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NOISER

Real Dictators is the award-winning podcast that explores the hidden lives of history's tyrants. Hosted by Paul McGann, with contributions from eyewitnesses and expert historians.

New episodes available one week early for Noiser+ subscribers. You'll also get ad-free listening and exclusive content. To find out more about Noiser+, head to noiser.com/subscriptions.

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Production: Joel Duddell, Ed Baranski, Miriam Baines, Tom Pink, George Tapp, Dorry Macaulay, Cian Ryan-Morgan, Anisha Devadasan, Joseph McGann. Compositions by Oliver Baines, Dorry Macaulay, Tom Pink.

We are sponsored by Indeed. Go to Indeed.com/real for £100 sponsored credit.

Real Dictators

In the centre of China’s capital city, Beijing, lies a corpse that no one dares remove. It’s been 44 years since Mao Zedong’s body was laid to rest in the grandiose Chairman Mao Memorial Hall. He may be gone but he is not forgotten. To some, he’s the father of modern China. To many others, he’s a sadistic thug - a man willing to sacrifice millions of lives in pursuit of power. Mao Zedong is born in Hunan Province in 1893. Growing up on his father’s farm, he consumes books and ideas. His rise to the top of the Communist Party will be littered with violent outbursts, setting the tone for the decades to come.
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Mao Zedong Part 1: Peasant’s Son, Communist Rebel

Mao Zedong's Communists come down from the mountains to do battle with the Nationalists. After clinching victory, Mao is greeted by many as a hero. But life under the new Chairman is about to get a whole lot worse. Installed as Supreme Leader, Mao sets about revolutionising the way his people live, work, and even think. His ‘Great Leap Forward’ is intended to be an economic masterplan. Instead, it will drive people across China to the wildest extremes of human behaviour.
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Mao Zedong Part 2: The ‘Great Leap Forward’

Mao’s ‘Cultural Revolution’ sets out to purge the minds of an entire population. Meanwhile, the Supreme Leader himself leads a life of debauchery and excess - as his former doctor remembers. The Chairman seems invincible. But as his health deteriorates, his legacy is anything but assured. Eyewitnesses to his brutality reflect on what Mao means to China today, more than 40 years after his death.
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Mao Zedong Part 3: The Cultural Revolution

We begin at the end… in 1945, with a pile of bodies dumped in Milan then strung up for all to see. Among them, the most powerful man in Italy. One of the most significant figures in modern history. How did it come to this? In this episode, we scroll back to follow the start of Benito Mussolini’s extraordinary rise. From humble origins as the son of a blacksmith and a schoolteacher, Il Duce will emerge as an incendiary journalist and activist. And before long, the onetime vagrant and draft-dodger will be on his way to the front line of World War One…

A Noiser production, written by Jeff Dawson.

Many thanks to Giulia Albanese, Joshua Arthurs, John Foot, Nicholas O’Shaughnessy, Lisa Pine, Helen Roche.

This is Part 1 of 7.

Get every episode of Real Dictators a week early with Noiser+. You’ll also get ad-free listening, bonus material and early access to shows across the Noiser network. Click the Noiser+ banner to get started. Or, if you’re on Spotify or Android, go to noiser.com/subscriptions.
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Benito Mussolini Part 1: Italy’s Fascist Godfather

A brand-new release from the Noiser Network. Join Hugh Bonneville on a thrilling journey through Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s most celebrated Holmes mysteries - read in their original, masterful form.

If you enjoy this taster episode, search ’Sherlock Holmes Short Stories’ in your podcast app and hit follow for more episodes. Or follow this link: https://podfollow.com/sherlock-holmes-short-stories-1

Part 2 of The Adventure of the Speckled Band is live now and waiting for you.
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Introducing: Sherlock Holmes Short Stories

Wounded at the Front, Mussolini’s war ends early. A playboy aristocrat forms his own private army, offering inspiration to Il Duce. As Italian workers go on strike, Mussolini’s goons crack skulls on the streets. And in a smoke-filled hall in Milan, he declares the birth of a new movement. His fascists will soon begin an audacious march on the capital…

A Noiser production, written by Jeff Dawson.

Many thanks to Giulia Albanese, Joshua Arthurs, John Foot, Nicholas O’Shaughnessy, Lisa Pine, Helen Roche.

This is Part 2 of 7.

Get every episode of Real Dictators a week early with Noiser+. You’ll also get ad-free listening, bonus material and early access to shows across the Noiser network. Click the Noiser+ banner to get started. Or, if you’re on Spotify or Android, go to noiser.com/subscriptions.
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Benito Mussolini Part 2: The March on Rome

World leaders line up to hail the new Italian strongman. But the fascists are already silencing dissenting voices. An epochal discovery in Egypt’s Valley of the Kings unleashes a curse, or so Mussolini believes. Il Duce gets his top off in the wheat fields - making sure to be caught on camera. He comes to an arrangement with the Pope and meets the woman who will ultimately die by his side. Meanwhile, an Anglo-Irish aristocrat prepares to make an astonishing attempt on Mussolini’s life…

A Noiser production, written by Jeff Dawson.

Many thanks to Giulia Albanese, Joshua Arthurs, John Foot, Nicholas O’Shaughnessy, Lisa Pine, Helen Roche.

This is Part 3 of 7.

Get every episode of Real Dictators a week early with Noiser+. You’ll also get ad-free listening, bonus material and early access to shows across the Noiser network. Click the Noiser+ banner to get started. Or, if you’re on Spotify or Android, go to noiser.com/subscriptions.
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Benito Mussolini Part 3: Murder in Broad Daylight

Il Duce uses propaganda to become a folk hero - part saint, part Father Christmas. He bans journalists from mentioning his birthday or the fact he’s a grandfather - to promote an image of eternal youth. Ernest Hemingway arrives in Switzerland to interview the Italian strongman, and sees right through him. Italy launches a genocidal campaign in Libya and gets away with it. And as the World Cup comes to the Fatherland, Benito Mussolini prepares to finally meet one Adolf Hitler…

A Noiser production, written by Jeff Dawson.

Many thanks to Giulia Albanese, Joshua Arthurs, John Foot, Nicholas O’Shaughnessy, Lisa Pine, Helen Roche.

This is Part 4 of 7.

Get every episode of Real Dictators a week early with Noiser+. You’ll also get ad-free listening, bonus material and early access to shows across the Noiser network. Click the Noiser+ banner to get started. Or, if you’re on Spotify or Android, go to noiser.com/subscriptions.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Benito Mussolini Part 4: A Fine Bromance

At the Munich Conference, Mussolini postures as a peacemaker. With Hitler in the ascendancy, the Rome-Berlin Axis is upgraded to a military alliance. High on fascist adrenaline, Il Duce invades Albania. Soon, in the backdraft of the German Blitzkrieg, he will declare war on Britain and France…

A Noiser production, written by Jeff Dawson.

Many thanks to Giulia Albanese, Joshua Arthurs, John Foot, Nicholas O’Shaughnessy, Lisa Pine, Helen Roche, Thomas Weber.

This is Part 5 of 7.

Get every episode of Real Dictators a week early with Noiser+. You’ll also get ad-free listening, bonus material and early access to shows across the Noiser network. Click the Noiser+ banner to get started. Or, if you’re on Spotify or Android, go to noiser.com/subscriptions.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Benito Mussolini Part 5: The Pact of Steel

It all starts to go horribly wrong… After the disastrous invasion of Greece, Mussolini sends troops to Russia. Benito’s Blitz prompts bemusement in Britain. An Italian assassin somehow survives the firing squad. A famous American mobster helps the Allies in Sicily. And Il Duce’s son telephones his father with devastating news…

A Noiser production, written by Jeff Dawson.

Many thanks to Giulia Albanese, Joshua Arthurs, John Foot, Nicholas O’Shaughnessy, Lisa Pine, Helen Roche.

This is Part 6 of 7.

Get every episode of Real Dictators a week early with Noiser+. You’ll also get ad-free listening, bonus material and early access to shows across the Noiser network. Click the Noiser+ banner to get started. Or, if you’re on Spotify or Android, go to noiser.com/subscriptions.
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Benito Mussolini Part 6: The Road to Perdition

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