Last Man Standing: On the trail (Pt 1)
The Story
The Times
3.9 • 1.6K Ratings
🗓️ 21 December 2024
⏱️ 40 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
As a bonus episode, we’re bringing listeners of The Story the first episode of our series Last Man Standing - the story of British photojournalist John Cantlie who was kidnapped in Syria by Islamic State in 2012. While his fellow hostages were released or murdered, he remained captive. Then, a series of Isis propaganda videos emerged, fronted by Cantlie. He hasn’t been seen since.
Times War Correspondent Anthony Loyd begins his investigation into John Cantlie's disappearance and explores the events of a prior kidnap asking what compelled John to return to Syria after his first escape.
Want more? Listen to the full series of Last Man Standing here.
This episode was first published on 24 June 2022.
This podcast was brought to you thanks to the support of readers of The Times and The Sunday Times. Subscribe today and get one month free at: thetimes.co.uk/storiesofourtimes.
Hosts: Manveen Rana and Anthony Loyd, War Correspondent, The Times.
Clips: BBC, 5Live, CNN, NBC, Broadcasting House (BBC Radio 4).
Listen to the whole series: Last Man Standing
This podcast was brought to you thanks to subscribers of The Times and The Sunday Times. To enjoy unlimited digital access to all our journalism subscribe here.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | How often can you say a gift is truly unique? |
| 0:04.1 | When you gift a loved one and ancestry DNA test, |
| 0:07.0 | you're giving them the keys to unlock their own personal journey of discovery. |
| 0:11.4 | And with our festive sale now on, you can save on a truly meaningful gift. |
| 0:15.8 | Help them discover their heritage, learn about their ancestors, |
| 0:19.1 | and make new family connections this Christmas. |
| 0:22.1 | Visit ancestry.co.uk to give them a gift that is truly unique. Terms apply. |
| 0:30.1 | From Wondery, I'm Raza Jafrey. And in the latest season of The Spy Who, we open the case file |
| 0:36.2 | on Monskloobin, the spy who gave London its Christmas tree. |
| 0:40.7 | If you stand in London's Trapalga Square at Christmas, you'll see a towering, sparkling tree. |
| 0:45.9 | What you won't see is the story behind it. |
| 0:48.8 | The story of Monskloobin, 007 author Ian Fleming and A Secret Mission to Norway. |
| 0:54.8 | Follow the Spy Who now, wherever you get your podcasts. |
| 1:12.8 | Hi, it's Manvine here. |
| 1:17.1 | With a civil war in Syria finally coming to an end, |
| 1:22.0 | we thought you might want to listen back to a series we made called Last Man Standing about one of the enduring mysteries of the war. |
| 1:26.6 | In 2012, in the midst of the conflict and with Islamic State |
| 1:30.7 | on the march, journalists reporting from Syria were suddenly being kidnapped and held for ransom. |
| 1:38.5 | One of them was the British reporter John Cantley. Anthony Lloyd, veteran war reporter at the Times, knew John and followed |
| 1:47.7 | his story after he was kidnapped and held by Islamic State. John was last seen in an ISIS |
| 1:54.4 | propaganda video in 2016. After the caliphate fell, Anthony began an investigation to find out what happened to John Cantley. |
| 2:07.7 | It's an extraordinary story, and if you're intrigued by this first episode, we've put a link to the whole series in the description notes. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The Times, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of The Times and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.