Central Intelligence: Series 2: Episode 2

Limelight

BBC

Drama, Fiction

4.4 • 604 Ratings

🗓️ 27 June 2025

⏱️ 30 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The story of the CIA, told from the inside out by long-serving CIA agent Eloise Page. Starring Kim Cattrall, Ed Harris, Johnny Flynn, Stephen Kunken and Kelly Marie Tran.

In Episode 2, CIA’s maverick agent, Colonel Ed Lansdale attempts to bring South Vietnam behind one leader – the anti-communist, US-friendly, Ngô Đình Diệm. But Diệm is eccentric, uncompromising and lacks charisma: turning him into a popular hero is a challenge.

Cast: Eloise Page..........Kim Cattrall Allen Dulles..........Ed Harris Virginia Spence ..........Kelly Marie Tran Richard Helms..........Johnny Flynn Colonel Ed Lansdale..........Stephen Kunken Frank Wisner..........Geoffrey Arend Young Eloise Page..........Elena Delia Ngô Đình Diệm..........Jon Jon Briones "Lightening" Joe Collins..........Rob Benedict General Mike O’Daniel..........Ian Porter Pat Kelly & Madam Nhu..........Lourdes Faberes Ngô Đình Nhu..........Yung President Eisenhower..........Kerry Shale John Foster Dulles..........Nathan Osgood General Mike O’Daniel..........Ian Porter

All other parts played by the cast

Original music by Sacha Puttnam

Written by Greg Haddrick, who created the series with Jeremy Fox Sound Designers & Editors: John Scott Dryden, Adam Woodhams, Martha Littlehailes & Andreina Gomez Casanova Script Consultant: Misha Kawnel Script Supervisor: Alex Lynch Trails: Jack Soper Sonica Studio Sound Engineers: Paul Clark & Paul Clark Sonica Runner: Flynn Hallman Marc Graue Sound Engineers, LA: Juan Martin del Campo & Tony Diaz

Director: John Scott Dryden Producer & Casting Director: Emma Hearn Executive Producers: Howard Stringer, Jeremy Fox, Greg Haddrick and John Scott Dryden

A Goldhawk production for BBC Radio 4

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to Limelight.
0:02.6	Episodes are released weekly, wherever you get your podcasts.
0:05.8	But if you're in the UK, you can listen first on BBC Sounds.
0:14.4	BBC Sounds, music, radio, podcasts.
0:18.5	This episode contains very strong language.
0:23.8	When former Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger,
0:26.9	looked back on America's early involvement in Vietnam,
0:30.5	he noted that our response had best been summarized
0:33.9	by an unusual observation at the time.
0:36.5	Then there was a document that the Chinese produced.
0:43.5	We said that the whole world was going to be characterized
0:46.4	by a struggle of the countryside against the cities.
0:50.9	Which pretty much summed up the biggest problem facing the new, young South Vietnam.
1:01.4	Welcome back to Saigon, Lansdale. Thank you, Mr. Ambassador. You're late. But I guess that's what I'd
1:08.1	expect. I have been getting a million people down here from the north.
1:11.7	That did take a bit of organizing.
1:14.0	Well, why you've been doing that?
1:15.8	300,000 Vietnamese commies have gone the other way.
1:19.6	Has anyone told you that?
1:22.1	No, actually.
1:24.1	Well, there's whole areas out there in the countryside now
1:26.4	where it's just a free-for-all.
	...

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