The Town That Knew Too Much

Podot

There is a town in the English Cotswolds, sometimes referred to as the most Regency place in the world. But it's not all bonnets and townhouses: this is the story of Cheltenham, the home of British spying. From the madness of King George to the madness of Geoffrey Prime, and the construction of the Donut to the leaking of GCHQ files by Edward Snowden, Cheltenham has been at the centre of global espionage for a century. Does this town know too much?

“Hilton’s script is beautiful... knowingly florid, ironically meandering... one of those rare

moments when a podcast slips the surly bonds of being merely audio entertainment and

approaches the condition of art” – James Marriott, The Times

“Hilton is a terrific narrator and the writing is densely packed... florid descriptions are mixed

with reflective commentary, unexpected pop culture references and the odd brilliantly timed

gag” – Fiona Sturges, Financial Times

“Hilton’s investigative dedication and wry humour make these series utterly gripping” –

Miranda Sawyer, The Observer

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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Our Editor's Take

The first episode of The Town That Knew Too Much podcast sets the tone for the entire show. "The Devil's Chimney" refers to an old folk story about the English town of Cheltenham. The story states Satan used to sit on a hill above the village. He would spend his days throwing rocks to prevent people from going to church. That was until the townsfolk decided to get back at him one day.

This UK-based podcast exemplifies the dichotomy that lies within the borders of Cheltenham. On the surface, it looks like a peaceful, picturesque, and traditional town. After all, it is the home of beautiful Regency houses and hosts a famous literary festival every year. Some might even refer to it as upscale and stylish. But when one looks closer, they can reveal the most menacing, wild, and unbelievable tales.

Host Nick Hilton is in charge of doing the exposing on the podcast, and he's had some prior experience. The Town That Didn't Stare uncovered the Scientology operation in East Grinstead. This time, Hilton focuses on the espionage legacy that the Cotswolds town hides so well. But The Town That Knew Too Much is the furthest away from a true crime podcast.

Hilton claims that he wanted to create a BBC-style documentary. That is evident in his manner of immersive storytelling. The host brings the listeners into the history of this town while sometimes veering into the story of Alice in Wonderland. He talks about pedophiles, dinosaurs, and World War II, and it all makes sense in the confines of the podcast. There's a treasure hunt listeners can go on and a soundtrack worthy of an Oscar.

In addition to the host's ironic narration, there are countless intriguing interviews. Writer Catherine Curzon, journalist Alan Rusbridger, and TV icon Anneka Rice all pitch in. It all cumulates into seven informative, entertaining, and shocking episodes. The Town That Knew Too Much may please podcast fans of many different genres.

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Society & CultureSociety & Culture

Start Here

The Doughnut. A giant circular low-rise office block in west Cheltenham; it is, jokingly I'm sure, said to look from above like a giant bullseye.Here, the men and women of GCHQ go to work every day. Here they listen to the world. Here they keep tabs. And here, in 2013, their secrets spilled out to the world. This is the story of Edward Snowden and the GCHQ/NSA leaks, and how the secret world of surveillance was blown wide open almost a decade ago. What happened? And have things really changed?Contributors to this episode: Geoff Dyer, Alan Rusbridger, Ewen MacAskill, James Ball, Michael S. Kinch, Sam Kean.You also heard GCHQ by Markee Ledge, reproduced with permission, and voice acting by Scott Westwood.This is the seventh, and final, episode of The Town That Knew Too Much, written, produced and presented by Nick Hilton.The music is by George Jennings, based on The Planets by Gustav Holst. The entire score for the series is available to stream on Spotify.This is the seventh part of a 7-part series available on all good podcast platforms. You can find out more about the show on Twitter, Instagram or Facebook – just go to @thetownpod – or visit www.thetownpod.com for episode notes and more information. If you’ve enjoyed the show, please go to your podcast provider and leave a rating and review.The Town That Knew Too Much is a Podot podcast, for more information visit podotpods.com. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Episodes

The Doughnut. A giant circular low-rise office block in west Cheltenham; it is, jokingly I'm sure, said to look from above like a giant bullseye.Here, the men and women of GCHQ go to work every day. Here they listen to the world. Here they keep tabs. And here, in 2013, their secrets spilled out to the world. This is the story of Edward Snowden and the GCHQ/NSA leaks, and how the secret world of surveillance was blown wide open almost a decade ago. What happened? And have things really changed?Contributors to this episode: Geoff Dyer, Alan Rusbridger, Ewen MacAskill, James Ball, Michael S. Kinch, Sam Kean.You also heard GCHQ by Markee Ledge, reproduced with permission, and voice acting by Scott Westwood.This is the seventh, and final, episode of The Town That Knew Too Much, written, produced and presented by Nick Hilton.The music is by George Jennings, based on The Planets by Gustav Holst. The entire score for the series is available to stream on Spotify.This is the seventh part of a 7-part series available on all good podcast platforms. You can find out more about the show on Twitter, Instagram or Facebook – just go to @thetownpod – or visit www.thetownpod.com for episode notes and more information. If you’ve enjoyed the show, please go to your podcast provider and leave a rating and review.The Town That Knew Too Much is a Podot podcast, for more information visit podotpods.com. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Black Abbot

The Black Abbot

Where do the dead go when they die? Do we file them away in obituaries? Or celebrate them at a memorial service and slowly forget their day-to-day existence?This is a story of death. It is a story of spirits lingering on. It is a story of how lives become stories and how stories define places. From the ghosts of Prestbury to the dead GCHQ mathematician Gareth Williams – via, of course, the singing mice of the Tailor of Gloucester – The Black Abbot is about the imprints we make on the world and how they outlive us.Contributors to this episode: Ian Jelf, Philip Ingram, Catherine Curzon, Colin Towns, Iggy Ostanin.This is the sixth episode of The Town That Knew Too Much, written, produced and presented by Nick Hilton.The music is by George Jennings, based on The Planets by Gustav Holst. The entire score for the series is available to stream on Spotify.This is the sixth part of a 7-part series available on all good podcast platforms. You can find out more about the show on Twitter, Instagram or Facebook – just go to @thetownpod – or visit www.thetownpod.com for episode notes and more information. If you’ve enjoyed the show, please go to your podcast provider and leave a rating and review.The Town That Knew Too Much is a Podot podcast, for more information visit podotpods.com. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Geoffrey Prime, Soviet spy at GCHQ, has been arrested on sexual offences against children. But that was just the start of his world unravelling. And as the Prime affair came to a boil, the grubby compromises of espionage would also be aired.This is the story of the Prime trial and the trials that all people must bear as their world disintegrates. From the calm of Cleeve Hill to the Mafia drama of the death of Roberto Calvi, this is a story of how things come to their end.Listener note: This is the second episode of the series dedicated to the story of Geoffrey Prime. The first episode looking at Prime – 'Through The Looking Glass' – is the third episode in the series, and should ideally be listened to before 'Time of Trial' as it provides contextual details that may not be repeated in this episode.Contributors to this episode: Rupert Aker, Dominic Carman, Richard Norton-Taylor, Nick Davies, Peter Picken, Gerald Posner, Jeff Stein, and Ben Meier.This is the fifth episode of The Town That Knew Too Much, written, produced and presented by Nick Hilton.The music is by George Jennings, based on The Planets by Gustav Holst. The entire score for the series is available to stream on Spotify.This is the fifth part of a 7-part series available on all good podcast platforms. You can find out more about the show on Twitter, Instagram or Facebook – just go to @thetownpod – or visit www.thetownpod.com for episode notes and more information. If you’ve enjoyed the show, please go to your podcast provider and leave a rating and review.The Town That Knew Too Much is a Podot podcast, for more information visit podotpods.com. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Wishing Fish Clock

The Wishing Fish Clock

There's a clock in Cheltenham that hangs above a shopping arcade. Below its face a magnificent golden fish rotates and, on the half hour spews bubbles. It is a singular work from a singular mind: that of Kit Williams.Williams is most famous for the Masquerade puzzle hunt in the 1980s. This is the story of the man, the book and the quest he set in motion. And if you keep listening throughout the podcast, you might find yourself off on a hunt of your own...To start your puzzle hunt go to WishingFishClock.comContributors to this episode: Paul Slade, Dan Amrich, Mariella Cook, Kelvin Horton, Stuart Ashen, Anneka Rice, Karl Coppack.And the team at Dreamcatcher: Sarah Binney, Michael Kearns, Ben Below and Catalin Ursachi.This is the fourth episode of The Town That Knew Too Much, written, produced and presented by Nick Hilton.The music is by George Jennings, based on The Planets by Gustav Holst. The entire score for the series is available to stream on Spotify.This is the fourth part of a 7-part series available on all good podcast platforms. You can find out more about the show on Twitter, Instagram or Facebook – just go to @thetownpod – or visit www.thetownpod.com for episode notes and more information. If you’ve enjoyed the show, please go to your podcast provider and leave a rating and review.The Town That Knew Too Much is a Podot podcast, for more information visit podotpods.com. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Through The Looking Glass

Through The Looking Glass

This is the story of a man who had not one but two double lives. It is the story of the disorientating topsy-turvy world you'll find through the looking glass, where all is not what it seems. This is the story of GCHQ's mole...From Lewis Carroll to Geoffrey Prime, this episode looks at the lies we tell to keep our worst secrets from the outside world. It is an episode that looks at how lies expand to fill the space they're afforded and how once you start living in the shadows, dishonesty and deception becomes easier and easier.Contributors to this episode: Katie Roiphe, Jenny Woolf, Peter Picken, Dominic Carman, Nick Davies, John D’oh, Ian Bailey, Anna Leszkiewicz, and Dallas G. Denery II.Voice acting by Evelyn Lockley and Keif Gwinn.This is the third episode of The Town That Knew Too Much, written, produced and presented by Nick Hilton.The music is by George Jennings, based on The Planets by Gustav Holst. The entire score for the series is available to stream on Spotify.This is the third part of a 7-part series available on all good podcast platforms. You can find out more about the show on Twitter, Instagram or Facebook – just go to @thetownpod – or visit www.thetownpod.com for episode notes and more information. If you’ve enjoyed the show, please go to your podcast provider and leave a rating and review.The Town That Knew Too Much is a Podot podcast, for more information visit podotpods.com. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Enigmas. Things that cannot be understood; things that must be unravelled and unriddled. Things that are not what they seem.This series is, in many ways, about enigmas, but here we're talking about a literal one: the Enigma machine. This is the story of the codebreakers of Bletchley Park, including Alan Turing, who broke the German cypher and helped to end the war. But it is also the story of what we can and cannot know, and how little secrets beget bigger ones...Contributors to this episode: Michael Smith, Sir Demot Turing, Colin Matthews, George Jennings, and Jenny Radcliffe.This is the second episode of The Town That Knew Too Much, written, produced and presented by Nick Hilton.The music is by George Jennings, based on The Planets by Gustav Holst. The entire score for the series is available to stream on Spotify.This is the second part of a 7-part series available on all good podcast platforms. You can find out more about the show on Twitter, Instagram or Facebook – just go to @thetownpod – or visit www.thetownpod.com for episode notes and more information. If you’ve enjoyed the show, please go to your podcast producer and leave a rating and review.The Town That Knew Too Much is a Podot podcast, for more information visit podotpods.com. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Devil's Chimney

The Devil's Chimney

Tucked away in a scenic corner of the Cotswolds, you'll find the Regency spa town of Cheltenham. It could be more English: from royal visits to Jane Austen re-enactments, it has everything an outsider would want from a quaint British town. But scratch beneath the surface and you'll find something quite different...In this episode we look at the history of Cheltenham and how burbling subterranean water springs set in motion a trajectory that would lead the town to become the centre of modern espionage. And, along the way, we'll look at Holy Wells, rat catchers, a minotaur's penis, and a protruding limestone outcrop known locally as the Devil's Chimney...Contributors to this episode: Anna Leszkiewicz, Phil Cox, Jill Waller, Geoff Dyer, Dr John Harcup, Catherine Curzon, Sophie Ryder, Richard Aldrich, Sir David Omand.This is the first episode of The Town That Knew Too Much, written, produced and presented by Nick Hilton.The music is by George Jennings, based on The Planets by Gustav Holst. The entire score for the series is available to stream on Spotify.This is the first part of a 7-part series available on all good podcast platforms. You can find out more about the show on Twitter, Instagram or Facebook – just go to @thetownpod – or visit www.thetownpod.com for episode notes and more information. If you’ve enjoyed the show, please go to your podcast producer and leave a rating and review.The Town That Knew Too Much is a Podot podcast, for more information visit podotpods.com. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.