309. Tintin, Nazis, & Soviets

Empire

Goalhanger

History

4.6 • 4.1K Ratings

🗓️ 20 November 2025

⏱️ 47 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

How did the young journalist with the quiff haircut and his companion Snowy The Dog feature in Nazi propaganda in the 1940s? What was the origin story of Hergé, the Belgian illustrator who created The Adventures of Tintin? How did an unlikely friendship transform Hergé’s life and lead him to draw Tintin crying in a comic strip for the first and only time? Anita and William navigate the turbulent hot waters of Tintin’s history from anti-Soviet propaganda, to featuring authentic Chinese calligraphy, to becoming one of the most successful comic book series in the world. Join the Empire Club: Unlock the full Empire experience – with bonus episodes, ad-free listening, early access to miniseries and live show tickets, exclusive book discounts, a members-only newsletter, and access to our private Discord chatroom. Sign up directly at empirepoduk.com For more Goalhanger Podcasts, head to www.goalhanger.com. Email: [email protected] Instagram: @empirepoduk Blue Sky: @empirepoduk X: @empirepoduk Producer: Anouska Lewis Assistant Producer: Alfie Rowe Executive Producer: Dom Johnson Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	If you want access to bonus episodes reading lists for every series of Empire, a chat community,
0:06.7	discounts for all the books mentioned in the week's podcasts, add free listening, and a weekly newsletter,
0:12.4	sign up to Empire Club at www.mpowerpoduk.com.
0:19.4	This episode is brought to you by Perk, the intelligent platform for travel and spend.
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0:37.0	by automating travel and spend management so your Perk takes care of the work behind the work by automating travel
0:38.5	and spend management so your teams can take care of business. No more navigating booking sites,
0:44.4	chasing approvals or reconciling receipts, just real work with real impact. Perk, powering
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0:55.9	Hello and welcome to Empire with me Anita Arnhannan. And me, William Durimpool.
1:11.7	Last episode, we were talking about cartoon characters
1:14.1	and we're going to talk about a proper doozy in this one.
1:17.5	So we talked about Baba, the Elephant and Astros.
1:20.0	It is that thing that we have so often on Empire
1:22.9	where two things are true simultaneously.
1:26.9	And Baba, the elephant, is enormously charming and we all love
1:30.5	those pictures, but it is also enormously offensive to many people at the same time. And
1:35.1	trying to keep both those visions in the same pair of binoculars is a tricky thing, isn't it?
1:40.3	Well, I mean, I was really interested in your response to pictures that you had seen and accepted as a child and now you were going, oh my God. It never occurred to me, growing up in 1970s sort of semi-Edwardian Scotland, that any of the staff was at all dodgy. But yes, no, I can totally see it now. Anyway, look, we continue the discussion, but we're talking about tintin,, Dantan, if you're on the other side of
2:01.4	the channel. And it's a cracker of a story that you've uncovered Lita. I have to say, this is
2:05.0	Leiter's research, not mine this episode, and it is one of the most extraordinary stories we've ever
	...

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