The newly released, star-studded British movie Operation Mincemeat tells the remarkable story of a Second World War deception plan. A dead body disguised as a naval officer would be floated off the Spanish coast, in the hope that the Axis powers would come across fake documents on the body and accept misleading information about the impending Allied invasion of Sicily. It was a daring plan full of risks that could go wrong at several points. As indeed it did.

On this episode of The PastCast, broadcaster and author Taylor Downing discusses his thoughts on the film, its cast, and previous on-screen depictions of the Mincemeat story. He has also reviewed the new film in the latest issue of Military History Matters magazine, which is also available in full on The Past website. On this episode, he spoke with regular PastCast presenter, Calum Henderson.

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Taylor’s latest book, 1942: Britain at the Brink, has recently been published by Little, Brown. You can read an exclusive extract from it here.