I was very privileged to have as a very good friend a man named Peter Martin who was the son of Major (Captain) William Martin who worked with Ian Fleming during WWII, and was the given name of the deceased Welsh man. William agreed to his name being used to add significant weight to the subterfuge. William was actually sent to the US under another name while his name was being used in the subterfuge. To make things even more convincing, William's wife, mother of Peter who was a young boy, was informed of the death of William. Peter said: "When the war ended, my father returned and had a lot of explaining to do to his mother."

There was a shortage of silk during WW2. I remember my Mum telling me about gravy browning and drawing seams on legs. When my Grandad was demobbed from the RAF, he brought back a pilots escape map - it was made of silk and quite colourful. So Mum could use it as a headscarf. Still have it to remember them both by...

Pretty sure that the poor fellow dropped at the coast of Gibralta, was before the invasion of Sicily. So the Germans thought the landing would be in Greece.

Jazz - A group of musicians all playing different tunes at once, a drummer keeping time with no-one in particular, and someone blowing random notes on a trumpet.

Don't mention the War.

Sadly, Fry got his facts wrong on carrots. Cunningham flew his nightfighter over Britain, not Germany, and the propaganda was nothing to do with bombers, just nightfighters (the propaganda preceded the use of radar in bombers).

First segment: Stephen getting the story right, but the invasion wrong- The Man Who Never Was was misdirection between Sicily and Greece in the Mediterranean theatre.

The gravestone of "Major William Martin RM" in Huelva was changed to read "Glyndwr Michael. Served as Major William Martin RM" after the British Government identified him in 1998.

Middle Wallop, did my basic tech training on helicopters there, also my upgraders. Home of 70 Ac Wksp and D & T Sqn. Also home of the AAC. nearby are Nether Wallop and Over Wallop. It was also, I believe, the largest grass airfield in WWII.

You should considering combining those comedy clips that kept interrupting the adverts and maybe releasing them on UKposts.

Point to note:- if you baste carrots in butter & roast them in foil, they’re very sweet & tasty. Boiling them does no justice. (Also, onions are sweet too)

I'm not mature enough to not laugh at Stephen saying, it's the sort of thing that pops up now and then.

The Hitler tree in Norfolk died and is just a stump now

The ordinary soldiers did know at least a few days in advance of D-Day (they might not have known the exact day, but they knew it was very very imminent). My Gran's brother was sent to visit his family on embarkation leave and told to tell them "oh I just have a few days' leave" but not tell them why. While home, he told my Gran "when you here the lads have landed in France in the next few days, I'll be there- don't tell anyone!". My Gran was only 15 at the time and she felt the weight of responsibility of knowing a national secret. It terrified her but she didn't tell anyone, even her parents. Even when the news started coming through on the radio, she still didn't tell anyone she'd had advance warning. Poor kid! It makes me wonder how many other families got told a few days in advance by visiting soldiers saying "don't tell anyone, but...".

"Cat's eyes Cunningham" was in fact a Beaufighter night fighter pilot, not a bomber pilot.

Reading about bigot etc. It says that you could'nt tell the French, including DeGaulle anything, and have it kept secret

What's the difference between a rock musician and a jazz musician? A rock musician plays three chords to a thousand people and a jazz musician plays a thousand chords to three people. 😝

How could they possibly allow those errors about Operation Mincemeat to air?

Swing Kids! Jazz loving young Germans in WWII

I say old chap, get some working class chappy to do something heroic. Jolly good show 'what !".🎩

Shame they did no research on the man with no name. He dies from pneumonia, which laeftw after in his lungs, and asked his mother if they could use his body.

Where “we landed” !!!!!

20:55 Hogwarts, the later years.

My great-uncle did not commit suicide.

15:04 - I've heard Stephen do his "as you rightly say / as you rightly pointed out" bit a few times. Can someone explain this to a confused Yank?

Oh yeh? Monty let Churchill smoke? Churchill smoked, full stop. Don't like it Monty?

There should be a challenge to talk about World Wars but without mentioning Germany. I bet 99% of World War historians would jump out the window. 🤣🤣

Operation mincemeat

I rember Fry asking what percentage of R.A.F pilots in WW2 went to public schools. The answer was (surprisingly) small, but i couldn't help noticing that 100% of the guests went to public school. So much for social equality!

I USED to like fry !!!! Not anymore

How does the UK combat the current invasion of rubber dinghies assisted by France?