 - Rescued and Restored
April 2015 This month we take you into our new Hut 12 Exhibit; Rescued and Restored, showcasing historical treasures found during the transformation of the Huts and Blocks. When conservation specialists were brought in to rescue fragile, derelict buildings as part of the much needed first phase of restoration, little could they know what they might find. In the cracks between roof beams in Hut...
55m Apr 13, 2015
55m
E32 - Turings Pay Tribute
March 2015 This month join us on a very special tour of Bletchley Park, when more than twenty members of Alan Turing’s family gathered to pay tribute to his contribution to the war-winning intelligence that emerged from this unassuming country estate. It was a poignant visit for members of his family, some of whom had never been before and most who’d never met the man. Sir John Dermot Turing, ...
48m Mar 14, 2015
48m
Extra - E43 - Ben Macintyre - A Spy Among Friends
March 2014 In this EXTRA’s episode we bring you highlights of bestselling author, journalist and TV presenter Ben Macintyre’s talk on his book ‘A Spy Among Friends, Kim Philby and the Great Betrayal’. Kim Philby was the most notorious British defector and Soviet mole in history. Agent, double agent, traitor and enigma, he betrayed every secret of Allied operations to the Russians in the early...
46m Mar 04, 2015
46m
Free School Trips To Bletchley Park
February 2015 Bursaries for disadvantaged schools haveBeen added to Bletchley Park’s expanding education programme Winton Global Investment Management is funding a pilot bursary scheme to allow free school trips to Bletchley Park. Bletchley Park welcomes more than 9,000 schoolchildren every year to its thrivingeducation programme. The bursaries will be available to schools which might be mos...
3m Feb 27, 2015
3m
E31 - Telling The World
February 2015 This month best-selling author, journalist and TV presenter Ben Macintyre talks to us about his latest book, A Spy Among Friends: Kim Philby and the Great Betrayal. Ben spoke to us after his sell out talk last year in our Bletchley Park Presents lecture series. Tickets are on sale now for the 2015 talks which already includes Michael Smith, Victor Madeira, Jerry White, Taylor Dow...
56m Feb 11, 2015
56m
THE IMITATION GAME Oscar Nominations
January 2015 The Imitation Game, starring Benedict Cumberbatch & Kiera Knightley, has been nominated for 8 Oscar’s Best PictureBenedict Cumberbatch for Actor in a Leading Role Kiera Knightley for Actress in a Supporting RoleDirectingFilm Editing Music (Original Score) Production DesignWriting (Adapted Screenplay) The 87th Academy Awards will be held in Los Angeles on February the 22nd 2015. ...
3m Jan 21, 2015
3m
E30 - Crucial Contributions
January 2015 This month we are celebrating a cast of thousands who all made Crucial Contributions. Back in November, the families of the three Polish codebreaking geniuses, whose work proved invaluable in the breaking of Enigma, visited Bletchley Park. We take a look ahead at what’s new in 2015 with Bletchley Park’s Director of Learning and Collections, Victoria Worpole. A memorial plaque h...
58m Jan 18, 2015
58m
Extra - E42 - 2014 Christmas Special
December 2014 Bletchley Park Podcast – 2014 Christmas Special.2014 has been a landmark year at BletchleyPark. It’s seen the transformation of the site, returning it to its wartime glory with phase one of the restorations. Royalty returned with not one but two Veterans in the family this time, and the stranger than fiction story of Alan Turing hit the silver screen. Join podcast host Katherine...
59m Dec 23, 2014
59m
Help Bletchley Park hit 200,000 visitors in 2014
December 2014 It’s been an extraordinary year at Bletchley Park and the icing on the cake would be to reach a record-breaking attendance level of 200,000 visitors before 31 December 2014. We can do it with the help of our listeners. The 200,000th visitor will be celebrated with prizes and greetings from Bletchley Park VIPs. Picture: ©mcfontaine #BPark, #Bletchleypark, #AlanTuring, #Imitati...
2m Dec 15, 2014
2m
E29 - Ghosts of Bletchley Park
December 2014 This month we again have more exclusivecontent for you from The Imitation Game. Benedict Cumberbatch, who plays Alan Turing in the film, tells us about how nerve wracking, special and even ghostly it was filming scenes at Bletchley Park. We also take you to the opening of The Imitation Game, The Exhibition, which was held at the Home of The Codebreakers with a special screening...
59m Dec 11, 2014
59m
E28 - Benedict Cumberbatch on Bletchley Park
November 2014 With only a couple of weeks till the UK releaseof THE IMITATION GAME, we can now bring you more exclusive interviews with the cast and crew. Our roving reporter Astrid Specht braved the rain with patient fans at The Odeon LeicesterSquare for the London Film Festival premiere last month. Podcast host Katherine Lynch sits down withDirector Morton Tyldum, screen writer Graham Moor...
46m Nov 01, 2014
46m
E27 - From The Red Carpet
October 2014 This month we come to you from the red carpet at The Odeon Leicester Square for the premiere of THE IMITATION GAME. The movie based on the life and work of Codebreaker Alan Turing was picked to open the prestigious 2014 BFI London Film Festival. To celebrate the film’s release in UK cinemas on the 14th of November, Bletchley Park will open a major new exhibition, taking visitors ...
50m Oct 13, 2014
50m
THE IMITATION GAME at Bletchley Park
October 2014 To celebrate the release of THE IMITATION GAME in UK cinemas on 14 November, Bletchley Park will open a major new exhibition, taking visitors behind the scenes of the highly anticipated movie. The exhibition will open on Tuesday 4 November with an exclusive preview screening of the film for a select audience at Bletchley Park. The same evening, this vibrant heritage attraction wil...
3m Oct 09, 2014
3m