AJ and Andy get back on track with their journey through the second series, arriving at David Crane's Little Old Lady which chiefly concerns Lifeline helping the downed Wing Commander Kelso to travel down the line disguised as a 'little old lady', or rather more accurately as an aristocratic Comtesse. Charged with assisting him are first Natalie, and then Monique, the latter having come up with the disguise idea. There's a lot else going on too: Albert is arrested, the Candide comes under threat and Monique befriends the lonely and enigmatic Madeleine who is unaware that the chanteuse is the Queen Bee of the Belgian Resistance!

Andy draws out the themes of: identity, disguise and belief; collaboration and reprisals; and trust and mistrust, and considers the episode to be one of the best of Secret Army's second run. AJ is fascinated by Madeleine gradually shedding her possessions, questions Monique's decision to sleep with Kelso, and flags up the problem of lost scenes. Andy agrees and critiques some of the editing choices made. However,  both praise highly the scene with Monique and Madeleine, the relationship between Natalie and Max, and the glorious tableau in the Candide that closes the episode.  

Elsewhere there's plenty of information on the locations used, discussion of the food served in the Candide and the questionable strangling of the 'napkin baby'!

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.

Next Time: Guests at God's Table

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