Tell us how you are and what you’re up to this weekend and we’ll say hi and read it out on the pod! 👋 (For S2E8 The Big One.)

On Friday, @andypodding.bsky.social and I will record our podcast ep for S2E8, The Big One! Comment with your thoughts on this episode and we’ll read them out on the show. Thanks! Plot: A bombing raid kills Brandt’s wife & son. Brandt confronts a bomb aimer, captured as Lifeline scared him away.

Your favourite rainy window 😊

When you’re fed up of staying home but Storm Amy hasn’t abated yet:

Podcast update: I’m really sorry, but there won’t be a new episode of the podcast this month. Recovery from shoulder surgery has taken much longer than expected, and I (AJ) still have numbness in my arm & hand from the nerve damage. Hope to be back next month with S2E7, Weekend. 🤞

If anyone wants to meets Lifeline’s forger, then Stephen Yardley and Jan Harvey are doing autographs and photoshoots at the next London Film Fair in November! I’m going (AJ) if anyone wants to hang out and chat about Secret Army. It would be great to see fellow fans there!

Wait, was the Big Finish audio Live 34 actually a documentary from a future U.K. all along?! @bigfinish.bsky.social

Try it with a glass of calvados

AJ is 6 weeks post laterjet shoulder surgery! Physio is painful & exhausting and it just feels so pathetic, that this is all I can do a month and a half after surgery. But I know I have to be patient, stay positive, & celebrate every milestone. This is actually great progress! [watch w/ sound on]

Thank you AJ and Hazel McBride for such a wonderful conversation and all the preparation behind it. So many fascinating memories and stories shared. Hope you are well on the mend, AJ.

OTD 1977: Secret Army The gripping wartime thriller begins Boy me only ever saw the thrilling opening titles before the TV was switched off. But seen much later on DVD, it was as tense and brilliant as long-promised… And a happy second birthday to the superb @secretarmypod.bsky.social!

So lovely to hear the podcast (and/or Andy and Martin’s A-Z Pod) is inspiring a rewatch. I only discovered Secret Army myself thanks to Andy. Thanks for listening! AJ x

Please RT! Our interview with the wonderful Hazel McBride (Madeleine) is out now. So pour some calvados & have a listen! 🥂 Thank you Hazel, for being a guest on the show and for doing so much preparation beforehand! 💜 Find on your podcast app or click: secretarmypod.podbean.com/e/interview-...

Clifford Rose (Kessler) and Terrence Hardiman (Reinhardt) told me of a time when they were invited to an Allo Allo viewing party in Sweden and had to laugh along but were not feeling too great as they quickly realised it was going to wipe Secret Army from the public memory.

A quick game of ‘can you pick out Angela Richards in a cast photo’ for @ariadneassoc.bsky.social 😆 This is from a theatre show called Zorba! (Hint: you’ll have to open up the photo)

A clearer photo of Angela Richards from Villette if anyone is interested:

For their next post, AJ will identify Ron Pember from a picture of his ear and Juliet Hammond’s wrist in a Blake’s 7 still. (Hope the recovery is going well!)

Angela Richards, just visible on the right of the right hand side photo. This version of Villette was wiped by the BBC which is such a shame as I’d love to see it. 😭

Singles' Night by Eric Chappell and Jean Warr (19th June 1984). Robin Nedwell tries his best, but doesn't make much headway with Angela Richards.

Village Hall - There'll Almost Always Be An England by Jack Rosenthal (30th July 1974). After a gas leak, the residents of Quigley Street are evacuated to the village hall for the night. Mr Joyce (Bernard Hepton) elects himself as their spokesman, to the irritation of the others.

I’ve only ever written one fan letter in my life… to my favourite British actor Bernard Hepton. This is his response from 2013. ❤️

The BBC is about to shut its Written Archives to the public. Writers and researchers rely on these archives. They belong to the licence payers. Please sign and share this open letter.

AJ can’t edit after shoulder surgery, so what does that mean for the podcast schedule? 🤔 It means it’s calvados time, as we’ve brought forward our exclusive interview with Hazel McBride! (Madeleine in Secret Army) Thank you Hazel, for coming on the show! 🫶 Out Sat 6th Sept!

Andy, did you see there is a kickstarter aiming to fund a new BUGS film?! 😆 @andypodding.bsky.social

A delight to speak to director, actor, and dialect coach Paul Wagar today. Paul played Peter Harris, one of the airmen who kidnapped Kessler in S2E7, Weekend! We plan to release the interview in October.

One of the fun parts of running a Secret Army podcast is Googling actors who were in one episode and emailing them to ask, “Would you chat to me about a TV show appearance you did nearly 40 years ago?” 🤣

Looking ahead to S2E7, Weekend, I never saw that Yvonne was miming along to Monique’s performance until @andypodding.bsky.social pointed it out to me. 😂 Love the small details in Secret Army so much.

Erika is only in one episode, but due to the incredible writing and performances, the audience never doubts the love (and passion 😉) these characters have for each other. A great example of #SecretArmy conveying so much with so little screen time. 👏 secretarmypod.podbean.com/e/series-2-e...

AJ: 3 weeks post-surgery! Finally sleeping, thank goodness! Much less pain. Slowly getting more mobility & strength in arm. Still in sling 24/7. Still not allowed to bath or shower. 😭 Now well enough to pop to the shops & eat out in nearby cafes. Today’s research for the pod:

Tonight we reached Day of Wrath on the great big Secret Army rewatch. Brilliant episode but there's a mystery, who did direct it? Can @secretarmypod.bsky.social help us out here? Seems too competent and stylish to be the scheduled Terence Dudley!

Just discovered Clive Arrindell slipped away quietly without many announcements around Aug/Sept 24. Fans will remember him from A Question of Loyalty as Ernst Stoller, masquerading as a British airman called Maurice in an attempt to infiltrate the line. 1/2

Sad to hear actor Ray Brooks has passed away. Really enjoyed his scenes in the 80s TV show Big Deal with Juliette Hammond.

AJ update: Now 2 weeks post-op! Managed to travel to hospital for first physio apt. today. Have nerve damage in hand. Should heal but will take months to get better. So painful. Hot weather = hot to wear a sling! Can only sleep a few hours at a time. Can only sleep sitting up. :(

AJ surgery update: A week in! Recovery brutal. A real struggle to stay on top of pain & nausea and get any sleep. Not sharing for attention, just that we go down the line together through all joys and challenges. 🫶 So please some of your own current ups and downs with me!

Also great in I Claudius where he had to play up to John Hurt’s Caligula

Saddened to hear Norman Eshley passed away last weekend. He did a wonderful job as Sgt. Clifford Howson in S1E6, Growing Up. He played the airman discovered by the boy in the caves, whom Albert and Lisa daringly rescued by staging a horse riding accident. Condolences to his friends and family.

<New episode!> We review Series 2: Episode 6 - Scorpion in which Brandt’s wife Erika visits Brussels and Van Broecken is engaged to identify a fake evader www.podbean.com/wlei/pb-6a9q... #SecretArmy @secretarmypod.bsky.social

Happy new episode day! 🥂 This time we look at S2E6, written by Andrew J Hall, directed by Roger Jenkins. We praise guest star Brigitte Kahn and the sets by Austin Ruddy. And discuss the episode's many couples, and themes such as change, class, & dignity! secretarmypod.podbean.com/e/series-2-e...

Everything is awful but guide dogs are being trained using toy squirrels stuck to remote control cars. And you need to see it

I just voted for Down The Line, a #SecretArmy podcast, in the #BritishPodcastAwards. Add your vote here: www.britishpodcastawards.com/voting (@secretarmypod.bsky.social )

Secret Army and Allo Allo are both on right now? Switching between the two would probably be a good way of ruining both

Secret Army deserves to be better remembered than just for inspiring Allo, Allo

@secretarmypod.bsky.social Don’t know if you were aware, but the entire 3 series of #SecretArmy are also available on the U app in case anyone has missed it on the Eden Channel - although it’s still running on there (Am just watching S2 Ep1 in the background 😀)

On Sunday we will be recording our review of the #SecretArmy episode Weekend in which two American evaders cause problems for Lifeline and the Van Broeckens meet with tragedy. Please let me and @secretarmypod.bsky.social know your thoughts…

Blue Sky now has notifications - hurrah! Please switch on notifications for our posts if you haven’t already. Then you’ll never miss a call out to share your thoughts on each episode before recording. Thanks!

I'm only 2 episodes in on #SecretArmy and I'm hooked. How on earth did they do it?? 😳 The courage, the resolve, the decisions they had to make for the good of all. 😢 I liked 'Allo 'Allo as a kid too. Agree, couldn't watch again.

Supporting artists: always doing their best to add to the scene and make it look natural - despite having to remain silent in situations where you’d normally speak! [Trisha Clarke as Genevieve]

One thing I overlooked in our discussion of Not According to Plan was this moment: The awfulness of having to please and serve your occupiers. Monique’s brilliantly insincere thank you. And her daring act of defiance right in front of all the Germans!🌹🍸 #SecretArmy #AngelaRichards

Perhaps I should go to bed but there's one more episode of #SecretArmy Series 1 left seems foolish not to watch

Happy new episode day! 🥂 This time Andy & AJ discuss S2E5, Not According to Plan. Written by David Crane and directed by Viktors Ritelis. 🌩️ Listen wherever you get your podcasts, or online using the link below! secretarmypod.podbean.com/e/series-2-e... @andypodding.bsky.social