This month AJ and Andy are thrilled to be joined on the podcast by writer Joseph (Joe) Lidster as they discuss the legendary series two episode Trapped, penned by N (Norman) J Crisp. 

If you need a reminder, it's the episode in which Monique is shot while down the line and has to be rescued by her Lifeline colleagues before Kessler arrives and identifies her. 

Joe explains how he came to watch Secret Army during lockdown and specifically why he fell in love with the character of Monique and the fact that the show eventually becomes her story. From his perspective as a writer he also celebrates how unique each character is, with Madeleine, introduced in this episode, being a great example. 

Other aspects of the show discussed in this episode include: background noises in the Candide; hat-action; eating and smoking in hospital; women being bored by men; a surplus of courgettes; and how, in Joe's opinion, N J Crisp effectively created Secret Army!

We also hear, as usual, from Ryan and from Adam Wright who first became acquainted with the series on Talking Pictures. 

Joe Lidster can be found at: https://linktr.ee/josephlidster 

The book AJ mentions is Belgium in the Second World War: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Belgium-Second-World-Jean-Michel-Veranneman/dp/1783376074

The faded Netherlands Ry Wagons-Lits railway poster seen behind Natalie in this episode (and which has subsequently been purchased by Ryan for Andy) is at the top of this webpage and in full further down the page: https://retours.eu/en/60-bagdatopoulos-railway-posters/ 

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 still on Twitter at @secretarmypod. We'd love to hear from you, especially your takes on the Series 2 episodes Scorpion and Weekend which are in preparation. Thank you!

Next Time: Not According to Plan