Churchill's Secret Agents: The New Recruits

As a SOE living historian and a British Army veteran I found this series to be interesting and very informative. Frome the rat bomb to the unarmed combat it was following the SOE training manual. It is shame they couldn't have used the actual SOE Finishing School for the Finishing School and the Final Scheme but since that is now the National Motor Museum I suppose it would have caused too much disruption. I feel that it was left incomplete without the Parachute School

If you also enjoyed this production and want to see something which incorporates the secret agents in action, try Charlotte Gray. It is one of my favorites as well.

I'm fond of espionage novels and films, especially World War II era. The concept here is brilliant: a group of modern women and men volunteer to undertake the same training program as British Special Operations Executive agents who were being prepared for intelligence-gathering, sabotage, support of local Resistance fighters, and covert communications in territories occupied by the Nazi enemy. This is reality television of a very high order. The participants, both volunteers and their instructors, are utterly convincing. The volunteers are exceptionally brave.

This modern day reality show "Churchill's Secret Agent Selection: WW2" is excellent and can't be compared with any other reality shows I have ever seen. Really enjoyed the scenes from a UK historical view with real clips and descriptions of the secret missions of the actual secret agents of the time. The show, mixed with modern day candidates to participate in a competitive training program which mirrored what the real agents went through back then, make it unique. Candidates are interviewed and chosen on individual traits that each one possess and they are quite diverse. Who will make it and who will not? My personal favorite turned out to be Jeffreys, a very small short woman you would never expect to take down a grown highly trained man in a flash - you just can't judge people. Ea. Episode is a different kind of training. One thing it may have been lacking in training however is no mention of opposite sex trickery or getting involved with the wrong woman for example. I only say this because saw a different Netflix spy doc abt US spies that got caught and it seems approx. 90%+ it was because of falling for the wrong woman or getting stabbed in the back by double agents, etc. As innocent as this show seems with serious training lets face it - the opposite sexes are being paired together in the field in real life/death situations and temptations and jealousies come into play.

#ChurchillsSecretAgentSelection #SecretAgentSelection.

I wasn't quite sure I wanted to watch this, but once I got started, I'm happy I did. The historical links are solid and well-presented. Whether SOE was really as effective as the series hints at or not is a matter of conjecture, but there is absolutely no denying that the SOE training and missions had a significant effect not just on WWII, but on the development of the CIA para-military units, post-war SAS and the US Army Special Forces. It was very interesting to see a very varied group from today put through the SOE syllabus and training program, to include peer assessment and self-selection (drops) that are still an integral part of SOF selection today. I was only surprised by one of the non-selections and none of the selections.