Churchill's Secret Agents: The New Recruits

This is a reality show about the training of British secret agents, in the (now defunct Special Operations Executive. For the unfamiliar the SOE was the arm of the British Secret Service specially geared toward sabotage and operating with resistance groups. In other words it would have been closer to the James Bond picture of duties (if not as flamboyant) than the normal intelligence service which was mostly about wheedling informants.

The contestants are put through a series of episodes intended to resemble the declassified format of the SOE course. Obviously they must fudge a bit for dangers which could be tolerated for making an actual agent were not justified for making a reality show. For instance the Woodland Tactics course would have used real bullets instead of paintball despite the chance of a ricochet and the infamous "ladder" (which according to the show, even one of the bravest agents feared more than she had ever feared the Germans) drill, that is climbing up a Cliffs of Insanity with three non-connecting ladders would not have had a safety harness. And of course interrogation drill, which is scary enough on TV, was absolutely terrifying in reality and some agents actually thought there had been a leak and an enemy commando team had kidnapped and drugged them.

The Episodes:

Episode 1. Selection: This Includes:

Observational drill: contestants were told to memorize a building plan where a hypothetical Op might take place. While they did this, two men ran through the building, one firing on the other. The questions turned out to be about the chase not the building.

Mechanical Aptitude: Students are given a Meccano set (kind of like Legos with the play-engineering aspect but using different types of pieces) to build a chair, a bridge, or an airplane and test their ability to MacGyver.

Morse: Preliminary acquaintance with Morse Code.

Obstacle Course: An obstacle course rather like the training scene in Mulan. The toughest part is a ten-foot wall.

Rope climb: Ropes were stretched between trees at 60ft and 30ft levels with an option of which to cross. Contestents are supposed to figure out that the top climb will gain the instructors' favor.

The Pond: A MacGuffin is left anchored in the middle of a pond. Contestants are divided into teams to build a raft and get the MacGuffin.

Buddy Rating: Peer Review. This is not really a "voting off the island" as the show is more premised about competing against the course than each other. But it has a similar format.

Episode 2. Paramilitary Training: This is the part of the course where the contestants are given the skills needed to be commandos.

Scenes will include unarmed combat training, pistol range, woodland tactical course, and various nasty things to do with IEDs. The end is a vague simulation of the practice for the assassination of Gestopo Chief Reinhard Heydritch.

Episode 3. Survival: This is about staying alive behind enemy lines. It includes stealth training and fieldcraft and some of the nastiest parts of the course including crossing one of the coldest lakes in Scotland and climbing the infamous "ladder" test. There was no safety harness in the Real Life version. You don't get one when crossing Spain to get back for debrief and no one asks if you are afraid of heights.

Episode 4. Finishing School: This is actual training in spy techniques. It includes lockpicking, and sending coded messages and introduces the students to the suitcase wireless (no they did not have the disposable radios of cop shows: it was the operators that were disposable back then). Also is given a preliminary sample of hostile interrogation by an instructor dressed like a Gestapo operative.

Episode 5. The Final Scheme: Remaining contestants carry out a simulation of a possible mission that might supposedly have taken place in support of the D-Day landings.

Cast (with their Real Life jobs) includes:

Trainers:

Lt Colonel Adrian Weale

Nicky Moffet Instructor

Mike Rennie Military Psychologist

Rod Bailey Historian

and Players

Sammy Ali, retired soldier

Rohini Bajahj, doctor

Roger Baris, retired investment banker

Charlotte Beauclerk, interpreter

Will Beresford-Davis, paralegal

Mariama Sebe Camara, counsel administrator

Debbey Clitheroe, Drama teacher and grandmother

Rob Copsey, retired paratrooper

Dan Dewhirst, corporate developer

Lizzie Jeffreys, research scientist

Alastir Stanleys, math graduate

Paul Stone, entertainer

Magda Thomas, interpreter

Vicky Wright, former police officer