Today's guest is historian Helen Graham, who discusses her research into the brutal prison system under Francoist dictatorship. Her work shows how mass incarceration after the Spanish Civil War was only one part of a much wider system of control and surveillance — one that reached beyond prison walls into families, communities, and everyday life, shaping how millions of people experienced dictatorship.

Helen Graham is Professor Emerita of Modern European History at Royal Holloway, University of London, and the recipiant of the Walter Benjamin International Memorial Prize 2025-6. Amongst other works, she is the author of ‘The Spanish Republic at War 1936–1939’, The Spanish Civil War: A Very Short Introduction (a new edition of which is out this summer) and the forthcoming ‘After the Spanish civil war: the twentieth century through five antifascist lives’

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Helen's essay on prisons: https://pure.royalholloway.ac.uk/en/publications/not-recognizing-the-political-analysing-francos-long-dictatorship/

Also the trailer for film we discuss, Modelo 77: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1e-NJObVFQ

And the documentary: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKVktmqsx4Q&rco=1