To Mark Thursday’s 75th D-Day Anniversary, HISTORY® Produces A Brand-New Historical Podcast Series: Letters of Love in WW2

This is the true story of love kept alive despite the brutality of the Second World War. With the world commemorating the 75th anniversary of the D-Day landings on Thursday 6th June, HISTORY® presents a new podcast series based on intimate and remarkable wartime correspondence between a newly wedded couple from Sheffield.

Letters of Love in WW2 (8x30mins), starring award-winning presenter, writer and musician Johny Pitts and actor Amy Nuttall (Emmerdale, Downton Abbey), is the brand new eight-part audio podcast series from TV channel HISTORY®, revealing the remarkable true story of a separated couple’s war through their real-life love letters.

Three months after they wed, Sheffield-based Cyril and Olga Mowforth found themselves separated by the Second World War. The first six years of their marriage lived through hand-written correspondence; kept alive on the pages of a thousand letters and postcards.

These letters were found over 60 years later by their family and now the touching story can be realised through this podcast.

Each episode follows a back-and-forth between Cyril (played by Johny Pitts) and Olga (played by Amy Nuttall) which gives an insight into key periods of the war from 1940 to 1946, including El Alamein, D-Day and the liberation of Bergen-Belsen concentration camp.

With the delay in post-delivery and some letters never making it to their destination, we hear the couple’s frustration as a brave, tenacious and emotive story unfolds over six years of the most ferocious war that humanity has ever seen.

Each episode features exclusive interviews with Cyril and Olga’s family, including their son, daughter and grandchildren, allowing for emotional reactions to what they went through while also reflecting on the relevance of this story for the modern day.

Cyril and Olga’s daughter, Sue Mowforth, said: “At first I was unsure what to do with the letters. Should I read them? Would I be intruding into a personal relationship? Would they reveal secrets I wouldn’t wish to uncover? As far as I knew they had remained bundled and unread for over 60 years.

It is so evident from these letters that our parents were continually in each other’s thoughts during those long six years when they were, as Cyril put it, ‘living on the edge of eternity.’ Yet as well as being a testament to our parent’s love for each other, these letters are a fascinating insight into a recent period of the world’s history. It is that love, and that history that have helped to make us what and who we are today.”

Written by leading Australian historical and true crime writer Anna Priestland, edited by Joel Porter and directed by Sam Pearson, you can download and subscribe to Letters of Love in WW2 on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Acast or your favourite podcast app.

The first episode of Letters of Love in WW2 launches on Friday 7th June, with the following episodes released weekly thereafter.

Johny Pitts’ new book, ‘Afropean: Notes from Black Europe’, is available on June 6th.

Published by Allen Lane and available in hardback, as an eBook and audio book, ‘Afropean’ explores the state of black identity in Europe today.

About A+E Networks UK

A+E Networks® UK is a joint venture between A+E Networks® and Sky. Its portfolio of quality factual and entertainment channels includes HISTORY®, Lifetime®, Crime + Investigation®, H2® and free-to-air channel BLAZETM. A+E Networks UK launched in November 1995 and now operates 18 channels, broadcasting into 56 million homes across 102 countries in the UK, Scandinavia, Benelux, Central & Eastern Europe, Africa and the Middle East. The venture has offices in London, Warsaw and Johannesburg. www.aenetworks.tv @AENetworksUK