May 2014 The Loebner Prize is making Bletchley Park its permanent home. The competition is modelled on Alan Turing’s famous test, which suggests that a thinking computer’s responses would, in conversation, be able to convince a panel of judges that it is human. The Loebner Prize was founded and is sponsored by Dr Hugh Loebner, a New York philanthropist. He says “The competition is the longest running Turing test.” Since the competition’s inception in 1991, no computer has yet managed to win anyt...
May 14, 2014•2 min
May 2014 This month, we learn about the doomed German plans to invade Britain in 1940 with Historian & founding member of the Bletchley Park Trust, Peter Wescombe as we join him in the Bletchley Park Archive. We also take you to the launch of the biography of one of Bletchley Park’s lesser known geniuses, Gordon Welchman. Joel Greenberg has been reading up on & researching Bletchley Park’s World War Two history since the 1970s. He is a Volunteer Tour Guide & works part time at Bletch...
May 10, 2014•52 min
May 2014 As the 70th anniversary of D-Day approaches, original Bletchley Park Trust member & Historian Peter Westcombe, compares the meticulous planning which preceded the Normandy landings with the doomed German plot to invade Britain much earlier in World War Two, Operation SEALION. You can hear more of this interview with Peter in the next episode of the Bletchley Park Podcast, out on the 10th of May. ©Crown. Reproduced by kind permission, Director, GCHQ #BPark, #Bletchleypark, #enigma, #...
May 06, 2014•3 min
April 2014 On the 20th of July 2014, Bletchley Park proudly presents four women whose diverse roles within the Government Code and Cypher School during World War Two give a rare insight into the inner workings of this top secret organisation. Ruth Bourne, Gwendoline Page, Jean Valentine and Charlotte (Betty) Webb will each give a personal glimpse into their time at Bletchley Park and WW2, followed by a Q&A Session. For more information and tickets got to https://www.bletchleypark.org.uk/shop...
Apr 28, 2014•2 min
April 2014 The biography of one of Bletchley Park’s lesser-celebrated geniuses, Gordon Welchman, has been launched with the handover of personal documents and possessions to the Bletchley Park Trust. They include letters and documents which had been in Welchman’s son Nick’s loft until he was approached by the author, Dr Joel Greenberg. Tickets are on sale now for Bletchley Park Presents Dr Joel Greenberg; a talk about Gordon Welchman, on Sunday 18 May. #BPark, #Bletchleypark, #enigma, #Bombe...
Apr 24, 2014•3 min
April 2014 Foundations believed to be of a house that predated the iconic Mansion have been found as part of the restoration of Bletchley Park. Water Hall was built in 1711 but by the late 18th century it had fallen into disrepair and was demolished by 1806. Bletchley Park's Media Relations Manager & Podcast Host, Katherine Lynch, spoke to Helen Legh on BBC Three Counties Radio Friday 18 April. Thanks to BBC3CR for use of this recording. Image: ©English Heritage Detail from the 1718 Estate S...
Apr 22, 2014•5 min
April 2014 Prof. Barry Cooper discussed Alan Turing’s life and work at last year’s sell-out day of talks, Codebreakers’ Legacy. Book now for Bletchley Park Presents Christy Campbell on Easter Sunday. https://bletchleypark.org.uk/calendar/d.rhtm/758932-Bletchley-Park-Presents---Christy-Campbell.html Book now - https://bletchleypark.org.uk/shop/p.rhtm/130872/762467-Ticket 20 April Christy Campbell_Talk.html Picture © Mubsta.com #BPark, #BletchleyPark, #Enigma, #AlanTuring, #Turing, #ATY, #mcfontai...
Apr 17, 2014•29 min
April 2014 The Bletchley Circle makes a welcome return this weekend on America’s Public Broadcasting Service. Series two of the hit ITV drama attracted more than 4 million viewers per episode on ITV in January and from Sunday 13 April it will be shown on PBS. You can hear more from the cast as well as the series Writer and Creator, Guy Burt, and Executive Producer, Jake Lushington, in our special December episode. https://audioboo.fm/boos/1803303-bletchley-park-podcast-extra-the-bletchley-circle...
Apr 12, 2014•4 min
April 2014 This month, we take you inside the 1940s Boutique, a new event which helps you recreate wartime glamour. We hear from the daughter and granddaughters of a woman who may or may not have worked at Bletchley Park but who, family legend has it, knew her brother had been killed in action when the rest of her family could only be told he was missing. We take a sneak peek inside the soon to be opened Codebreaking Huts, taken back to their wartime glory as part of the £8 million restoration o...
Apr 10, 2014•45 min
April 2014 Volunteer actors from the local community will help bring Codebreaking Huts 3 & 6 to life through their projected images & voices, created by Elbow Productions. You can hear more about this project in the next episode of The Bletchley Park Podcast, out on the 10th of April. Picture: ©Elbow Productions #BPark, #Bletchleypark, #ww2veteran, #enigma
Apr 04, 2014•3 min
April 2014 Margaret Reardon, ATS (Auxiliary Territorial Service), Royal Signals, recalls her time listening to enemy radio messages on the Isle of Man during World War Two. You can hear more from Margaret in the next episode of The Bletchley Park Podcast, out on the 10th of April. #BPark, #Bletchleypark, #ww2veteran, #enigma
Apr 02, 2014•3 min
March 2014 Captain Jerry Roberts MBE, one of Bletchley Park’s last Codebreakers, died this week at the age of 93. Jerry was one of the original members of The Testery working on cracking Tunny, the German High Commands code, used by Hitler & his top Generals. Their work warned the Russian’s of The Kursk Offensive, allowing them to defend until the Germans called off, what would be their last major offensive on the Eastern Front. Winston Churchill said “Stalingrad was the end of the beginning...
Mar 28, 2014•30 min
March 2014 Children’s TV presenters Dick & Dom came to Bletchley Park to film a programme about Alan Turing. Absolute Genius with Dick & Dom will be on CBBC on the 12th March. We caught a quick word with them between takes. Battlefield History TV is making a fascinating documentary about the Bletchley Park story which will soon be available on DVD. We bring you a taste of what will be in the finished programme with Iain Standen interviewing Veteran Bombe Wren Sue Winn & Bletchley Par...
Mar 10, 2014•45 min
February 2014 This is the full length version* of our exclusive interview with Sarah Harding, Director of the second two-part story in series two of the hit ITV drama, The Bletchley Circle. In this month’s Bletchley Park Podcast & the first part of this EXTRA Sarah tells us about her mother, Dorothy Harding (nee Thompson) who was a Wireless Operator / Morse slip reader at Bletchley Park 1943-1945. It was a happy coincidence that Sarah had that personal connection to Bletchley Park when The B...
Feb 27, 2014•32 min
February 2014 This month we join Bletchley Park Veteran Margaret Roland as she was asked to be the special guest at a ceremony to mark the completion of refurbishment work at White Spire School in Bletchley. We take you behind the scenes at rehearsals for February half term’s exciting Living History project, where Sorrel Meechan, one of the actors helping bring the buildings to life, tells us about her personal connection to the Bletchley Park having grown up knowing her grandfather worked as a ...
Feb 10, 2014•56 min
January 2014 In this episode we bring you the entire interview we recorded with Veteran Wren Bombe Operator, Audrey Wind, who recalls how she was plucked from filthy cleaning jobs in basic training & recruited to do a very, very secret job. Audrey was posted to Eastcote, an outstation of Bletchley Park, where she operated Bombe machines. She says “The pressure was enormous. It took me a long time after the war to get over it and I’m sure it did for everyone. It was terribly stressful.” Audre...
Jan 30, 2014•37 min
January 2014 This month we take you exclusively behind the scenes during filming of The Bletchley Circle, hearing from the Producer, Standby Art Director & Bletchley Park Trust staff who were cast as supporting actors, to safeguard machines which belong to GCHQ. We hear from Veteran Audrey Wind, whose story is featured as a DVD extra, who was told when she was recruited: “You must not mention this conversation to any living person.” Years after the war, she was spotted by a fellow alumnus of...
Jan 10, 2014•55 min
December 2013 In this EXTRA episode we look back at what turned into another busy year at Bletchley Park, but also ahead to the return of the ITV drama The Bletchley Circle. The thrilling series based on the lives of four extraordinary & brilliant women who worked at Bletchley Park during WW2 returns to UK screens on ITV for a four-part series starting on Monday 6th of January 2014. Over the next few Podcasts & EXTRA episodes we will be bringing you exclusive interviews with the cast &am...
Dec 17, 2013•29 min
December 2013 This month, we join Bletchley Park historian Dr Joel Greenberg & AS Level history students from Milton Keynes College as they discover hidden treasures under The Mansion car park. Footings of what the Bletchley Park Trust believes were the first few wooden huts built at the outbreak of World War Two were found when the tarmac was removed. We find out what happened at a specially set-up monitoring station in the National Radio Centre at Bletchley Park, when AMSAT-UK launched FUN...
Dec 10, 2013•46 min
December 2013 In this month’s Bletchley Park Podcast we brought you some highlights of the day we spent with two amazing Veterans, Norah Boswell, a Wren Bombe Operator who was stationed at Stanmore & Joyce Roberts, a WAAF Teleprinter Operator at Bletchley Park. In this extended version join tour guide Mike Chapman as we roll back 70 years for these two amazing ladies & listen in as Norah gets her revenge on The Bombe & Joyce finds a dear old friend in the Hut she worked in. It is tim...
Dec 01, 2013•32 min
November 2013 In October Cyber Security Challenge UK & Raytheon held an event called Today, Then & Tomorrow. It looked at the role of women in cyber security, celebrating the Bletchley Park Veterans, leading figures of today & a look into the future. Here is a flavour of the day featuring Natalie Black, Stephanie Daman, Baroness Pauline Neville-Jones, Dr Brooke Hoskins, Clare McBrearty, Lucy Robson & Bletchley Park Podcast’s, very own, Kerry Howard. #BPark, #Bletchleypark, #cyber...
Nov 24, 2013•30 min
November 2013 Mavis Batey, one of Bletchley Park’s leading female Codebreakers, died this week at the age of 92. Mavis’s work on Enigma was crucial to the Royal Navy’s victory at Matapan in 1941 and the success of the D-Day landings in 1944. She was part of Dilly Knox’s team, working on as-yet unbroken codes and ciphers. In this Bletchley Park Podcast Extra, we can hear her chatting with Bletchley Park historian and author Michael Smith. Many thanks to Michael Smith, Matt Rawlinson & The Ope...
Nov 18, 2013•56 min
November 2013 This month, with so much happening at Bletchley Park recently, we have to bring you an extended episode. First we grab Hard-Hats & Hi Viz Jackets to join Conservation Architect Janie Price & Site Manager Rob Davies to get an in-depth update on the HLF Restoration of Bletchley Park, from floorboards to granite floors, via the roof. In October Bletchley Park hosted Are You Listening? The event looked at the history of communications. We spoke to members of Milton Keynes Amate...
Nov 10, 2013•44 min
October 2013 This month we talk to actor Simon Callow, who was filming in Alan Turing’s office in Hut 8 & we discover a secret about his university tutor. Architect Janie Price, brings us a short update on the HLF Restoration of Bletchley Park; where they are looking at floorboards … one by one. Then join Bombe Wrens as they are transported back in time when they see Hut 11 restored to its WW2 atmosphere. Veterans, Ruth Bourne & Joan Tolson tell us what it was like to work on a Bombe Mac...
Oct 11, 2013•30 min
September 2013 Earlier in the year we interviewed some of the original members of The Bletchley Park Trust who gave us an insight into how they started to save Bletchley Park. In this episode we bring you an interview with Doreen Sawyer, the lady, that original trust member Peter Wescombe climbed through the fence to speak to, and that started the ball rolling. Doreen worked at Bletchley Park from 1955 for the CAA and she tells us some of the post war history of the park and about organising the...
Sep 28, 2013•22 min
September 2013 This month stories from 70 years ago are given a modern twist. The New Enigma event was a chance to find out if you have what it takes to be a Codebreaker, with experts from GCHQ telling us about some truly amazing new technology, which might just confuse a certain podcast producer. Rich storytelling is the key to enjoying a visit to Bletchley Park. Now included in the admission price, as well as a guided tour by a passionate historian, every visitor can take an iPod Touch based M...
Sep 11, 2013•38 min
August 2013 In this episode we bring you the full interview with former Bletchley Park Code Breaker & Director of GCHQ, Sir Arthur Bonsall. He explains the work he carried out in the German Air Section at Bletchley Park, dispels a few BP Myths & tells us why there was a stone for Winston Churchill to stand on when he visited in 1941. Picture: ©Kate Arkless Gray (@RadioKate) #BPark, #Enigma, #GCHQ, #audiowk
Aug 24, 2013•29 min
August 2013 It’s all about the past & the future this month. Former Bletchley Park Code Breaker & Director of GCHQ, Sir Arthur Bonsall, tells us why there was a stone for Winston Churchill to stand on when he visited in 1941. We talk to science & technology presenter Maggie Philbin about Bletchley Park, her mother’s wartime work & the legacy that war brings to modern tech. Kerry Howard tells us about her research into code breaker Margaret Rock for her new book Dear Codebreaker &...
Aug 11, 2013•32 min
July 2013 In February this year Her Royal Highness, The Duchess of Cornwall paid a visit to Bletchley Park to have afternoon tea with around 60 of our lady Veterans. One of those Veterans that I had the pleasure to interview at the time was former WRN Betty Flavell. Her son Tony, who was with her on the day, has recently been in touch to tell us the sad news that Betty unfortunately passed away in June this year. Tony told me that the visit to Bletchley Park was the last time Betty ventured out ...
Aug 01, 2013•8 min
July 2013 This month it’s all about Timely Visitors Milton Keynes South MP & long time Bletchley Park supporter, Iain Stewart goes on a Hard Hat Tour to see some of the Heritage Lottery Funded restoration with the trusts CEO Iain Standen. Then a few days later it was announced that former Bletchley Park Trust director Simon Greenish had been awarded an MBE for services to English heritage in the Queen's Birthday Honours list. We took Simon on his first tour of the restoration work that he ha...
Jul 10, 2013•29 min
