This month AJ and Andy review the closest thing Secret Army has to a Christmas Special: Guests at God's Table, by series script editor John Brason, otherwise known as 'the one with the orphans.' Despite having its faults, perhaps mostly deriving from the fact that the episode is entirely studio-bound and involves child actors, the pair find much to enjoy. 

Together they pick out the episode's strong thematic contact such as 'organisation versus improvisation' and 'romanticism versus realism' and the cosy scenes of festive life in the Candide that joyfully pepper this instalment. 

There is appreciation of the new connection between Monique and Brandt and musings on the direction this might have taken had Michael Culver elected to stay with the series. And there's confusion over two many extra men - Roland Huys and Maurice Tourtellat - both of whom serve little purpose to the narrative. Elsewhere, Andy is perhaps a little too excited about new information relating to staff members at the Candide, including a name for its never-seen chef!

Ryan once again offers his first-watch opinion and we also hear from Alex and Nicky too. 

If you would like to contact us then please email us on, or send a voicenote to: [email protected] or send us a message on Bluesky: AJ is on secretarmypod.bsky.social while Andy can be found at andypodding.bsky.social. AJ is also on Twitter at @secretarmypod. We'd love to hear from you, especially your takes on the Series 2 episodes A Matter of Life and Death and Prisoner of War which are in preparation.

Thank you, as ever, for listening and for coming down the line with us.

Andy & AJ xxx

Next Time: AJ interviews Keith Jayne and Rachel Beasley about their contributions to this episode. 

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Obituary for John Line (Maurice Tourtellat): https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2018/aug/22/john-line-obituary