Mayday - Ep 9. The Boiling Frog
Intrigue
BBC
4.6 • 4.6K Ratings
🗓️ 9 November 2020
⏱️ 33 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
“My love it’s 10 times worse than we thought.” Things start to unravel.
When James Le Mesurier fell to his death in Turkey in 2019 he left behind a tangle of truths and lies. Mayday tells the extraordinary real story of the man who organised the White Helmets – rescuers who film themselves pulling survivors from bombed out buildings in rebel-held areas of Syria – and investigates claims that, far from being heroes, they are part of a very elaborate hoax. James Le Mesurier – his detractors say – was a British secret agent, pulling the strings. So when his body was found by worshippers on their way to morning prayers, there were a lot questions.
Produced, written and presented by: Chloe Hadjimatheou Editor: Emma Rippon Researcher: Tom Wright Mixed by: Neil Churchill Arabic translation and additional research: Vanessa Bowles, Abdul Kader Habak Turkish researcher: Nevin Sungur Narrative Consultant: John Yorke Original music: Nick Mundy and Bu Kolthoum Production Coordinator - Gemma Ashman
REFERENCES
Various Newspaper headlines
Express Tribune Pakistan: Founder of Syrian 'White Helmets' found dead in Istanbul 12/11/2019
The Scotsman British army officer and founder of Syria volunteers found dead by Margaret Neighbour 11/11/2019
Daily Sabah, Istanbul Officials reveal White Helmets founder's cause of death 20/11/2019
“Entrevista exclusiva com James Le Mesurier no CIBE BRAZIL 2017 – Bombeiros” (“Exclusive interview with James Le Mesurier at CIBE BRAZIL 2017 – Firefighters”) CBMGO YouTube channel, 26 September 2017
“Is Le Mesurier an Epstein?” - Fault Lines, Sputnik International, 12 November 2019
Brandpunt - Witte helmen” (Focal point - Season 1 - White helmets) - KRO-NCRV, 08 Nov 2016. Reporter Piet de Blaauw
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Choosing what to watch night after night the flicking through the endless |
| 0:06.8 | searching is a nightmare we want to help you on our brand new podcast off the |
| 0:11.8 | telly we share what we've been watching |
| 0:14.0 | Fladiated. |
| 0:16.0 | Load to games, loads of fun, loads of screaming. |
| 0:19.0 | Lovely. Off the telly with me Joanna Paige. |
| 0:21.0 | And me, Natalie Cassidy, so your evenings can be a little less |
| 0:25.0 | searching and a lot more auction listen on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:29.0 | BBC Sounds Music music radio podcasts. |
| 0:34.4 | This episode contains content which some listeners might find distressing. founder of Syrian White Helmets found dead in Istanbul. |
| 0:49.0 | James Lemeasurer's body was found near his home in the Bayaloo District of Istanbul. |
| 0:53.2 | Mr Lemezurer was the founder and CEO of May Day Rescue |
| 0:57.2 | which founded and trained the White Helmets. |
| 0:59.6 | Police and Intelligence officials after gathering new information regarding the death of White Helmets |
| 1:04.6 | founder James O' Measurement. |
| 1:11.1 | After James died, newspapers around the world almost always referred to him as the founder of the White Helmets. |
| 1:18.0 | When I started trying to find out what happened to him, that's what I assumed he was. And when James spoke publicly he often sounded like a founder. |
| 1:28.7 | Here he is at a noisy international civil defense event in Brazil back in 2017. |
| 1:34.7 | We started with one team of 25 ordinary civilians, students, taxi drivers, ordinary people. Now there are 3,300 |
| 1:48.8 | volunteers, men and women and they operate from 120 teams across the country and they've saved the lives of 100,000 people. |
| 2:01.0 | In many ways, James was the Western face of the white helmets. |
| 2:05.6 | He articulated their heroism and made them sound credible. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.