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The From the home of the codebreakers and the birthplace of modern computing, this is the Bletchley Park podcast.

Welcome to the January 2026 episode of the Bletchley Park podcast.

Codebooks, diplomats and diamonds.

Rome, the 1930s and the Italian secret services were having extraordinary success in reading

the messages sent by rival countries diplomats from their embassies in the Eternal City.

With the road to World War II still ahead, it was a time of significant geopolitical tension.

The Italian government was learning the secrets of countries

such as Britain and France in order to gain an advantage in international affairs. This would

continue after Italy joined the war in 1940 with substantial consequences for the campaign

in North Africa. In this episode, we'll hear how the Italians didn't succeed by using mathematicians or intellectuals,

but with a rather more direct approach.

All will be revealed by Bletchley Parts research historian, Dr David Kenyon.

Our thanks go to Dr. Ben Thompson for voicing our historical documents.

Now for our first episode of this new year,

we're going to have a slightly different take on the Blexley story.

We're going to be looking at the achievements of the Italian co-breakers against Britain. Now, during World War I, Italy and Britain

had been allied. So, David, what was the state of play between the two countries between the wars?

Well, as you say, Italy had been an ally, It hadn't been a formal part of the Entente,

as it's called, which was the UK, France and Russia. But the Italians had joined the war

against Austria-Hungary on the side of the Allies, and there'd been a significant military

campaign on what would now be the Italian Yugoslav border.

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