4.4 • 604 Ratings
🗓️ 8 August 2025
⏱️ 35 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
The story of the CIA, told from the inside out by veteran agent Eloise Page. Starring Kim Cattrall, Ed Harris and Johnny Flynn. In Episode 8... A young President takes office, but the shadows of the Cold War are closing in. John F. Kennedy inherits a covert CIA plot to remove Fidel Castro—an operation born under Eisenhower and fuelled by anti-communist zeal. Pressured to act but desperate to avoid open war, Kennedy green-lights a quiet invasion.
What follows is a catastrophic failure on Cuban shores: the Bay of Pigs. In his first major test, Kennedy is pulled into the deep end of Cold War deception—and blood is already in the water. Cast: Eloise Page..........Kim Cattrall Allen Dulles..........Ed Harris Richard Helms..........Johnny Flynn Frank Wisner..........Geoffrey Arend Young Eloise Page..........Elena Delia John ‘Jack’ F. Kennedy..........Armand Schultz President Eisenhower..........Kerry Shale Bob McNamara..........Rob Benedict Richard Bissell..........Ian Porter Tracy Barnes..........Adam Sina James Jesus Angleton..........Philip Desmeules Adlai Stevenson.........Patrick Poletti Annie Bissell..........Carlyss Peer Elizabeth..........Laurel Lefkow Pilot.......... Walles Hamonde JFK’s Secretary..........Jennifer Armour Bissell children.......... Hugo & Leela-Grace Dryden
All other parts were played by members of the cast.
Written by Greg Haddrick Created by Greg Haddrick & Jeremy Fox Directed by John Scott Dryden Original music by Sacha Puttnam 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
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0:00.0 | Welcome to Limelight. |
0:02.6 | Episodes are released weekly wherever you get your podcasts, |
0:05.5 | but if you're in the UK, you can listen to the whole series right now, first on BBC Sounds. |
0:13.8 | BBC Sounds, music, radio, podcasts. |
0:17.8 | This episode contains very strong language. |
0:20.4 | Music. podcasts. This episode contains very strong language. |
0:34.0 | By the time Fidel Castro died in 2016, the animosity between Cuba and America had been simmering for longer than any other international relationship. |
0:38.3 | President Obama considers opening up U.S. ties to Cuba after more than 50 years, one of his signature foreign policy achievements. |
0:47.3 | I have come here to bury the last remnant of the Cold War in the Americas. |
0:53.3 | But others in Congress were in no mood to bury anything. |
0:57.0 | And Senator Ted Cruz spoke for many when he declared... |
1:01.0 | I very much hope that we don't see any U.S. government officials |
1:05.0 | going to Fidel Castro's funeral, |
1:08.0 | lining up to lionize a murderous tyrant and thug. |
1:13.5 | Murderous tyrant or not, Castro had been the one communist fly we could never swat. |
1:19.5 | And, my goodness, had we tried. |
1:22.4 | We had tried everything, beginning in 1961. |
1:27.0 | Music everything, beginning in 1961. |
1:40.1 | I am Eloise Page, and you are listening to Central Intelligence, my life inside the CIA. |
1:43.4 | Season 2, Episode 8. Americans, I say the supreme national effort will be needed. |
1:47.2 | United States has committed no aggression against Cuba. |
1:50.9 | Three-inch metal sphere placed in orbit by a... |
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