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Speaker 1: Hello, our menlik Lamoumbao, and thanks for listening to the

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Speaker 1: a Building. We've had a phenomenal response to the show

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Speaker 1: and our latest episode drops on Friday. Our friends of

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Speaker 1: Imagine also made a great show called The Secret World

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Speaker 1: of Roald Dall that dives into the author's life and

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Speaker 1: gives really the picture of him warts and all. We

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Speaker 1: are worn't in the first episode here for you, But

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Speaker 1: first here's the word from this creator, Aaron Tracy.

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Speaker 2: Hi, this is Aaron Tracy. I'm the creator and host

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Speaker 2: of the Secret World of Roal Dall from Imagine Entertainment.

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Speaker 2: iHeart podcasts and Parallax. Did you know that before Roll

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Speaker 2: Dahl came up with Willie Wonka and the BFG. Here's

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Speaker 2: a spy for British Intelligence. His job was to seduce

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Speaker 2: the wives of powerful Americans. Dahl later wrote the screenplay

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Speaker 2: for a hit James Bond film informed by these experiences.

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Speaker 2: Dahl was also a fighter pilot, the husband of an

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Speaker 2: Oscar winner, and an amateur neuroscientist who built a device

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Speaker 2: that saved thousands of children's lives. The world may know

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Speaker 2: Roaldall as the most popular children's author ever, but the

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Speaker 2: man who wrote those stories who lived one of the

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Speaker 2: most fascinating, most controversial, noisiest lives of his century. You

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Speaker 2: can find our series on its very own feed by

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Speaker 2: searching for The Secret World of Role Doll on whatever

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Speaker 2: platform you're listening on right now. We've been the number

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Speaker 2: one trending show in the world on one of these platforms,

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Speaker 2: Pocketcasts for the past two weeks, and we're so incredibly

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Speaker 2: grateful to our listeners for that. I want to share

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Speaker 2: our first episode with you here. Hope you enjoy it,

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Speaker 2: and if you do, please subscribe or follow the show.

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Speaker 2: It would mean so much to us. And thanks. When

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Speaker 2: I mentioned the name roll Dall to you.

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Speaker 3: What do you think of Definitely you need the BFG.

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Speaker 3: That was a classic Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. And

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Speaker 3: I think there was a series of the Gray Glass Elevator.

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Speaker 4: Love those.

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Speaker 2: When you picture Doll in your mind, what does he

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Speaker 2: look like, Well.

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Speaker 3: He's definitely older, gentleman, I would say, seventy ish, kind

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Speaker 3: of big guy, not fat, not that he doesn't like

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Speaker 3: fat people, but like you know, a tall man, bin

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Speaker 3: cardigan sweater, a beard, sitting in a big, kind of

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Speaker 3: comfy reading chair, kind of like masterpiece theater style.

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Speaker 2: When I mentioned the name Roald Dahl, what do you

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Speaker 2: think of so?

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Speaker 5: I think of Charlie and the chocolate factory, Matilda James

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Speaker 5: and the giant peach, and that he was I think

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Speaker 5: an anti satelite.

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Speaker 2: Dad. What do you know about Roald Dahl? Almost nothing.

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Speaker 1: I think I know fellow's name, but if you asked

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Speaker 1: me what he did, I.

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Speaker 2: Don't think I could tell you anything about. Did you

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Speaker 2: know that Doll was a spy for British Intelligence, No worry,

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Speaker 2: I did not know that. That's wild He worked for

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Speaker 2: at my sex. Very surprising. I'm very curious. Was this

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Speaker 2: before he wrote his stories?

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Speaker 3: It must have been.

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Speaker 2: During the war. Roll Dahl was a spy for British intelligence.

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Speaker 2: What his job was literally to seduce the wives of

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Speaker 2: powerful Americans and he was really good at it.

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Speaker 5: Okay, I don't think that's true.

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Speaker 2: I'm telling you it was a spy. I talked to

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Speaker 2: a lot of people about Roll Doll, and none of

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Speaker 2: them knew even a fraction of his full story. And

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Speaker 2: the full story is bananas. Forget the Roll Doll in

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Speaker 2: your head, the one who's the most successful children's author

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Speaker 2: of all time. Forget the image you have of him, which,

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Speaker 2: if it's like mine, is a disheveled BFG lookike grandfather

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Speaker 2: figure and a worn out cardigan and shaped like a spoon.

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Speaker 2: Because the Roll Doll I'm about to introduce you to

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Speaker 2: operated in the shadows of World War Two as a

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Speaker 2: dashing British spy. Honestly, we could do a whole ten

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Speaker 2: part series just about the spy unit. Doll was recruited

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Speaker 2: into during the war, a group of secret British agents

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Speaker 2: in America that called themselves the Irregulars, a name they

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Speaker 2: took from the informal network of child Spies and Sharlock Holmes,

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Speaker 2: which also tells you how they see themselves. Young men

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Speaker 2: operating in the shadows were traditional agents can't go so.

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Speaker 2: Picture a handsome twenty five year old Doll, four thousand

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Speaker 2: miles from home, thrust into this world without a single

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Speaker 2: day of espionage training. Imagine how intimidated he feels walking

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Speaker 2: into a room with this collection of remarkably almost suspiciously

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Speaker 2: handsome and charming men who seem born for this work. Doll,

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Speaker 2: on the other hand, feels like an impostor in way

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Speaker 2: over his head. Let's hear from the man himself, roll

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Speaker 2: Dall describing his unlikely employment goals.

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Speaker 6: My job was to try to help Winston Churchill to

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Speaker 6: get on with FDR and tell Winston what was in

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Speaker 6: the old boy's mind in America.

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Speaker 2: I mean, how cool is he playing it there as

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Speaker 2: if he's just setting a lunch with some old pals

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Speaker 2: and not orchestrating an alliance between the two most powerful

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Speaker 2: leaders in the free world. As you'll hear, Doll's whole

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Speaker 2: life is one surprise after another. It defies all expectations.

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Speaker 2: We would never expect a writer like say Stephen King

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Speaker 2: to secretly conduct espionage, or Jason Bourne to retire from

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Speaker 2: his spy work to pen forty nine beloved books that

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Speaker 2: change children's literature forever. The combination simply should not exist

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Speaker 2: in one human being. But then, how do you explain

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Speaker 2: Roll Dall impossibly implausibly real. Welcome to his deeply bizarre universe.

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Speaker 2: I promise it'll only get stranger from here. For my

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Speaker 2: hard podcasts, imagine entertainment and parallax. This is the secret

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Speaker 2: world of Roald Dahl. I'm your host, Aaron Tracy. I

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Speaker 2: also teach in the English department at Yale. So books

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Speaker 2: have always been a huge part of my life, and

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Speaker 2: dolls were the foundation, the first ones I ever cracked

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Speaker 2: open and read on my own. Doll's stories are would

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Speaker 2: turn me onto reading. But that's only part of why

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Speaker 2: I've spent decades obsessed with Roald Dahl. I'm even more

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Speaker 2: fascinated by what an enigma he is. He tries on

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Speaker 2: all these different masks, kind of like Bob Dylan. He's

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Speaker 2: impossible to nail down. The man is a total cipher,

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Speaker 2: which is maddening when you think about the fact that

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Speaker 2: we offer him up to our most impressionable population. I

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Speaker 2: have two young kids. They're going to grow up reading

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Speaker 2: Doll like millions of others. Now, when my wife and

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Speaker 2: I hire a babysitter, you better believe we do a

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Speaker 2: little digging into who she is first. But we just

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Speaker 2: happily bring Doll into our children's rooms, and not to

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Speaker 2: get too precious about it, but into their hearts and minds,

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Speaker 2: letting him worm directly into their ears night after night.

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Speaker 2: Shouldn't we have some idea of who this guy is? Well,

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Speaker 2: I promise you don't, but you're about to. Another reason

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Speaker 2: I'm really obsessed with Doll is because he lives the noisiest, craziest,

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Speaker 2: most adventurous life you've ever heard. As a writer, I'm

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Speaker 2: a writer. Literally, no one would describe me as adventurous.

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Speaker 2: I write a ton of TV and audio dramas. But

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Speaker 2: it's eleven am as I record this, and I'm still

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Speaker 2: in my bathroom. The most adventurous I ever am is

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Speaker 2: changing up my smoothie recipe by adding peppermint. That's what

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Speaker 2: being a writer is. But no one told Roald Dall.

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Speaker 2: You may only KNOWDL for his books, but when we're

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Speaker 2: done with this series, you're gonna feel like his writing

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Speaker 2: is about the nineteenth most interesting thing about him, which

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Speaker 2: is especially bananas. When you'll get the numbers, the man

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Speaker 2: has sold over three hundred million books. He's been translated

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Speaker 2: into sixty three languages. And we put that three hundred

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Speaker 2: million copies sold into context. Herman Melville, Henry James, Virginia Wolf,

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Speaker 2: Tony Morrison, Philip Roth, fellow children's author Shel Silverstein. Add

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Speaker 2: up all of their sales of all of their books,

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Speaker 2: and it equals about twenty five percent of dolls. That's

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Speaker 2: a nutting number. Here's another one. In twenty eighteen, the

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Speaker 2: Hollywood Reporter wrote that Netflix spent around one billion dollars

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Speaker 2: for the rights to Doll's works. But of course his

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Speaker 2: impact is so much bigger than the stats. The man

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Speaker 2: has permeated our collective consciousness. I have never in my

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Speaker 2: life unread to Candy Bar without part of me wondering,

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Speaker 2: even for just a millisecond, if there might be a

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Speaker 2: golden ticket in there, which is meant to say, I

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Speaker 2: don't have my issues with the man. He could be difficult,

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Speaker 2: sometimes incredibly nasty to those he's closest to, kind of

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Speaker 2: like some of his characters. It's easy to forget how

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Speaker 2: he actually treats the kids in his books, especially the

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Speaker 2: ones who aren't the heroes.

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Speaker 4: Take missus Glup straight to the fudge room, but look sharp,

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Speaker 4: or her little boy's liable to get poured into the boiler.

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Speaker 5: Do you void him up?

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Speaker 2: I know it. Goodbye, missus Gloop, Adieu. Alvida's yep. All

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Speaker 2: those children on the Chocoateur get tortured in gruesome ways.

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Speaker 2: Sam in the Witches, same in Matilda. There's so much

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Speaker 2: nastiness there, leaks off the page, staining your fingers. When

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Speaker 2: he died in nineteen ninety, The Washington Post my hometown

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Speaker 2: newspaper did not mince words. Quote. No children's author of

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Speaker 2: the past thirty years has regularly sparked more controversy than

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Speaker 2: Roald Dahl. On the one hand, kids consistently name him

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Speaker 2: their favorite writer. On the other, our best critics maintained

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Speaker 2: that his books are larded with gratuitous violence, bigotry, sexism, vulgarity, greed,

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Speaker 2: and all manner of foulness. And that's not some hit

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Speaker 2: piece or social media takedown, it's his obituary. Dall's nastiness

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Speaker 2: and his controversies have sucked up a lot of oxygen

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Speaker 2: in the past few years. I now look at the

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Speaker 2: spines of his books on my shelf not that differently

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Speaker 2: than I look at JK. Rowlings, which is to say,

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Speaker 2: kind of queasily. We'll definitely get into all that. It's fascinating,

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Speaker 2: sometimes ugly stuff from a guy who helped shape generations,

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Speaker 2: But for now, I'll just say it's a strange, super

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Speaker 2: complicated thing to admire so much about Dahl with the

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Speaker 2: knowledge that he wouldn't have come to my Hanica party.

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Speaker 2: My friend, the writer Ben Dolnik, captures the dilemma perfectly

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Speaker 2: in a short essay he wrote he writes about watching

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Speaker 2: his daughter fall headlong quote into that extraordinary, silent, inexpensive schedule,

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Speaker 2: disrupting passion of reading. Ben wrestles with watching her cherish

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Speaker 2: books written by a man who may have been repelled

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Speaker 2: by her very existence. I wanted to start the show

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Speaker 2: off by talking to friends about their perceptions of Doll,

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Speaker 2: because the weirdness that people see in him is really telling.

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Speaker 2: Here's the opening of a BBC profile from nineteen eighty two.

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Speaker 2: This is how a venerable, respected network introduces one of

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Speaker 2: the world's most famous authors. The man who lives in

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Speaker 2: this house makes a very good orange marmalade. He also

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Speaker 2: beats orchids.

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Speaker 6: He has never eaten a dish of tripe in his life,

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Speaker 6: and he wishes that his dog could speak to him.

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Speaker 2: He's Roald dal Who else in the world will be

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Speaker 2: introduced like that? He makes very good orange marmalade and

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Speaker 2: has never eaten shripe. But that's how people talk about Doll.

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Speaker 2: He's a curiosity, a character, not a man. Honestly, I

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Speaker 2: think it's at least partly due to his appearance. A

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Speaker 2: real life giant at six foot six plus. He's got

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Speaker 2: that name. That's so unusual for most people, and his

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Speaker 2: creativity is just so off the charts. So with all that,

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Speaker 2: he can't possibly be like you and me, right, he

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Speaker 2: must be some fantastical creature that just wandered into our world.

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Speaker 2: People are desperate for him to be a real life

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Speaker 2: BFG or a mistreunchabile or Willy Wonka, which fine is

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Speaker 2: not that unfair or unusual. We definitely imagine Hemingway was

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Speaker 2: as haunted as his characters. We'd feel cheated if Phoebe

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Speaker 2: waller Bridge wasn't as raw or hilarious as hers. But

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Speaker 2: here's the crucial difference. Those other writers' characters operate within

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Speaker 2: the boundaries of recognizable human behavior. Doll's creations exist in

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Speaker 2: a universe where children turn into blueberries and giants roam

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Speaker 2: the countryside collecting dreams. So was Doll really as mischievous

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Speaker 2: and outlandish, whimsical and grotesque as his characters? Sort of?

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Speaker 2: Now I'm incredibly excited to tell you about Doll's very

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Speaker 2: strange life as a very real secret agent. Picture Doll

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Speaker 2: in his early twenties, that critical moment when most of

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Speaker 2: us are fumbling to find our path. Not long before,

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Speaker 2: he'd been soaring through the skies as a fighter pilot

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Speaker 2: for the Royal Air Force, but a series of catastrophic

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Speaker 2: crashes had left him broken, his flying career abruptly terminated,

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Speaker 2: so now he's at a crossroads. The war continues to rage,

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Speaker 2: but his part in it has been stripped away, and

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Speaker 2: he's looking for what to do with his life. Doll

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Speaker 2: finds himself at a cocktail party in London that a

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Speaker 2: date has tried him to. He towers awkwardly above the crowd,

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Speaker 2: nursing a drink, contemplating an early exit. It's an elite crowd,

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Speaker 2: but it's a lot of rehearsed anecdotes and performative laughter.

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Speaker 2: Then something catches his eye, a solitary figure standing apart.

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Speaker 2: Not a film star or socialite, but someone far more

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Speaker 2: intriguing to a political obsessive like Dahl. Major Harold Balfour,

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Speaker 2: a member of Churchill's war cabinet, one of the men

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Speaker 2: literally deciding the fate of Britain As German bombs fall

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Speaker 2: in London. Dall's sense says this could be his chance.

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Speaker 2: Impressing the Major might lead to something, though he has

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Speaker 2: no idea that this conversation will alter the time trajectory

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Speaker 2: of his entire life. Let me pause here for a

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Speaker 2: quick sec to set the scene for what's going on

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Speaker 2: in the world, because it's crucial to what Doll is

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Speaker 2: about to become part of. The late nineteen thirties and

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Speaker 2: early forties are one of those rare times that it's

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Speaker 2: not an exaggeration to say the fate of the world

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Speaker 2: is at stake. Hiler isn't just winning battles, He's winning

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Speaker 2: the war, mostly because the US is sitting on the sidelines.

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Speaker 2: The British ambassador warrns his government that nine out of

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Speaker 2: ten Americans are determined to stay out of the war,

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Speaker 2: in other words, to not help Britain. The most famous

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Speaker 2: of these is Charles Lenburg.

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Speaker 4: It is now obvious that England is losing war, and

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Speaker 4: I have been forced to the conclusion that we cannot

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Speaker 4: win this war for England, regardless of how much assistance

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Speaker 4: we send. That is why the America First Committee has

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Speaker 4: been formed.

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Speaker 2: And this is while Germany is sweeping through Europe. The

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Speaker 2: Nazis take Austria, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Denmark, Norway, Belgium, the Netherlands,

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Speaker 2: Luxembourg and France. In America, we're just watching an unfold. Many,

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Speaker 2: if not most, Americans are still traumatized from the first

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Speaker 2: time we joined at a World War twenty years earlier.

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Speaker 2: The memory of American boys coming home in coffins We're

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Speaker 2: not coming home at all, remains raw. The thinking is

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Speaker 2: simply that Hitler is not our problem. The public isn't

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Speaker 2: yet aware of what's going on with the Jews of Europe.

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Speaker 2: The reports of them being rounded up and sent to

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Speaker 2: concentration camps is just too impossible to believe, so we

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Speaker 2: choose not to. Britain, of course, is on the brink.

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Speaker 2: You know this, You've seen the movies, read the books,

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Speaker 2: listen to the podcasts. Think Churchill pacing War Rooms by Lamplight,

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Speaker 2: Britain's darkest hour. If FDR doesn't send help and fast,

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Speaker 2: England is done. So put yourself in Winston Churchill's position.

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Speaker 2: Your island nation stands as one of the last flickering

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Speaker 2: lights of democracy in Europe. Your cities are being bombed

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Speaker 2: into rubble. Your people are sleep subway tunnels, and across

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Speaker 2: the Atlantics. It's America, powerful, untouched and stubbornly unwilling to

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Speaker 2: join the fight. What wouldn't you do to change their minds.

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Speaker 2: At that point is anything off the table. This is

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Speaker 2: where espionage becomes not just an option but a necessity. Okay,

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Speaker 2: so back to our cocktail party. Doll spot's Major Balfour,

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Speaker 2: a man who's signature on documents can move troops and

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Speaker 2: redirect warplanes. Doll takes a deep breath, and, with that

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Speaker 2: peculiar confidence that will define him throughout his life, he

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Speaker 2: crosses the room, introduces himself and simply begins to chat.

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Speaker 2: Doll gives great chat. His conversation has all the hallmarks

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Speaker 2: of his later fiction. Wickedly funny, wildly creative, a little dirty,

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Speaker 2: totally compelling. Doll is one of those people who just

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Speaker 2: instinctively knows how to captivate. I'm always so jealous of

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Speaker 2: those people, the ones who have small crowds gathered around

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Speaker 2: them at parties, Funny and magnetic without being at all

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Speaker 2: self conscious. The Major, like everyone else who meets Dall

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Speaker 2: in this period, is taken with him, and then it happens.

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Speaker 2: The Major tells Doll that he's looking for smart, well

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Speaker 2: educated young men to go to America to join the

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Speaker 2: British embassy. This conversation has changed everything, but not how

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Speaker 2: Doll thinks it has. Dahl thinks he's being recruited for

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Speaker 2: a diplomatic post. What the Major leaves out is what

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Speaker 2: he really has in mind for Doll. Military intelligence. The

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Speaker 2: head of the Irregulars has tasked the Major with finding brilliant, articulate, charming,

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Speaker 2: morally flexible young men with military backgrounds to join his outfit.

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Speaker 2: The Major seems to have found such a man. The

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Speaker 2: very next week, Doll's on a plane to Washington. When

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Speaker 2: Dolphirst arrives in DC, He's entranced. It's this big cauldron

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Speaker 2: of power, ego mixed with ambition, mixed with sex, mixed

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Speaker 2: again with power. Yet it all feels as intimate as

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Speaker 2: a college campus. Everybody knows everybody. I grew up in

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Speaker 2: DC and then the Northwest part of it. Walk into

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Speaker 2: any restaurant, linger in any bookstore, sit at any coffee

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Speaker 2: shop counter, and people are talking politics. It's in the

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Speaker 2: water supply, just like the entertainment industry in LA. So

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Speaker 2: every room Doll enters is an opportunity. Doll's trickiest endeavor

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Speaker 2: when he first arrives is finding decent housing in the

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Speaker 2: notoriously overcrowded city. He opens the newspaper and looks through

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Speaker 2: the classifieds. He finds a surprisingly nice place that he

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Speaker 2: can actually afford. The reason he can afford it is

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Speaker 2: because there was a bloody murder suicide in it last week.

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Speaker 2: The murder victim, Rosemary Sigley, was a beautiful young researcher

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Speaker 2: for the agency that becomes the CIA. She was also

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Speaker 2: a wealthy heiress. Her murder was a giant scandal, and

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Speaker 2: two days after there was a line of people outside

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Speaker 2: waiting to see if the scene of the crime would

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Speaker 2: be rented at a discount. You gotta love the real

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Speaker 2: estate market. But what's important for us is that Doll

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Speaker 2: is the first man in that line, which tells you

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Speaker 2: so much about who he is. The future author of

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Speaker 2: tales filled with darkly comic violence, isn't remotely bothered by

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Speaker 2: the apartment's bloody history. If anything, there's a flicker of

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Speaker 2: fascination as he signs the leafs. The apartment's gruesome backstory

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Speaker 2: isn't a deterrent, It's almost an attraction. The man loves gruesome.

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Speaker 2: Here's one of his most beloved books, with a little

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Speaker 2: girl torturing her nemesis. When if you tried to poison me, oh,

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Speaker 2: I knew it. So much of Doll's fiction pulls the

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Speaker 2: reader towards scenes of fear and dread. There's a ton

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Speaker 2: of children in peril and adults with real bad intentions,

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Speaker 2: danger lurking, and what we thought were safe spaces. He's

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Speaker 2: able to conjure these scenes so well because they're part

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Speaker 2: of his fabric, Dahalci's darkness everywhere, which means he barely

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Speaker 2: notices it anymore. When Dahl moves into Rosemary's place, it

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Speaker 2: takes him two nights before where he spots the rusty

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Speaker 2: bloodstains still in the carpet and the single bullet hole

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Speaker 2: in the ceiling. Lots of people, me very much included,

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Speaker 2: would immediately move out. Doll simply makes a mental note

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Speaker 2: of it, another detail in the strange tapestry of his life,

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Speaker 2: and goes to sleep under the same roof where a

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Speaker 2: bullet ended someone else's. Now. Dall is ostensibly in DC

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Speaker 2: to work for the British Embassy, so that's what he

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Speaker 2: does for a while. He pushes diplomatic papers, attends formal functions,

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Speaker 2: fills out reports, and he's suffocating. Each morning he sits

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Speaker 2: before stacks of documents, watching the clock move with excruciating slowness.

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Speaker 2: Doll wants something bigger for his life. He's searching for

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Speaker 2: something with meaning. But what Doll doesn't realize is that

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Speaker 2: someone is watching his every move. The big legendary figure

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Speaker 2: you need to know about right now is William Stephenson

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Speaker 2: code name Intrepid. Stevenson is Winston Churchill's head of espionage

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Speaker 2: in America. He's one of the key inspirations for James Bond,

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Speaker 2: who was created by one of his agents. This gives

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Speaker 2: you a sense of what Stephenson looks like, impeccably dressed,

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Speaker 2: handsome features and penetrating eyes that catalog everything his clean

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Speaker 2: cut compose and emanates the confidence of a man who

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Speaker 2: can have you vanished with a single phone call. This

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Speaker 2: is the man whose attention now turns to Roll Dall

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Speaker 2: to accomplish Britain's mission during this really scary time. Stevenson

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Speaker 2: is the one who assembles that elite spiring the Irregulars.

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Speaker 2: Writer and historian Janette Conak calls their operation one of

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Speaker 2: the most controversial and almost certainly one of the most

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Speaker 2: successful covert action campaigns in the Annals of Espionage. Stevenson's

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Speaker 2: eye for talent is wild just for starters. There's Roll Dall,

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Speaker 2: of course, and Ian Fleming, who later creates James Bond,

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Speaker 2: essentially immortalizing his own experiences here, and David Ogilvy, who

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Speaker 2: goes on to invent modern advertising. Three world class creators

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Speaker 2: of fantasy. So picture Roll Doll, James Bond, and Don

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Speaker 2: Draper all hanging out, drinking and seducing their way through

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Speaker 2: a foreign capital during wartime, and you start to have

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Speaker 2: a sense of what it's like. The whole thing feels

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00:21:09,800 --> 00:21:13,199
Speaker 2: like the premise of a prestige TV series. Beautiful Rakish

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Speaker 2: young men recruited into a shadow organization far from home

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Speaker 2: because of their smarts, persuasiveness, and talent for deception, tasked

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Speaker 2: with doing whatever they have to to save the free

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Speaker 2: world from fascism. The mission of the Irregulars is broad

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Speaker 2: gathering intelligence, sabotaging enemies, and creating propaganda that shifts public opinion.

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Speaker 2: Their official history describes them as empowered with the vague

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Speaker 2: task of doing all that was not being done and

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Speaker 2: could not be done by other means, which come on

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Speaker 2: is a license to operate in the gray areas. If

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Speaker 2: I've ever heard one doll can't believe he's been recruited

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Speaker 2: into this group. A month ago, he was languishing in

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Speaker 2: the English countryside, desperate to figure out his life, hungry

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Speaker 2: for purpose. Now he's found a role filled with subterfuge, deceit, storytelling,

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00:21:59,480 --> 00:22:02,160
Speaker 2: and role plays. In other words, all of his natural

385
00:22:02,160 --> 00:22:06,240
Speaker 2: skills with the highest stakes imaginable. The personal stakes for

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00:22:06,320 --> 00:22:09,080
Speaker 2: Doll are huge too. He can't go home to Buckingham

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Speaker 2: Sure after this and tend to the sheep. This job

388
00:22:11,600 --> 00:22:14,720
Speaker 2: is about to become his whole identity. You can tell

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Speaker 2: how formative it all is for Doll by the fact

390
00:22:16,760 --> 00:22:19,120
Speaker 2: that it echoes through his later fiction, like a recurring

391
00:22:19,200 --> 00:22:22,280
Speaker 2: dream Willy Wonka with an air of mystery beneath a

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Speaker 2: playful exterior, constantly testing those who enter his orbit. He's

393
00:22:25,920 --> 00:22:28,679
Speaker 2: definitely inspired by Stevenson and others Doll works for in

394
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Speaker 2: the Spy Game, also the Secret Society and the Witches

395
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Speaker 2: that performs covert missions. All of these stories that are

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00:22:34,440 --> 00:22:37,159
Speaker 2: going to captivate millions of children are born in the

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Speaker 2: shadows of wartime espionage. So far, though the Irregulars are

398
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Speaker 2: failing at their task of winning America to their side,

399
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Speaker 2: they're forced to get creative One of my favorite tactics

400
00:22:47,840 --> 00:22:51,160
Speaker 2: of THEIRS is when they hire a Hungarian astrologer, Louis

401
00:22:51,240 --> 00:22:54,800
Speaker 2: de Wall. The assignment they give him to publicly predict

402
00:22:54,960 --> 00:22:57,919
Speaker 2: Hitler's demise based on the positions of the stars and

403
00:22:57,960 --> 00:23:01,280
Speaker 2: therefore make Germany seem less scary to a Marriayricans. It's like

404
00:23:01,320 --> 00:23:04,919
Speaker 2: a pr smear campaign on the fascist dictator. Can't you

405
00:23:05,000 --> 00:23:07,479
Speaker 2: just picture these younger regulars around a table at two

406
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Speaker 2: am at some smoky Georgetown bar, whiskey flowing. One says,

407
00:23:12,000 --> 00:23:14,119
Speaker 2: what if we just told Americans they have nothing to

408
00:23:14,160 --> 00:23:16,800
Speaker 2: lose because the stars have already decided the Third Reich

409
00:23:16,920 --> 00:23:19,520
Speaker 2: is done for? And instead of laughing it off, there's

410
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Speaker 2: a long silence. They look at each other intensely and

411
00:23:22,240 --> 00:23:26,480
Speaker 2: say that is brilliant. They're so tickled with their idea

412
00:23:26,680 --> 00:23:33,840
Speaker 2: they send Louis on a national tour. Stevenson's main tactics, however,

413
00:23:34,040 --> 00:23:37,119
Speaker 2: involved targeting the upper echelons of the US government, and

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Speaker 2: this is both to bring the US into the war,

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Speaker 2: and once that's accomplished, to make sure London maintains significant influence.

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Speaker 2: If Britain can get someone close to the American president,

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Speaker 2: that would be huge enter young Roll Doll. It turns

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Speaker 2: out one of Doll's skills in particular makes them especially

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Speaker 2: effective with the irregulars. It's the same skill he'll later

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00:23:58,800 --> 00:24:03,240
Speaker 2: become legendary for his storytelling. Doll has recently begun writing

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00:24:03,240 --> 00:24:06,000
Speaker 2: short stories. It's not yet the all consuming passion it

422
00:24:06,040 --> 00:24:08,840
Speaker 2: will become. Like many young writers, Doll is trying to

423
00:24:08,880 --> 00:24:13,280
Speaker 2: find his voice by writing mostly autobiographically. Specifically, he's churning

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Speaker 2: out brief fiction pieces inspired by his childhood and his

425
00:24:16,480 --> 00:24:20,160
Speaker 2: time in the Royal Air Force. The stories are clever

426
00:24:20,280 --> 00:24:24,840
Speaker 2: and dark, a little scary, and totally original. One story

427
00:24:24,840 --> 00:24:27,920
Speaker 2: in particular centers on these grotesque little creatures he calls

428
00:24:27,960 --> 00:24:32,439
Speaker 2: gremlins whose sabotage aircraft a fun Gothic story, which doubles

429
00:24:32,520 --> 00:24:36,160
Speaker 2: is a fable for American and British cooperation. One reason

430
00:24:36,200 --> 00:24:38,920
Speaker 2: Doll's work continues to be read and seen and performed

431
00:24:38,920 --> 00:24:41,440
Speaker 2: over a century after his birth is that late Greek

432
00:24:41,520 --> 00:24:45,320
Speaker 2: myths his narratives tapped directly into our primal fears and desires.

433
00:24:45,720 --> 00:24:48,960
Speaker 2: They speak to universal human concerns wrapped in the irresistible

434
00:24:49,000 --> 00:24:53,040
Speaker 2: package of the bizarre and scary and funny. The Gremlins

435
00:24:53,160 --> 00:24:55,680
Speaker 2: has all of this, And in case you're wondering, as

436
00:24:55,680 --> 00:24:58,359
Speaker 2: I was, this Gremlins has nothing to do with the

437
00:24:58,359 --> 00:25:02,800
Speaker 2: Stephen Spielberg produced Classic. Doll mails the story out to

438
00:25:02,840 --> 00:25:07,760
Speaker 2: every magazine accepting unsolicited submissions, and one bites the Gremlins

439
00:25:07,760 --> 00:25:10,400
Speaker 2: gets published in a local journal, and the story connects

440
00:25:10,400 --> 00:25:13,200
Speaker 2: with readers. Those who dig it pass it around to

441
00:25:13,240 --> 00:25:16,040
Speaker 2: their pals. Of course, in these days that means literally

442
00:25:16,119 --> 00:25:19,800
Speaker 2: handing your copy of the physical magazine to someone. Eventually,

443
00:25:20,040 --> 00:25:22,760
Speaker 2: because this is just how Doll's luck works, his story

444
00:25:22,800 --> 00:25:25,840
Speaker 2: gets passed to a certain very important person you may

445
00:25:25,840 --> 00:25:26,360
Speaker 2: have heard.

446
00:25:26,160 --> 00:25:30,520
Speaker 6: Of, Eleanor Roosevelt, ready to her grandchildren. And I loved

447
00:25:30,520 --> 00:25:31,040
Speaker 6: this book.

448
00:25:31,280 --> 00:25:34,200
Speaker 2: Here's Dahl years later on a chat show on BBC one,

449
00:25:34,480 --> 00:25:37,960
Speaker 2: speaking to host Terry Wogan about his stroke of incredible fortune.

450
00:25:38,240 --> 00:25:41,920
Speaker 6: And so I got invited to the White House and

451
00:25:42,960 --> 00:25:44,639
Speaker 6: we got to know each other a bit, you know,

452
00:25:44,720 --> 00:25:48,399
Speaker 6: and I would go for weekends at Fdr Haad. His

453
00:25:48,520 --> 00:25:51,399
Speaker 6: country place is called Hyde Park, a fast pace, and

454
00:25:51,600 --> 00:25:55,879
Speaker 6: used to go there not to know him. I was

455
00:25:55,920 --> 00:25:59,320
Speaker 6: only a young chap of twenty six in an RAF

456
00:25:59,520 --> 00:26:02,240
Speaker 6: uniform and had no business around there.

457
00:26:02,280 --> 00:26:06,040
Speaker 2: Really, are you kidding me? First spy. Just befriending a

458
00:26:06,040 --> 00:26:10,840
Speaker 2: staffer or an intern in the Roosevelt administration would be giant. Doll,

459
00:26:11,160 --> 00:26:13,560
Speaker 2: in his mid twenties, becomes pals with the First Family

460
00:26:14,040 --> 00:26:16,399
Speaker 2: and how to do it through his skill he hasn't

461
00:26:16,480 --> 00:26:19,480
Speaker 2: yet realized will be his superpower. Making up a clever story,

462
00:26:22,960 --> 00:26:26,199
Speaker 2: Dall spends his time at Hyde Park, swimming, bird watching, barbecuing,

463
00:26:26,200 --> 00:26:28,880
Speaker 2: and drinking with the President and First Lady. He's making

464
00:26:28,920 --> 00:26:31,720
Speaker 2: mental notes on everything, desperate to report it all back

465
00:26:31,760 --> 00:26:35,320
Speaker 2: to Stevenson and prove himself in the job. According to Doll,

466
00:26:35,480 --> 00:26:38,320
Speaker 2: he even manages to spend time alone with FDR mixing

467
00:26:38,359 --> 00:26:41,439
Speaker 2: Martiniz before lunch, while the tipsy President says things like

468
00:26:41,760 --> 00:26:44,600
Speaker 2: I just received an interesting cable from mister Churchill and

469
00:26:44,640 --> 00:26:48,680
Speaker 2: then proceeds to tell Doll what Churchill wrote Surprise, surprise.

470
00:26:48,920 --> 00:26:51,880
Speaker 2: FDR clearly takes a liking to Doll two. He even

471
00:26:51,960 --> 00:26:55,199
Speaker 2: drives Doll around the property and especially made car. It

472
00:26:55,240 --> 00:26:57,640
Speaker 2: all feels pretty surreal for a young man not many

473
00:26:57,720 --> 00:26:59,639
Speaker 2: years out of high school who's been tapped as a

474
00:26:59,680 --> 00:27:02,720
Speaker 2: spy and is now casually hanging out with the most

475
00:27:02,760 --> 00:27:07,840
Speaker 2: powerful couple on the planet. At the end, of his

476
00:27:07,840 --> 00:27:11,000
Speaker 2: first weekend with the First Family in all those lavish surroundings,

477
00:27:11,280 --> 00:27:13,720
Speaker 2: Doll goes back to his tiny apartment with the bloodstained

478
00:27:13,760 --> 00:27:17,080
Speaker 2: carpet and writes up an incredibly thorough twelve page report

479
00:27:17,119 --> 00:27:21,639
Speaker 2: with journalistic precision quote visit to Hyde Park July second

480
00:27:21,720 --> 00:27:24,639
Speaker 2: to fourth. Yeah, he got invited there for July fourth.

481
00:27:25,240 --> 00:27:28,960
Speaker 2: Doll's report includes everything FDR said about Churchill, his impressions

482
00:27:29,000 --> 00:27:31,760
Speaker 2: about whether FDR will run for another term, and everything

483
00:27:31,760 --> 00:27:36,200
Speaker 2: else he thinks could even possibly be relevant. We don't

484
00:27:36,240 --> 00:27:39,080
Speaker 2: know whether Doll's report was read by Churchill himself, but

485
00:27:39,119 --> 00:27:41,840
Speaker 2: it's clear his work helps the British government gain insight

486
00:27:41,920 --> 00:27:45,600
Speaker 2: into where America stands. There's even a suggestion that Roosevelt

487
00:27:45,640 --> 00:27:48,360
Speaker 2: may have used all to convey information to the British

488
00:27:48,440 --> 00:27:51,960
Speaker 2: that was impossible for FDR to stay outright for diplomatic reasons.

489
00:27:52,480 --> 00:27:55,280
Speaker 2: For Doll, it is such a head trip. Writer Matthew

490
00:27:55,280 --> 00:27:58,760
Speaker 2: Denison points out Rold's life have become a double life.

491
00:27:59,119 --> 00:28:01,520
Speaker 2: He was still a Stenseti working for the British embassy.

492
00:28:01,640 --> 00:28:04,080
Speaker 2: At the same time he was a gather and conduit

493
00:28:04,119 --> 00:28:08,879
Speaker 2: of information in Britain's best interests. Needless to say Dolls.

494
00:28:08,960 --> 00:28:11,679
Speaker 2: Handlers are more than a little shocked and beyond thrilled

495
00:28:11,720 --> 00:28:14,639
Speaker 2: with this kid, and Doll's early success only makes him

496
00:28:14,640 --> 00:28:17,560
Speaker 2: more confident. The young man who felt rudderless just months

497
00:28:17,560 --> 00:28:20,400
Speaker 2: earlier now moves through Washington with the assurance of someone

498
00:28:20,440 --> 00:28:29,480
Speaker 2: who believes he can't fail. One of dolls more salacious

499
00:28:29,520 --> 00:28:32,640
Speaker 2: tasks for the Irregulars is seducing powerful women in order

500
00:28:32,640 --> 00:28:35,200
Speaker 2: to enlist their help. This is a task the young

501
00:28:35,240 --> 00:28:38,640
Speaker 2: Doll is very excited about. He's also built for it,

502
00:28:38,920 --> 00:28:41,760
Speaker 2: and he uses this trait for his most important seduction

503
00:28:42,320 --> 00:28:45,320
Speaker 2: with a woman with the very whimsical, very dolly in name,

504
00:28:45,720 --> 00:28:49,320
Speaker 2: Claire Booth. Loose. Dolls first sent to Claire because of

505
00:28:49,360 --> 00:28:52,240
Speaker 2: who she's married to. Claire is one half of one

506
00:28:52,240 --> 00:28:55,080
Speaker 2: of the most influential power couples of the century. Her

507
00:28:55,160 --> 00:28:57,640
Speaker 2: husband is Henry Loose, who builds a media empire that

508
00:28:57,720 --> 00:29:00,880
Speaker 2: quite literally shapes what millions of Americans think. He's the

509
00:29:00,920 --> 00:29:05,680
Speaker 2: founder of Ready for It, Time Magazine, Fortune Magazine, Life Magazine,

510
00:29:05,800 --> 00:29:10,120
Speaker 2: and Sports Illustrated. When these publications begin running pieces with

511
00:29:10,200 --> 00:29:14,600
Speaker 2: distinctly anti British undertones, British intelligence is not happy for

512
00:29:14,680 --> 00:29:17,560
Speaker 2: a nation fighting for its survival. This isn't just bad press,

513
00:29:17,680 --> 00:29:21,800
Speaker 2: it's an existential threat. If American public opinion turns against Britain,

514
00:29:22,080 --> 00:29:25,640
Speaker 2: vital Aid could evaporate overnight. The irregulars have to find

515
00:29:25,640 --> 00:29:28,760
Speaker 2: a way to change the tenor of Henry's magazines. They're

516
00:29:28,800 --> 00:29:31,640
Speaker 2: not sure how to reach Henry, who's notoriously stubborn, but

517
00:29:31,680 --> 00:29:34,200
Speaker 2: maybe they can get to his wife. After all, it's

518
00:29:34,240 --> 00:29:37,560
Speaker 2: an open secret that the loose marriage is unconventional for

519
00:29:37,640 --> 00:29:40,920
Speaker 2: its final twenty eight years. Henry apparently refuses to sleep

520
00:29:40,960 --> 00:29:43,720
Speaker 2: with Claire. He says he's in such profound awe of

521
00:29:43,800 --> 00:29:47,120
Speaker 2: her that he can't get aroused, a truly tragic condition

522
00:29:47,160 --> 00:29:50,480
Speaker 2: that vanishes whenever he's around almost literally any other woman.

523
00:29:52,520 --> 00:29:54,480
Speaker 2: Dahl first meets Claire at the New York premiere of

524
00:29:54,480 --> 00:29:58,120
Speaker 2: a propaganda film, Eagle Squadron. It's about US airman who

525
00:29:58,240 --> 00:30:01,320
Speaker 2: volunteered to fly with the Royal Air Force. The lobby

526
00:30:01,320 --> 00:30:04,080
Speaker 2: outside the screening room is packed with DC power players.

527
00:30:04,560 --> 00:30:08,720
Speaker 2: Cigar smoke hangs in lazy clouds beneath crystal chandeliers. The

528
00:30:08,800 --> 00:30:12,480
Speaker 2: murmur of hush conversations about policy and the war intermingles

529
00:30:12,480 --> 00:30:16,880
Speaker 2: with the clink of cocktail glasses. Doll's date, Nancy Carroll,

530
00:30:17,120 --> 00:30:20,440
Speaker 2: is a celebrity, once nominated for Best Actress, which tells

531
00:30:20,440 --> 00:30:23,880
Speaker 2: you everything about Doll's social currency. Their whispers about the

532
00:30:23,880 --> 00:30:27,800
Speaker 2: impropriety of Nancy's obvious infatuation with Dol, who's twelve years

533
00:30:27,840 --> 00:30:30,560
Speaker 2: younger than her, But Nancy doesn't seem to care, and

534
00:30:30,640 --> 00:30:33,360
Speaker 2: neither does All. He already draws attention with his height

535
00:30:33,560 --> 00:30:36,440
Speaker 2: and good looks. He enjoys the gaze of the room,

536
00:30:36,640 --> 00:30:40,240
Speaker 2: but doesn't seek it, and his focus is now pulled elsewhere.

537
00:30:42,320 --> 00:30:44,400
Speaker 2: Claire Loose is not in a spotlight, but in a

538
00:30:44,440 --> 00:30:47,040
Speaker 2: pocket of conversation where men lean down to hear her.

539
00:30:47,480 --> 00:30:50,840
Speaker 2: Doll doesn't approach, not yet. He observes how Claire holds court,

540
00:30:51,280 --> 00:30:55,680
Speaker 2: teasing some young congressman who said the wrong thing. The

541
00:30:55,720 --> 00:30:59,200
Speaker 2: house lights begin to flicker. Dall leads Nancy into the theater,

542
00:30:59,560 --> 00:31:03,240
Speaker 2: but as they settle in his eyes remain unclear. Claire

543
00:31:03,240 --> 00:31:07,760
Speaker 2: spots his stare, this impossibly handsome, impossibly composed British diplomat.

544
00:31:08,080 --> 00:31:10,720
Speaker 2: She gets a chill when she realizes he's not looking away.

545
00:31:11,240 --> 00:31:13,560
Speaker 2: He's telling her this look is not a passing glance,

546
00:31:13,880 --> 00:31:17,040
Speaker 2: not an accident. Doll has already been briefed on Claire

547
00:31:17,080 --> 00:31:21,440
Speaker 2: by the irregulars. For Claire's part, there's no flustered, bashful reaction.

548
00:31:23,160 --> 00:31:27,400
Speaker 2: Dall does not return home that night. Later in the week,

549
00:31:27,440 --> 00:31:29,680
Speaker 2: when Dall dutifully writes a letter to his mother, he

550
00:31:29,720 --> 00:31:32,840
Speaker 2: tells her everything, and I mean everything, even about his

551
00:31:32,840 --> 00:31:36,040
Speaker 2: awkward exchange with his landlady after getting home from Claire's.

552
00:31:36,720 --> 00:31:39,040
Speaker 2: He writes, quote, I got home at nine am the

553
00:31:39,040 --> 00:31:41,240
Speaker 2: next morning. I had to do a lot of talking

554
00:31:41,280 --> 00:31:49,640
Speaker 2: to re establish my reputation. Dall's job, of course, isn't

555
00:31:49,680 --> 00:31:51,640
Speaker 2: just to have one night stance. If he's going to

556
00:31:51,720 --> 00:31:53,800
Speaker 2: change Claire's opinion of the Brits and try to get

557
00:31:53,840 --> 00:31:56,400
Speaker 2: her to influence her husband's magazines, it needs to be

558
00:31:56,440 --> 00:32:00,160
Speaker 2: a more involved affair. Dall soon realizes focusing only only

559
00:32:00,160 --> 00:32:03,000
Speaker 2: effect Claire might have on time and life is shortsighted.

560
00:32:03,480 --> 00:32:06,480
Speaker 2: Changing Claire's mind about the Brits will also be hugely helpful,

561
00:32:06,880 --> 00:32:09,560
Speaker 2: because what I haven't mentioned yet is that Claire is

562
00:32:09,600 --> 00:32:15,640
Speaker 2: incredibly influential in her own right. Claire lives a giant life,

563
00:32:15,840 --> 00:32:19,840
Speaker 2: almost as noisy as dolls Lakedall. Claire finds incredible success

564
00:32:19,880 --> 00:32:22,880
Speaker 2: in a number of completely different fields. She starts out

565
00:32:22,920 --> 00:32:25,320
Speaker 2: as a short story writer. The New York Times finds

566
00:32:25,360 --> 00:32:29,360
Speaker 2: her first published volume, Superficial, but praises its quote lovely

567
00:32:29,400 --> 00:32:33,080
Speaker 2: festoons of epigrams, and writes, what malice there may be

568
00:32:33,120 --> 00:32:36,160
Speaker 2: in these pages has a falinity that is the purest angoring.

569
00:32:37,560 --> 00:32:40,200
Speaker 2: I have absolutely no idea what that means either, but

570
00:32:40,240 --> 00:32:42,520
Speaker 2: I guess it's not good because it pushes Claire to

571
00:32:42,560 --> 00:32:45,800
Speaker 2: pivot away from short stories and to try playwriting. Turns

572
00:32:45,800 --> 00:32:48,720
Speaker 2: out she's pretty good at it. In nineteen thirty six,

573
00:32:49,000 --> 00:32:52,520
Speaker 2: Claire writes The Women, which runs over six hundred performances

574
00:32:52,520 --> 00:32:55,400
Speaker 2: on Broadway. It's a commentary on the pamper lives of

575
00:32:55,480 --> 00:32:59,120
Speaker 2: wealthy Manhattan socialites, which Claire is about to become. The

576
00:32:59,160 --> 00:33:01,760
Speaker 2: play is adapted to twice for the movies, later with

577
00:33:01,760 --> 00:33:05,040
Speaker 2: Annet Betting and Meg Ryan, but first with Joan Crawford.

578
00:33:05,440 --> 00:33:08,760
Speaker 5: Well Girl, looks like it's back to the perfume grounded

579
00:33:08,800 --> 00:33:12,840
Speaker 5: for me. And by the way, there's a name for you, ladies,

580
00:33:12,960 --> 00:33:16,040
Speaker 5: but it is used in high society outside.

581
00:33:15,640 --> 00:33:20,080
Speaker 2: Of a kennel Lake Dahl, Claire bores easily. After her

582
00:33:20,120 --> 00:33:23,080
Speaker 2: success with The Women, Claire decides to move into journalism.

583
00:33:23,320 --> 00:33:26,280
Speaker 2: She works at Vogue Vanity Fair, then decides to try

584
00:33:26,360 --> 00:33:30,480
Speaker 2: war correspondent for Life magazine. Growing restless yet again, Claire

585
00:33:30,520 --> 00:33:33,680
Speaker 2: takes her varied experiences in creative writing, journalism and in

586
00:33:33,720 --> 00:33:38,240
Speaker 2: the war and decides to run for Congress. Accomplished, beautiful

587
00:33:38,240 --> 00:33:41,560
Speaker 2: and wealthy, Claire wins her election, and she's seated on

588
00:33:41,600 --> 00:33:45,680
Speaker 2: the powerful House Military Affairs Committee. Here she is years

589
00:33:45,760 --> 00:33:49,640
Speaker 2: later on the cartoonishly conservative William F. Buckley Show, speaking

590
00:33:49,640 --> 00:33:51,320
Speaker 2: about the subject of men versus women.

591
00:33:51,760 --> 00:33:55,520
Speaker 7: Man's both strength. We're stronger than a woman's strength. It's

592
00:33:55,560 --> 00:33:58,680
Speaker 7: that simple, after which, in order to get out from

593
00:33:58,760 --> 00:34:05,120
Speaker 7: anger developed a thing called gile Gle was weaponed against tyranny.

594
00:34:06,440 --> 00:34:09,520
Speaker 2: With Claire's seat in Congress, her powerful committee assignment, and

595
00:34:09,719 --> 00:34:12,800
Speaker 2: her unique ability to captivate audiences with her writing, plus

596
00:34:12,800 --> 00:34:16,120
Speaker 2: her husband's a little publishing empire, you could argue Claire's

597
00:34:16,120 --> 00:34:18,719
Speaker 2: about as influential as it gets, which is bad for

598
00:34:18,760 --> 00:34:21,920
Speaker 2: the Brits, because she also gives a blistering forty minute

599
00:34:21,920 --> 00:34:26,040
Speaker 2: speech on the House floor arguing passionately against cooperation with England.

600
00:34:26,680 --> 00:34:28,959
Speaker 2: If Doll can help sway her, he'll be a hero

601
00:34:29,120 --> 00:34:34,320
Speaker 2: to the irregulars. Claire is in a very different social

602
00:34:34,320 --> 00:34:37,480
Speaker 2: stratosphere than twenty somethingter Doll, who's living off cheese sandwiches

603
00:34:37,480 --> 00:34:40,240
Speaker 2: in his tiny walk up apartment. But even though Claire

604
00:34:40,280 --> 00:34:43,960
Speaker 2: is already incredibly successful, anne married, and at thirty nine,

605
00:34:44,280 --> 00:34:47,600
Speaker 2: thirteen years older than Dol, she falls fro him. Here's

606
00:34:47,640 --> 00:34:50,680
Speaker 2: a tall, handsome ex pilot who can talk literature and

607
00:34:50,800 --> 00:34:53,719
Speaker 2: theater with her in a way most DC boys cannot.

608
00:34:53,840 --> 00:34:57,080
Speaker 2: The relationship is electric, and Doll is soon complaining to

609
00:34:57,120 --> 00:35:01,640
Speaker 2: his superiors about Claire's appetite. According to a lawyer who

610
00:35:01,680 --> 00:35:04,680
Speaker 2: serves an FDR's administration, again with a name that may

611
00:35:04,719 --> 00:35:07,240
Speaker 2: as well be out of a Doll story, creak more Fath,

612
00:35:07,680 --> 00:35:09,920
Speaker 2: Doll confides in him that he just can't take another

613
00:35:10,000 --> 00:35:13,160
Speaker 2: night with Claire. She's completely worn him out over three

614
00:35:13,320 --> 00:35:17,200
Speaker 2: NonStop evenings. He doesn't have anything left. I went to

615
00:35:17,200 --> 00:35:20,480
Speaker 2: the ambassador this morning, Doll says, and I said, you know,

616
00:35:20,680 --> 00:35:22,880
Speaker 2: it's a great assignment, but I just can't go on.

617
00:35:23,480 --> 00:35:27,400
Speaker 2: And according to Doll, the ambassador replied, Rold, did you

618
00:35:27,440 --> 00:35:29,880
Speaker 2: ever see the Charles Lotton movie Henry the Eighth Do

619
00:35:29,920 --> 00:35:31,960
Speaker 2: you remember the scene of Henry going to the bedroom

620
00:35:32,000 --> 00:35:34,799
Speaker 2: with Anne of Cleaves, and he turns and says, the

621
00:35:34,840 --> 00:35:37,839
Speaker 2: things I've done for England, Well, that's what you've got

622
00:35:37,880 --> 00:35:42,000
Speaker 2: to do. Many years later, Dol will put the things

623
00:35:42,040 --> 00:35:44,719
Speaker 2: I've done for England line into Sean Connery's mouth as

624
00:35:44,800 --> 00:35:48,799
Speaker 2: James Bond, I don't really believe the British ambassador said

625
00:35:48,800 --> 00:35:51,160
Speaker 2: all that to Doll. To me, this feels less like

626
00:35:51,160 --> 00:35:54,399
Speaker 2: a real complaint and more like a humble brag. Doll

627
00:35:54,520 --> 00:35:56,080
Speaker 2: was trying to figure out what it means to be

628
00:35:56,120 --> 00:35:58,560
Speaker 2: a man in this uncertain period. Should he be a

629
00:35:58,600 --> 00:36:01,960
Speaker 2: macho playboy or a more sensitive man of letters. He's

630
00:36:02,000 --> 00:36:04,520
Speaker 2: twenty six. This is when you figure out who you are,

631
00:36:04,840 --> 00:36:07,120
Speaker 2: which isn't easy when you're lying about your identity. It's

632
00:36:07,160 --> 00:36:12,160
Speaker 2: almost everyone you meet. The overall effect of Doll's relationship

633
00:36:12,200 --> 00:36:14,879
Speaker 2: with Claire is pretty profound. He reports back on all

634
00:36:14,920 --> 00:36:18,000
Speaker 2: his intimate, candid conversations with her. He's able to tell

635
00:36:18,000 --> 00:36:20,880
Speaker 2: his superiors about internal debates regarding the British that are

636
00:36:20,880 --> 00:36:24,680
Speaker 2: happening in Congress and behind closed doors in influential media circles.

637
00:36:25,040 --> 00:36:29,520
Speaker 2: He's offering unparalleled insight into American political dynamics, and he

638
00:36:29,520 --> 00:36:32,920
Speaker 2: helps the British craft proactive ways to engage the Americans

639
00:36:32,920 --> 00:36:36,040
Speaker 2: for help, and pretty soon, wouldn't you know it, Life

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00:36:36,080 --> 00:36:39,680
Speaker 2: magazine is running some pro British stories, framing Britain as

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00:36:39,680 --> 00:36:46,360
Speaker 2: America's most essential ally. But even more importantly, Doll is

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00:36:46,520 --> 00:36:49,400
Speaker 2: in weakending with the President, carrying on an affair with

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00:36:49,400 --> 00:36:51,920
Speaker 2: the congresswoman, and mingling with some of the most powerful

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00:36:51,920 --> 00:36:56,319
Speaker 2: figures in the country. In espionage accesses everything, and doll

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00:36:56,520 --> 00:36:59,720
Speaker 2: has it, but he's still far from achieving all his goals.

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00:37:00,000 --> 00:37:01,520
Speaker 2: He still has a lot of work left to do,

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00:37:01,880 --> 00:37:03,319
Speaker 2: and he's going to have to do it with a

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00:37:03,360 --> 00:37:06,360
Speaker 2: ton of obstacles in his way. While I've mentioned that

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00:37:06,360 --> 00:37:09,240
Speaker 2: pretty much everybody who meets Stalla loves him, the truth

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00:37:09,280 --> 00:37:12,080
Speaker 2: is that when anyone is as successful as Dollars, there

651
00:37:12,080 --> 00:37:16,520
Speaker 2: are going to be those who don't appreciate it. A charming, arrogant, handsome,

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00:37:16,560 --> 00:37:20,799
Speaker 2: twenty six year old foreigner actively practicing espionage on behalf

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00:37:20,840 --> 00:37:23,680
Speaker 2: of six in the US and conducting affairs with some

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00:37:23,719 --> 00:37:27,040
Speaker 2: of the most powerful women in the nation, Yeah, that's

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00:37:27,080 --> 00:37:40,520
Speaker 2: going to engender some enemies, for one, the FBI. The

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00:37:40,560 --> 00:37:43,840
Speaker 2: Secret World of Roald Dahl is produced by Imagine Audio

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00:37:44,000 --> 00:37:48,040
Speaker 2: and Parallax Studios for iHeart Podcasts. Created and written by

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00:37:48,200 --> 00:37:53,000
Speaker 2: me Aaron Tracy, Produced by Matt Schrader, post production by

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00:37:53,320 --> 00:37:57,239
Speaker 2: wind Hill Studios, with editing, scoring, and sound design by

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00:37:57,239 --> 00:38:02,239
Speaker 2: Mark Henry Phillips, Editing by Ryan Setan, Music by a PM.

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00:38:03,080 --> 00:38:08,720
Speaker 2: Executive producers Nathan Cloke, Karl Welker, Brian Grazer, Ron Howard,

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00:38:09,320 --> 00:38:13,560
Speaker 2: and Aaron Tracy. Additional voice performances and recreation by Mark

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00:38:13,600 --> 00:38:17,240
Speaker 2: Henry Phillips and eleven Laps. If you enjoyed this episode,

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00:38:17,400 --> 00:38:19,840
Speaker 2: be sure to rate and review The Secret World of

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00:38:20,000 --> 00:38:23,440
Speaker 2: Roll Doll on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

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00:38:24,080 --> 00:38:29,120
Speaker 2: Copyright twenty twenty six Imagine Entertainment, iHeartMedia and Parallax