Top British lawyer David Hooper has made a career out of standing up to the powerful and the wealthy, and so when Vanity Fair magazine needed someone to defend its groundbreaking 1995 expose of Mohamed Al Fayed - the first time sexual allegations about him were ever published - David was the natural choice. What happened next was extraordinary, as revealed by David to Phil in this special and exclusive interview. For two years Hooper faced a small army of private detectives, ex police, spin doct...
Oct 27, 2024•48 min•Season 1Ep. 91
Britain’s new government is caught in a series of scandals about freebies, cronyism and ‘cash for access’. And now we have allegations surrounding the recent Taylor Swift concerts in London which might - or might not - be responsible for the downfall of a key Downing street aide. Phil wonders whether any of this really matters, and what it tells us about the state of politics today - and the power of scandal! Then this week’s guest Maureen Callahan joins Phil to reveal some of the jaw-dropping s...
Oct 20, 2024•53 min•Season 1Ep. 90
Britain’s new Labour government has been shaken by stories of ‘gifted’ suits, penthouse flats and tickets for Taylor Swift concerts. Phil explains why this matters - and what it tells us about the problems of governing in the internet age. Distinguished historian Simon Heffer then joins Phil to talk about his new book on Britain in the Interwar years, and gives us his very well-informed view about the greatest royal crisis of them all - the abdication of Edward VIII. It’s a fascinating conversat...
Oct 13, 2024•56 min•Season 1Ep. 89
Phil has spoken before about how he’d love to see Harry back in the royal fold. Are we seeing the first signs of this now, with a series of solo appointments that look a lot like old traditional royal visits? Meanwhile Meghan appears to have removed herself - or has been removed - from Harry's public life while she concentrates on her own new solo ventures - and selling jam. What’s really going on? Phil has been asking around. Then this week’s guest Dr Sara Lodge takes us into the remarkable wor...
Oct 06, 2024•52 min•Season 1Ep. 88
The revelation of many sexual allegations against Mohamed Al-Fayed has shocked the UK. The former owner of Harrods, confidante of Princess Diana and friend of British high society has been accused of a litany of crimes and a decades-long career of harassment and abuse. Given that Princess Diana died whilst under the care of the Fayed family, many have asked if she knew about this aspect of his personality, whether anyone tried to warn her and if her life could have taken a better and safer direc...
Sep 29, 2024•56 min•Season 1Ep. 87
Former BBC correspondent Nick Bryant joins Phil to discuss his many years working in the USA, and reveals how and why his love for that country turned into something closer to despair about its future. But first our friend Clive Irving - a legendary investigative journalist and now star writer at The Daily Beast - returns to give us his update on the royal family as Charles approaches his second anniversary as King, Harry passes his landmark 40th birthday and new allegations about Meghan’s behav...
Sep 22, 2024•1 hr 9 min•Season 1Ep. 86
Bestselling author Giles Milton joins Phil to discuss his incredible book THE STALIN AFFAIR about the ‘Big Three’ of the Second World War, and how this turbulent three way relationship shaped the world we live in today. Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin were very different men with often clashing personalities and agendas. Behind their famous wartime summits lay a series of larger than life characters, double-crosses and plotting, epic drinking bouts and scandalous love affairs. And without all of...
Sep 15, 2024•45 min•Season 1Ep. 85
Anne de Courcy returns to the podcast by popular demand to talk about her astonishing book on Coco Chanel, and the glamorous but dangerous society that she dominated. From the most deprived of backgrounds Chanel conquered the worlds of fashion and perfume. With her fast friends, wealthy and titled lovers and her appetite for the best things in life she basically ran the ’scene’ in Paris and the French Riviera. Then war, occupation and the systematic murder of French Jews presented her with some ...
Sep 08, 2024•48 min•Season 1Ep. 84
With their non-royal but actually quite royal 'anti colonialism' tour of Colombia seen as a success by many media commentators, what message was Harry and Meghan trying to send to the world, to Britain and - especially - to their royal siblings and siblings in law in London? And why did a curiously timed but well sourced profile appear on the front page of the London Times, pointing out that Prince William does not now intend to invite his own brother even to to the back row (or standing room on...
Aug 25, 2024•46 min•Season 1Ep. 83
We’re exploring a completely new era this week, so buckle up your sword belts, pour yourself a jug of mead and grab that armour! Phil’s guest today is Steve Tibble, author of a brand new book on the dark (and VERY dark) side of the Crusades, which he describes as being like a two hundred year pub fight! Steve is a great storyteller and his book is full of incredible insights into a time few of us know much about. Before that Phil reports on the latest news from Montecito. As Harry pursues his ow...
Aug 11, 2024•51 min•Season 1Ep. 82
Our friend Gerald Posner returns to the podcast this week to discuss the recent attempt to kill former President Donald Trump. As the author of the definitive book on the JFK assassination - Case Closed - and many other books and articles on political violence in the USA, Gerald knows a huge amount about how Presidents are meant to be protected, and the conspiracy theories that soon spread when they are not. So what does he think really happened in Butler, Pennsylvania, and how will it affect th...
Jul 28, 2024•40 min•Season 1Ep. 81
This week - in the first of his summer solo specials - Phil speaks to writer Mary Dearborn about her biography of the remarkable Peggy Guggenheim. Peggy was probably the most significant collector of - and advocate for - the visual art of the 20th Century and she helped launch the careers of numerous internationally famous artists. She was also as renowned for her sexual exploits as her artistic ones, with a string of lovers and husbands that included some of the most famous men of the 20th Cent...
Jul 14, 2024•42 min•Season 1Ep. 80
Andrew and Phil go where many royal reporters fear to tread, to reveal the shocking sexual allegations and dirty financial dealings that are alleged to lie behind the tangled and scandalous lives of numerous famous royal names. What has Andrew found our about the secret lives of the royals as he researched his numerous books? Improving access to information about the rich and powerful - especially the British royal family - is a theme of this podcast, and so we are keen to learn more about the w...
Jun 23, 2024•1 hr 3 min•Season 1Ep. 79
Award winning reporter and investigator Stephen Davis joins us to explore the world of fake news, conspiracy theory and the weapons used by the rich and powerful to prevent truth from coming out. In an extraordinary career Stephen has investigated some major scandals, including the sinking of the ferry ESTONIA and BA Flight 149 and the Gulf War. ***We now have a Thank You button (next to the ’three dots’) for small donations that help support our work*** You can buy Stephen’ book 'Truthteller', ...
Jun 16, 2024•44 min•Season 1Ep. 78
This week author and broadcaster Martin Bright joins Andrew and Phil to discuss what he believe is a little known but massive wartime cover up. As a new official report is due on the extent of Nazi crimes in the occupied Channel Islands during WW2, Martin believes that the suffering of Jewish and other prisoners on the islands has been hidden for many decades - partly because of official embarrassment at the amount of collaboration there. In his book END OF THE BEGINNING Phil has written about a...
Jun 09, 2024•1 hr•Season 1Ep. 77
The human dynamo that is Anne de Courcy returns to the podcast by popular demand after her brilliant interview about Princess Margaret and Tony Snowdon. This week she is speaking about one of her most successful books ‘The Viceroy’s Daughters’, the saga of Lord Curzon and his three talented, beautiful but often wayward daughters at the pinnacle of British and imperial high society in the first half of the 20th Century. Overlapping love affairs, dalliances with dangerous young men and campaigning...
Jun 02, 2024•55 min•Season 1Ep. 76
This week we are lucky enough to speak with one of the most celebrated political writers of our age - Peter Pomerantsev, a former TV colleague of our Phil Craig. Peter had a ring side seat in Moscow for the rise of Putin and now advises leading politicians in Europe and the USA. Born in the Soviet Union, and now a Senior Fellow at the Institute of Global Affairs at the London School of Economics, Peter has written two hugely influential books about the modern Russian state and how it exploits di...
May 26, 2024•1 hr 3 min•Season 1Ep. 75
In this special episode Andrew and Phil speak with Shauna Kay, whose family of Australian based podcasts, The Vintage Read, has been a huge success in the last year or so. We have many friends and ideas in common, along with a shared fascination for all things literary, scandalous...and very often royal! We don't promise to agree all the time but if our audiences find these conversations entertaining and stimulating we intend to do more of them. If you want to support what we do and help us grow...
May 22, 2024•1 hr 15 min•Season 1Ep. 74
Team Sussex has pulled off its first overseas tour with a super high profile visit to Nigeria, where Harry attended numerous events linked to the Invictus games and Meghan met with business and media leaders, hosted female entrepreneurs and generally looked and behaved like a Princess on the road! Is this a model for what 'non royal royalty’ looks like for the future - a refreshing multi racial alternative to the old fashioned, and all white, House of Windsor? Or is it a cynical marketing exerci...
May 19, 2024•1 hr 2 min•Season 1Ep. 73
Phil's sympathetic comments on Prince Harry's reasons for fighting the press didn't persuade all of our audience last week, and the comments were lively! Andrew and Phil react to that and discuss the latest evidence of the deep rift in the British royal family - Harry's visit to London and the non-meeting between him and his sick father King Charles. Then historian Emma Southon joins us for a hugely entertaining and informative conversation about ancient Rome. Not about the Emperors and Generals...
May 12, 2024•54 min•Season 1Ep. 72
Clive Irving from the Daily Beast returns to the podcast to tell the story of the rise and fall of the British tabloid press, as Prince Harry’s ‘hacking’ case make its way through the London courts - with the possibility that Rupert Murdoch might finally be made to give evidence about it in a court of law. The actor Hugh Grant has recently accepted a settlement from a Murdoch-owned company. He said that it was too expensive to carry on. And in the past - such as with Fox News in the USA - the Mu...
May 05, 2024•1 hr 4 min•Season 1Ep. 71
Not many books change the direction of an entire debate but, in 2023, Hannah Barnes’ ’Time To Think’ did just that. Through the testimony of whistle-blowers from inside the Tavistock hospital GIDS clinic, it revealed deep concern about the use of puberty blockers on gender-distressed children and how this approach - for which there is very little hard evidence - almost always led to further and irreversible hormone treatments and surgery. When the Cass report into Britain’s treatment of gender q...
Apr 28, 2024•1 hr 12 min•Season 1Ep. 70
Andrew Gold joins us this week to talk about his brand new book and his life as a 'heretic' podcaster and reporter. In recent months Andrew has established himself a leading voice in the anti-woke free speech broadcasting community, talking provocatively to natural rebels such as Robbie Williams, David Baddiel, John McWhorter, Jon Ronson, Amanda Knox, Richard Dawkins and Helen Lewis. Whether it's the excesses of the trans-rights movement, the campaign to close down debate about Covid or the poli...
Apr 21, 2024•1 hr 5 min•Season 1Ep. 69
We're thrilled to get an hour to talk with Simon Vigar, one of Britain's most experienced royal correspondents and writers, who is now the Royal Correspondent for 5 News. Simon has had a ring side seat for all of the great royal dramas of the last two decades, and he brings an unusual level of sympathy and insight to the role. Amongst other things Phil and Andrew ask Simon for his views on the long term impact on Harry of the 'briefing wars' of the early 2000s when very unflattering stories abou...
Apr 14, 2024•1 hr•Season 1Ep. 68
Lady Colin Campbell joins Andrew and Phil again with an exclusive sneak peek at her new and explosive book on Meghan, Harry, the angry confrontations that shook the British royal family and Meghan's troubled family background. Based on her connections in the highest reaches of the British aristocracy - and her friendship with the Markle family - this is an uncompromising account of social climbing and what Lady Colin calls 'pathological narcissism' which challenges many of the stories told in th...
Apr 07, 2024•1 hr 5 min•Season 1Ep. 67
In a special sports themed episode Andrew and Phil are first joined by writer and former newspaper editor Chris Blackhurst to discuss his investigation into Manchester United - the world’ favourite football team - and how it has fared under the ownership of the American Glazer family, plus the wider role of big money in professional football (or ‘soccer' if you’re American!). Chris also talks about his fascinating work in the world of risk management. Next up is Andrew Butler and Matt Russell fr...
Mar 31, 2024•1 hr 24 min•Season 1Ep. 66
Why did Adolf Hitler's deputy and trusted confidante fly alone to an isolated corner of Scotland at the height of World War Two? Was it the act of a madman? Was it to conclude a secretly negotiated peace deal with some of the most senior members of the British aristocracy and - potentially - the royal family itself? Was it to help senior conservatives launch a coup against Churchill? Or was it all the result of a clever British intelligence plot? Whatever the true reason, Rudolf Hess himself nev...
Mar 27, 2024•1 hr 8 min•Season 1Ep. 65
We're joined by another of Andrew and Phil's journalistic hero's - Richard Norton Taylor. Richard has uncovered dozens of scandals in his time working for London newspapers, and turned several of them into successful plays. Here he speaks about his work on a range of stories and decades battling Britain's 'secret state'. He also comments on the case of Julian Assange, currently facing extradition to the USA from Britain in a case that many believe threatens the rights of investigative journalist...
Mar 24, 2024•1 hr 5 min•Season 1Ep. 64
Jason Evans joins Andrew and Phil to reveal a shocking story of medical negligence and official delay - in Britain and numerous other nations - that tragically resulted from the desire to treat dangerous illnesses with better drugs. For many years blood donations - often collected for money in the USA - were used to make products to treat people with haemophilia and other illnesses. But so careless were the practices at every level, and so poor the quality controls, that blood from those infecte...
Mar 21, 2024•59 min•Season 1Ep. 63
This was meant to be the second of our two spy episodes, and it still is - but first Andrew and Phil were able to speak with our friend, the VERY well connected royal reporter Valentine Low, about the speculation that's swirling around the prince and princess of wales? Phil also references this article of his about the psychological roots of our interest in monarchy. https://thecritic.co.uk/the-kings-touch/ Then writer Robert Verkaik joins to explore the dark and controversial story of the dead ...
Mar 17, 2024•1 hr 14 min•Season 1Ep. 62
