Bletchley Park

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 years of the Cold War. It is followed by the interview we recorded with Ben after his talk, that regular listeners will have heard in this month’s normal podcast, but we have added it here again for completion. This talk was given in our Bletchley Park Presents series last year. Our 2015 season of talks is about to begin, starting with Michael Smith in March and already confirmed for later in the year are Victor Madeira, Jerry White, Taylor Downing & Sinclair McKay with more names yet to be announced. For more information on these talks please go to www.bletchleypark.org and look in the What’s On se

February 2015 Bursaries for disadvantaged schools have Been 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 thriving education programme. The bursaries will be available to schools which might be most in need of financial support. Each bursary will cover the cost of coach hire and 40 children attending two workshops during their time at Bletchley Park. The first school to participate in the scheme was Greenleys Junior School in Milton Keynes. A group of year six students were given a Codes and Ciphers workshop, tried their hands at operating a real World War Two Enigma machine and toured the uniquely historic site. Victoria Worpole, the Bletchley Park Trust’s Director of Learning and Collections, says “These bursaries will help enormously by making exciting an

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 Downing and Sinclair Mackay, with more speakers to be announced soon. Then we bring you this month’s main event. In The Debs of Bletchley Park and Other Stories, best-selling author and Bletchley Park’s chief historical advisor, Michael Smith, reveals the secrets held for at least 30 years by women including a former ballerina, a convent girl and a student of German literature as well as the debutantes of the title. Seven of those stalwarts of secrecy gathered in the Mansion at Bletchley Park to tell the world’s media. Kerry Howard & Podcast Producer Mark Cotton spoke to three of them, Jean Pitt-Lewis, Margaret Mor

January 2015 The Imitation Game, starring Benedict Cumberbatch & Kiera Knightley, has been nominated for 8 Oscar’s Best Picture Benedict Cumberbatch for Actor in a Leading Role Kiera Knightley for Actress in a Supporting Role Directing Film Editing Music (Original Score) Production Design Writing (Adapted Screenplay) The 87th Academy Awards will be held in Los Angeles on February the 22nd 2015. Trailer, Music & Picture: © Black Bear Pictures/Studio Canal #BPark, #Bletchleypark, #AlanTuring #ImitationGameUK, #Oscars2015

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 has been unveiled at the site of Bletchley Park’s largest outstation at Eastcote, where Bombe machines were housed & operated by over 800 Wrens during WW2. There representing Bletchley Park were Oral History Officer Jonathan Byrne and Podcast producer Mark Cotton. After the ceremony, they chatted about what’s been a bumper year for the oral history project. Finally this month, listen in to when we took Bletchley Park Veteran Rozanne Colchester into the newly renovated Hut 6 for the very first time. Picture: ©shaunarmstrong/mubsta.com #BPark, #Bletchleypark, #AlanTuring, #ImitationGameUK, #Pol

December 2014 Bletchley Park Podcast – 2014 Christmas Special. 2014 has been a landmark year at Bletchley Park. 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 and producer Mark as they take you on a virtual trip around the park and back through the year to hear Royalty, Hollywood Stars and of course lots of our wonderful Veterans. Many thanks to The Three Belles for the use of their music. Their charity single for The Royal British Legion can be purchased here: http://thethreebelles.com/christmas-single Thanks to everyone who took part in our show this year and thank you to our listeners. We will be back in the New Year with more stories from The Home of The Code Breakers and wish you all, Happy Holidays and a Happy New Year. P

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, #ImitationGame

December 2014 This month we again have more exclusive content 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 of the film. BBC 3 Counties Jane Killick and our own roving podcast reporter Astrid Specht speak to some of the guests at the black-tie event, including David Broder, location manager on The Imitation Game and a long time champion of Bletchley Park. The Turing Test is an underlying theme of the film and it’s still confounding computer scientists to this day. For more than two decades Dr Hugh Loebner has turned that into a competition which for the second time was hosted at Bletchley Park. We find out why it is still important today from the organisers and one of the

November 2014 With only a couple of weeks till the UK release of 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 Leicester Square for the London Film Festival premiere last month. Podcast host Katherine Lynch sits down with Director Morton Tyldum, screen writer Graham Moore and actors Allen Leech and Matthew Beard. We also bring you what was a very special moment for all of us at Bletchley Park, when Katherine sat down to start her interview with the star of the film, Benedict Cumberbatch (hear all this interview next month). Finally, when Bletchley Park Historian and Guide, Joel Greenberg recently gave a talk on his biography of Gordon Welchman, there was a very special guest in attendance. Lord Asa Briggs served at Bletchley Park from 1942 till 1945, working with Welchman in Hut 6 and then later in Block D. He spoke to the sold out

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 behind the scenes of this highly anticipated movie. We’ll bring you more on that next month, now, though, we can bring you exclusive behind the scenes interviews recorded during filming in the Mansion at Bletchley Park in late 2013. We first spoke to two members of the Turing family. Dermot Turing is a Bletchley Park Trustee as well as being Alan Turing’s nephew. His son, James, signed up as a supporting actor - once known as extras, for the film .We chatted to them both about what it was like to be involved in a film about the famous relative they’re both too young to have

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 will preview a major new exhibition all about the making of the film, in the very room where the bar scenes were filmed. Sarah Kay, Bletchley Park’s Digitisation and Exhibitions Officer, says “THE IMITATION GAME at Bletchley Park Exhibition is an opportunity to not only provide our existing audiences the chance to see some of the film’s set dressing and some of the fantastic objects and documents created by the film’s art department. It is also an opportunity for us to reach new audiences of film fans who otherwise may not be familiar with the secret wartime work of Alan Turing a

September 2014 In this final highlight from last year’s sell-out day of talks, Codebreakers’ Legacy, Dr. Joel Greenberg talks about the vitally important work of another lesser known figure from GC&CS, Gordon Welchman. Welchman designed changes to Alan Turing’s Bombe Machine which was used throughout the war to find the daily settings for Enigma. He also drew up the organisational plan for Bletchley Park which ultimately would enable it to become a “Codebreaking Factory”. Joel is a Guide & Historian at Bletchley Park & undertook with the support of the Welchman family to write his biography; Gordon Welchman Bletchley Park's Architect of Ultra Intelligence which are available to buy at http://www.bletchleypark.org.uk/shop/p.rhtm/130822/764256-Gordon_Welchman_Bletchley_Parks_Architect_of_Ultra_Intelligence_Joel_Greenberg.html If you would like to attend a similar event at Bletchley Park, then please go to http://www.bletchleypark.org.uk/ & look in the What’s On section.

September 2014 As part of our annual Veteran’s Reunion this year there was a fly past by a Hurricane of the RAF’s Battle of Britain Memorial Flight. 14,533 Hurricanes had been built by the end of World War 2, but sadly, today, there are only 12 still airworthy worldwide; only 6 of those in UK. The BBMF is proud to operate two of these historically important and rare aircraft. For more information on The BBMF please go to http://www.raf.mod.uk/bbmf/ The beautiful picture accompanying this clip was taken by Bletchley Park’s official photographer Shaun Armstrong. Picture: ©shaunarmstrong/mubsta.com #BPark, #Bletchleypark, #BBMF, #Hurricane, #Merlin, #WW2Planes

September 2014 This month we bring you a special episode of the Bletchley Park Podcast, from the Annual Veterans' Reunion. 2014 is a landmark year for Bletchley Park, marking not only 75th anniversary of the Government Code and Cypher School getting its vital war work underway, but also the completion of £8 million worth of much-needed restoration, supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund. At this year’s reunion many of the Veterans saw those renovations for the first time. Bletchley Park's CEO, Iain Standen, brings the Veterans up to date on the work that's been carried out in phase one of the restoration of Bletchley Park and answers their questions about the future of the place that's so precious to them. We also talk to the official Bletchley Park photographer, Shaun Armstrong, about capturing history in the making. He's documented the entire restoration, Project Neptune, over the last two years and photographed one or two members of the Royal family along the way. Podcast Producer Ma

September 2014 As well as marking the 75th anniversary of the Government Code and Cypher School getting its vital war work underway, this year’s annual Veterans’ Reunion will give many their first chance to see how Bletchley Park has been transformed. 2014 is a landmark year for the Bletchley Park Trust, marking not only 75 years since the Codebreakers got cracking on the task of breaking enemy codes and ciphers, but also the completion of a much-needed £8 million restoration project, supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund. At this year’s Veterans’ Reunion, many former workers of the Government Code and Cypher School will see the new Block C Visitor Centre, lovingly restored Codebreaking Huts 3 and 6 and the reinstated landscaped parkland for the first time. Visitors too can experience the World War Two atmosphere and feel what it was like for the thousands of men and women whose work at Bletchley Park and its outstations helped shorten the war, saving coun

September 2014 Professor Jack Copeland talks about ‘one of his greatest heroes’ Tommy Flowers, from his early life & career leading to working with the Bletchley Park Codebreakers. Jack explains the task faced when in mid-1942 the German High Command started to use a new encryption device, the Lorenz SZ40/42. The attack on Tunny, as it was dubbed by GC&CS, would involve some of the greatest codebreakers we had, Alan Turing, Bill Tutte & Max Newman. It would culminate in Tommy’s greatest achievement, the invention of Colossus, the world's first programmable electronic digital computer. The world would never be the same again. This talk was recorded at last year’s sell-out day of talks, Codebreakers’ Legacy. If you would like to attend a similar event in the Bletchley Park Presents series, then please go to http://www.bletchleypark.org.uk/ & look in the What’s On section. A rebuild of Colossus can be seen at The National Museum of Computing, a separate site on

August 2014 In July, as part of the Bletchley Park Presents series of talks, four women whose diverse roles within the Government Code & Cypher School during World War Two give a rare insight into the inner workings of this top secret organisation. One of those women was WREN Gwendoline Page who worked first in the Naval Section at Bletchley Park, indexing U-boat signals & later on the Japanese vessels index based in Colombo. After her talk, at the end of a very long day, she was still kind enough to sit down with us to tell our listeners more about her service. Two of Gwendoline’s books, "We Kept the Secret" and "They Listened in Secret" are available from the Bletchley Park Shop. https://www.bletchleypark.org.uk/shop/p.rhtm/130822/765789-We_Kept_the_Secret_Gwendoline_Page.html https://www.bletchleypark.org.uk/shop/p.rhtm/130822/238204-They_Listened_In_Secret_By_Gwendoline_Page.html Picture: ©Gwendoline Page / Bletchley Park Trust #BPark, #Bletchleypa

August 2014 This month’s episode is all about Inspiring Women. We first take you to the launch of McAfee’s Cyber Security Exhibition and Computer Learning Zone which was held in the ballroom. The focus is on Online Safety for all ages, but especially children, as well as encouraging more women to Cyber Security. We have highlights of the speeches from McAffee’s Ross Allen & Raj Samani, Natalie Black of The Cabinet Office & Bletchley Park Trust Chairman Sir John Scalett, as well as interviews with our own Online Education Officer Nicola Halls & Veteran Betty Webb. You can find out more at https://www.workingwithbletchleypark.co.uk/ Next we bring you a Q&A session held at the end of our most recent Bletchley Park Presents Event – The Real Women of Bletchley Park. Historian & Bletchley Park guide Bob Horner, put questions from the sell-out audience to four Veterans, Ruth Bourne, Gwendolyn Page, Jean Valentine & Betty Webb. Finally we bring you a truly serendipitous & heart-warming conversatio

August 2014 As the centenary of World War One is marked, Bletchley Park looks back at the early intelligence career of one of its lesser-known geniuses. In this extract, recorded at the Codebreaker’s Legacy Talks in November 2013, bestselling author and Bletchley Park Trustee Michael Smith charts the World War One service of John Tiltman, Bletchley Park's Chief Cryptographer, who was awarded the Military Cross fighting in the trenches. After being badly wounded in the Battle of Arras he transferred to military intelligence beginning a brilliant codebreaking career that was to last more than sixty years. Bletchley Park became the World War Two home of the Government Code and Cypher School (GC&CS), which was formed shortly after the allied armistice with Germany in November 1919. GC&CS was the outcome of a merger between the two significant codebreaking and signals intelligence departments of the then recent war: Room 40 or I.D. 25 (part of Naval Intelligence located

July 2014 On 26 and 27 July 1939 one of the most important events in the history of intelligence took place in the woods outside Warsaw. Just three weeks before the Government Code and Cypher School (GC&CS) moved to its War Station at Bletchley Park, its Head, Alastair Denniston, and its Chief Cryptanalyst, Dilly Knox, travelled to Warsaw to meet their Polish and French equivalents to share all they knew about Enigma. At a commemorative ceremony in Warsaw held earlier this month, BBC Security Correspondent, Gordon Corera spoke to the GCHQ Departmental Historian, on BBC Radio 4’s Today Programme. Many thanks to the BBC for letting us share this interview. Gordon’s original article can be found at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-28167071 Picture: GC&CS Commander Alastair Denniston’s passport shows he travelled through Nazi Germany to the meeting in Poland and is on display in his office in the Mansion at Bletchley Park. ©Bletchley Park Trust #BPark, #Blet