Real Dictators
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Real Dictators
Real Dictators is the award-winning podcast that explores the hidden lives of history's tyrants. Hosted by Paul McGann, with contributions from eyewitnesses and expert historians. New episodes available a week early for Noiser+ subscribers. You'll also get ad-free listening, early access and exclus...
Neueste Episoden
148 Episoden
Fidel Castro Part 10: Emergency on an Airplane
The end arrives. Embarrassed at a baseball game, the Maximum Leader responds with arrests and intimidation. We hear first-hand testimony from a Cuban...
Fidel Castro Part 9: Down With Fidel!
After a tragedy in the Florida Straits, a dramatic tug of war takes place between Castro and America - all centred on a five-year-old boy. A new leade...
Fidel Castro Part 8: Miami Vice
When a bomb goes off on a south Florida street, it bears all the hallmarks of a Cuban expert. Castroland is going international. As exiles flock to Mi...
Fidel Castro Part 7: Che Guevara in the Jungle
Castro sets out to create a breed of “new people” - turning Cuba into an island of mini-Fidels. A particular dairy cow becomes a national treasure and...
Fidel Castro Part 6: The Cuban Missile Crisis
The first man in space arrives in Cuba for a special visit. A passenger liner from the Soviet Union docks in Havana. But it’s not carrying tourists. O...
Fidel Castro Part 5: The Bay of Pigs
A man who was right there tells us the tale of one of history’s most notorious military failures. Castro’s former lover is given a handful of poison c...
Fidel Castro Part 4: Havana’s TV Star
Castro goes on a victory parade, eventually arriving in Havana on top of a tank. Vengeance is wrought on the old dictator’s supporters, as the new lea...
Fidel Castro Part 3: The Mountain Guerrillas
While Batista tries to convince the world that Castro is dead, Fidel regroups in the mountains. The world’s press descends on Cuba, hoping to meet thi...
Fidel Castro Part 2: Shipwrecked in the Swamps
Castro wrestles with Marxism and begins another affair. Attempting to reignite the revolution, he swims naked across the US border. At a get-together...
Fidel Castro Part 1: Rise of ‘The Crazy One’
Fidel Castro - a revolutionary turned strongman dictator, beloved by his supporters and loathed by his enemies. The bête noire of the United States wh...
Introducing: Titanic: Ship of Dreams - Episode 1
This is a taster episode of a brand-new podcast from the Noiser podcast network. Join host Paul McGann as he explores life and death on the most famou...
Benito Mussolini Part 7: Break for the Border…
As Italy switches sides, Hitler hatches a plan to rescue his pal. But with the Axis collapsing on all fronts, Mussolini makes for Switzerland - stowed...
Benito Mussolini Part 6: The Road to Perdition
It all starts to go horribly wrong… After the disastrous invasion of Greece, Mussolini sends troops to Russia. Benito’s Blitz prompts bemusement in Br...
Benito Mussolini Part 5: The Pact of Steel
At the Munich Conference, Mussolini postures as a peacemaker. With Hitler in the ascendancy, the Rome-Berlin Axis is upgraded to a military alliance....
Benito Mussolini Part 4: A Fine Bromance
Il Duce uses propaganda to become a folk hero - part saint, part Father Christmas. He bans journalists from mentioning his birthday or the fact he’s a...
Benito Mussolini Part 3: Murder in Broad Daylight
World leaders line up to hail the new Italian strongman. But the fascists are already silencing dissenting voices. An epochal discovery in Egypt’s Val...
Benito Mussolini Part 2: The March on Rome
Wounded at the Front, Mussolini’s war ends early. A playboy aristocrat forms his own private army, offering inspiration to Il Duce. As Italian workers...
Introducing: Sherlock Holmes Short Stories
A brand-new release from the Noiser Network. Join Hugh Bonneville on a thrilling journey through Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s most celebrated Holmes myste...
Benito Mussolini Part 1: Italy’s Fascist Godfather
We begin at the end… in 1945, with a pile of bodies dumped in Milan then strung up for all to see. Among them, the most powerful man in Italy. One of...
General Videla Part 4: Dictator in the Courtroom
The Falklands War casts a long shadow over Argentina as the junta teeters on the verge of collapse. The country slowly returns to democracy. But that...
General Videla Part 3: God, Football, the Falklands
The 1978 FIFA World Cup rolls into Argentina. A surreal fortnight ensues. Fans flock to revamped stadia, while just metres away prisoners cower - hidd...
General Videla Part 2: Mr Clean’s Dirty War
Videla’s dirty war begins. ‘Subversives’ are rooted out, with torture centres established across the land - including one known as the ‘Argentine Ausc...
General Videla Part 1: The Skinny One and the Witch
Argentina. The story of a gaunt, hawkish man who earned the nickname “the Hitler of the Pampa”. A man whose awkward bearing belied his capacity for cr...
BONUS: Dictators’ Books
Almost every dictator, at one time or another, has put pen to paper. Some have wrestled with ideas, with philosophy. Many have merely vented - spewing...
Pinochet Part 3: Searching for the Disappeared
Pinochet consolidates control, creating a terrifying new secret police force. The dictator’s war on communism extends abroad, as Chile joins Operation...
Pinochet Part 2: The Caravan of Death
September 11th, 1973. The touchpaper is lit. President Allende realises he’s been double-crossed. Pinochet keeps his cards close to his chest. A loyal...
Pinochet Part 1: An Arrest in London
We travel to South America. In September 1973, Augusto Pinochet seizes power in Chile following a coup d’état. The aim is to topple the country’s soci...
Introducing: D-Day: The Tide Turns - Episode 1
This is a taster episode of a brand-new podcast from the Noiser network. Host Paul McGann follows the real people involved in the D-Day landings.
Oliver Cromwell Part 4: The Conquest of Ireland
In the final part of the Cromwell story, outrage at the King’s execution leads Ironsides to wage war on Scotland and, notoriously, Ireland. Insurgenci...
Oliver Cromwell Part 3: To Kill a King…
With the King in captivity, both sides seek a settlement. But when Charles escapes, all trust is broken. For Cromwell there is only one course of acti...
Oliver Cromwell Part 2: Civil War Across the Realms
England is plunged into conflict. Oliver Cromwell, an obscure politician, soon proves himself an outstanding military commander. King Charles, meanwhi...
Oliver Cromwell Part 1: The Rise of Ironsides
Say “Oliver Cromwell” today and certain things come to mind. He won the English Civil War and prompted the execution of Charles I. He purged the realm...
Introducing: The Curious History of Your Home - Baths
A brand-new podcast from the Noiser network. Join domestic historian Ruth Goodman as she explores the remarkable, often epic, tales behind everyday ob...
Enver Hoxha Part 2: Stalin’s Shadow, Europe’s North Korea
As a new premier takes charge in Moscow, Hoxha makes a new friend in China. The Albanian dictator tasks an entire media industry with maintaining his...
Enver Hoxha Part 1: The Albanian School Teacher
From 1944 to 1985, Enver Hoxha ran Albania as an extraordinarily repressive Stalinist dictatorship. But how did a middle class teacher from the provin...
Herod the Great Part 2: Murders in the Family
Herod leaves Rome to wrest Judea from the Parthians. He will marry a princess, commission extraordinary building works, and even murder his in-laws as...
Herod the Great Part 1: Ruler of Galilee
Herod - you may well know the name from the Nativity story. The cruel king who learns of a prophecy proclaiming a Messiah and orders the slaughter of...
Saddam Hussein Part 5: The War on Terror
In the aftermath of 9/11, President Bush and Prime Minister Blair send troops back into Iraq. In a highly symbolic moment, beamed around the world, a...
Saddam Hussein Part 4: The First Gulf War
After Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait, US forces are deployed to the region. For some Iraqis, it seems like the perfect time to rise up against their dictat...
Saddam Hussein Part 3: Oil and the Ayatollah
Saddam nationalises the Iraq Petroleum Company and clashes with the new leader of Iran. A man called ‘Chemical Ali’ commits one of the most heinous at...