Welcome to The Big Smoke Variety Show!

This week, we throw open the doors to Variety Week and journey from the secrets hiding behind London’s blue plaques to an ancient tale of love, fate and devotion from the forests of India.

First, comedian and blue plaque tour guide Kate Sharp returns with another stop on her delightfully unhinged walking tour of London. This time, Kate leads us to Dollis Hill and the former Post Office Research Station, where we uncover the story of Tommy Flowers, the unsung inventor behind Colossus, the world’s first programmable electronic computer.

While Alan Turing may have had the film, the fame and the Benedict Cumberbatch treatment, Tommy Flowers’ achievements stayed top secret for decades. Kate tells the story of the man whose work at Bletchley Park helped decipher encrypted German messages during the Second World War, with historians estimating that the intelligence produced there may have shortened the war by two years and saved millions of lives.

Naturally, this being Kate’s Blue Plaque Tour, there are also pigeons, theatrical diversions, a deeply questionable Edinburgh Fringe plug, and a new song from her show that Tommy Flowers may or may not have wanted to hear from the front row…

Then, in Stories You Haven’t Heard, actor, writer and storyteller Scott Brooksbank transports us to ancient India for the story of Savitri and Satyavan, a remarkable tale from the Mahabharata.

Scott takes us into the forest for a story of prophecy, devotion and impossible resolve, as Savitri chooses Satyavan as her husband despite being warned that he is destined to die exactly one year later. When that day arrives, and Yama, the god of death, comes to claim Satyavan’s soul, Savitri follows him, using wisdom, patience and astonishing courage to outwit death itself.

It is a story about love in the face of fate, the choices we make when time is limited, and the extraordinary power of staying beside the person you cannot imagine living without.

We’re also trying something new, with episodes now coming to you every single week. So stay tuned next Thursday for more adventurous audio from across The Big Smoke.

So whether you’re following a chaotic blue plaque tour, or walking through an ancient forest in pursuit of death itself, remember: there are remarkable stories hiding everywhere, if we take the time to listen — and we’ll keep uncovering them together here in The Big Smoke.

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Links

🔵 Tommy Flowers’ Blue Plaque

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Chapters

(00:00) Intro & Show Menu

(02:02) Blue Plaque Walking Tour: Tommy Flowers

(08:28) Stories You Haven’t Heard: Savitri and Satyavan

(24:45) Outro

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Credits

Hosted & Executive Produced by Kevin Bennett

Produced & Edited by Alex Graham

Original Music by Giles Terera

Music arranged and played by Joseph Atkins

Blue Plaque Walking Tour written and performed by Kate Sharp

Stories You Haven’t Heard written and performed by Scott Brooksbank