Last night saw the first episode of the BBC’s Secret Agent Selection: WW2 being screened on BBC2. I watched with a degree of trepidation as today’s new recruits were put through their paces, wondering whether this type of handling would work, as apposed to a documentary approach (it could so easily end up as a bit of a game show). Some of the SOE training methods have been known about for many years, basically since the end of WW2 when the RAF film unit released their film ‘Now it can be told’ (copies available from the Imperial War Museum). Other aspects of the training syllabus have proven hard to pin down until now. Episode one was a pretty good approximation, so hopefully the series will continue in a similar fashion. And I hope we get to hear more about some of the real agents – they really were extraordinary people living in extraordinary times.