The Spy Who Duped Hitler | Making a Musical out of Mincemeat | 4

The Spy Who

Wondery

History

4.6 • 669 Ratings

🗓️ 15 April 2025

⏱️ 37 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

David Cumming, writer, actor, composer and originator of Operation Mincemeat: The Musical, transformed one of WWII’s most surreal tales—a corpse planted with fake intelligence to mislead the Nazis—into an all-singing, all-dancing West End sensation. Our host, Charlie Higson speaks to David about finding musical comedy in this unlikely wartime story, and balancing humour with the operation's darker truths.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Wonderry Plus subscribers can binge full seasons of the Spy Who early and add free on Apple Podcasts or the Wondery app.
0:13.9	From Wondery, I'm Charlie Higson, spy novelist, actor, comedian, and this is The Spy Who.
0:24.9	Thank you for joining us for our final episode of The Spy Who duped Hitler.
0:29.9	30th of April, 1943, was the date that possibly the greatest war deception since the Trojan horse
0:36.6	came into being.
0:38.6	The war is undecided.
0:40.6	Europe is under control of the Nazis,
0:42.9	but the Allies have a trick up their sleeve.
0:45.9	In Room 13 of the Naval Intelligence Division,
0:49.7	the plan for Operation Mincemeat was underway.
0:53.5	Churchill wants to attack Sicily, but he needs the
0:56.9	Nazis to look the other way. Cue a dead body, dressed as a Marine, given a fictitious
1:03.1	backstory packed with misleading intelligence. If you haven't already, go and listen to episodes
1:09.3	1 to 3 of this series to find out
1:12.1	exactly how this mission played out and how this audacious plan shifted the momentum of the war
1:18.4	decisively in the Allies' favour.
1:21.7	When Operation Mincemeat first came to my attention, I wasn't thinking, you know what, this
1:27.2	would make a great comedy-infused attention. I wasn't thinking, you know what, this would make a great
1:28.0	comedy-infused musical. But my guest today thought very differently. In this episode, I'm going
1:36.1	to speak to David Cumming, one of the originators of Operation Mincemeat, the musical. Its run has been
1:42.9	extended 12 times, and it's recently moved to Broadway, and it won
1:48.2	Best New Musical at the 2024 Olivier Awards.
	...

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