Neil Oliver: News, Interviews, History

Latest Episodes:

93 The Ultimate Desert Island, Les Ecrehous, Channel Islands. Mar 01, 2022

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In this episode Neil takes us to a set of three tiny spellbinding islands, shimmering with crystal clear water and pristine white sand – his ultimate desert island. This is the place he escapes to in his imagination when he needs to get away from the pressures of the world.

In the C17th smugglers made one of the islands their secret hideaway. Another island was home to a self-styled king who swapped gifts with Queen Victoria – a basket woven from seaweed and filled with fresh fish and royal coat made of blue cloth. It’s a place where is still possible to glimpse magic!

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92 The Cold War, Orford Ness, Suffolk Feb 22, 2022

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In this episode, as the Cold War and the threat of nuclear Armageddon sends a terrifying chill around the world Neil heads to Orford Ness in Suffolk.

In the early C20th this isolated shingle spit, tucked away from prying eyes, came to the attention of the military who saw it as the perfect location for secret experiments. It was first used as a training base for the fledgling Royal Airforce during the First World War. Later, work on the radar system that would prove to be so vital for the defence of Britain in WWII was conducted here.

The shroud of secrecy, which the military had thrown over this location continued as experiments that would help develop Britain’s first atomic bomb took place in the laboratories here. And in 1967 as Cold War tensions and the threat of nuclear war increased, to counter any Soviet aggression, British and US military scientists started developing a next generation radar system called Operation Cobra Mist.

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91 Hitler Occupies British Territory, Channel Islands Feb 15, 2022

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In this episode we come face to face with a chilling reminder of just how close Hitler came to conquering Britain. During World War 2 he got a toe-hold on British territory when his army captured the Channel Islands – the first time they’d be wrestled from British control in over 1000 years.

This week Neil travels to Alderney, one of the islands in the archipelago, to witness the terrifying atrocities carried out by the Nazi occupation force. Here they brought in an army of slave labourers to build defences aimed at keeping out liberation from the British. And the horror meted out to them is a satin on all humanity.

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90 D-Day, Devon Feb 08, 2022

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In this episode Operation Overlord is go as Allied troops begin practicing for D-Day.

The plans to invade and liberate Europe are drawn up with amphibious landings on 5 beaches in Normandy - Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno and Sword. Hitler's defences are well prepared, ready and determined, so allied training rehearsals are vital, and it's crucial they are as realistic as possible.

Neil heads to Slapton Sands in Devon to watch Exercise Tiger unfold - a heady, dangerous mix of live ammunition, miscommunication, German E-boats, secret documents and tragedy.

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89 Winston Churchill, Blenheim Palace Feb 01, 2022

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In this episode we meet Winston Churchill, a man who has helped define the British Isles: a luminary figure, complex, charismatic and inspirational. Prime minister of Britain during World War II he was a man who inspired a nation in its time of need. Neil travels to Blenheim Palace in Woodstock, Oxfordshire, where was Churchill was born, and to the village of Bladon next door, where he is buried.

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88 - Building To Rule the Waves, Clydebank Jan 25, 2022

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In this episode we hear the deafening roar of industry and see the spark fly as some of the world’s great ships are built. We’re on the banks of the river Clyde, a river that powered a city; as the say goes, ‘Glasgow made the Clyde and the Clyde made Glasgow’.

At one time the Clyde shipbuilders build a fifth of all the ships in the world - everything from luxury transatlantic flagships that crossed the world’s oceans to the legendary battlecruisers that would soon face a determined enemy in the coming Great war.

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87 A graveyard beneath the sea, Scapa Flow Jan 18, 2022

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In this episode we set sail with Neil to visit one of the world’s great natural harbours, Scapa Flow in Orkney. This vast harbour is a beautifully bleak, windswept spot drench in drama, tragedy and power. For thousands of years, it played a vital role in maritime travel, trade and conflict. The Vikings anchored in its safe waters in the C11th. The British admiralty enlisted it in the Napoleonic wars. And in the First World War it was home to Britain’s Grand Fleet, before being pressed into service once again in the 2nd world war. In the First World War the entire, surrendered German navy was scuttled here in an extraordinary act of sabotage.

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86 Remembering the Dead, The Cenotaph Jan 11, 2022

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In this episode we are walking down Whitehall, one of London’s most famous streets, to remember the dead of the First World War.

Fabian Ware joined the British army at the outbreak of the war, but because he was 45 years old, the authorities would let him fight on the front line and put him in charge of a mobile ambulance unit instead.

Appalled by the number of casualties and troubled that the dead were not being recorded properly he began keeping note. On account of his efforts, the organization now called the Commonwealth War Graves Commission came into existence. The process of remembrance began.

11 November 1919 was the first anniversary of the war’s end. It was marked with the construction of a temporary memorial called the Cenotaph on Whitehall, a march of remembrance and the return of the Unknown Soldier. The outpouring of emotion at this event and the public’s actions demanded that the temporary Cenotaph be made permanent. And across the whole of the British Isles collective grief propelled the largest public art project ever seen as communities took it upon themselves to build their own local memorials to remember all the dead.

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85 Your Country Needs You! World War I Jan 04, 2022

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In this episode Horatio Herbert Kitchener, the secretary of state for war, declares, Your Country Needs You!

The First World War meant that Britain had to raise a new army from volunteers, so the call was raised. Five strong, stout brothers from the Souls family, who lived in the Gloucestershire village of Great Rissington, signed up to join the army and become soldiers. After training they shipped out for France.

Albert, the youngest brother, was the first to be killed. Fred was the second brother to die, he was killed at the battle of the Somme. Walter was killed next, soon followed by Alfred.

The last of the five brothers alive was Arthur, he was Alfred’s identical twin, and won the Military Medal for valour at the fight to hold Villers-Bretonneux. But during the battle he was fatally wounded.

Five brothers from the Souls family, all lost. A snapshot of a war like no other - tragedy writ large.

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84 World War I, Isle of Skye Dec 28, 2021

Show notes

In this episode we’re travelling over the sea to Skye, an island of ancient jagged crags and rare breath-taking beauty, which feels as though it’s washed in heaven’s tears.

When the first world war was declared, there was a seismic shift and everything changed forever. All of Britain felt it’s pain and devastation, but it hit the Highlands the hardest. A conflict of such magnitude, billions of spent bullets and millions dead, the sorrow and suffering it cause is impossible to comprehend. I’m in Portree, exploring its impact on one small community, trying to come to terms with the magnitude of the Great War.

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