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Ep 57 – A Call to Spy – Women of the SOE in Focus

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Description

In this episode of Rosie the Reviewer, we discuss the 2019 historical drama A Call to Spy, which follows the real-life wartime missions of Virginia Hall, Noor Inayat Khan, and Vera Atkins — three extraordinary women recruited into Churchill’s Special Operations Executive during WWII.

We explore what the film gets right, where it fictionalises, and how the true stories behind these women are even more astonishing than what made it to the screen. We also reflect on why telling these stories now matters more than ever, as the generation that witnessed them is rapidly disappearing.

Want to learn more about these women? Check out our companion post about Vera Atkins, Noor Inayat Khan and Virginia Hall.

A Call to Spy trailer

Documentary: Enemy of the Reich - The Noor Inayat Khan Story

We didn’t just watch A Call to Spy, we also watched a documentary about Noor, which is available on YouTube.

Podcast: The Spy Who Wouldn't Lie

Are we a little obsessed with Noor Inayat Khan? Maybe. We also listened to a 5-part podcast about her that we highly recommend.


Book Rec

Book cover in white and blue tones with the bold red title A woman of no importance by Sonia Purnell. Cover features a woman spy in a trenchcoat

A Woman of No Importance by Sonia Purnell is a 2019 biography about Virginia Hall, the American woman with a prosthetic leg who became one of the most dangerous spies in occupied France. Hall was told over and over again that she couldn’t. Couldn’t be a diplomat, couldn’t serve, couldn’t run missions with a wooden leg. She did it all anyway. Nicknamed “the limping lady” by the Nazis, Hall organised sabotage operations, recruited resistance fighters, and coordinated arms drops. All while evading German patrols and occasionally dressing up as a cranky old cheesemonger to eavesdrop on officers.

Purnell pulls no punches: the book is part thriller, part long-overdue spotlight on a woman long overlooked. If you’re looking for a spy story where the danger is real, the obstacles systemic, and the woman at the centre unshakably bold… This is the one.

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Support the podcast

Rosie the Reviewer is a passion project, built episode by episode. If you’d like to support what we do, you can help keep us on the air or pick up some Rosie merch. We’re working on more ways for you to get involved in the future.

Shop rosie merch