The Cockleshell Heroes (1955)
Released 69 years ago this week, The Cockleshell Heroes was a heavily fictionalised account of the real-life WW2 Operation Frankton, in which a group of marines, headed by Herbert ‘Blondie’ Hasler, covertly entered BordeauxHarbour in kayaks (or ‘Cockles’) to sabotage German cargo vessels. The film starred actor/director Jose Ferrer and Trevor Howard, with Anthony Newley and…drum roll… DAVID LODGE providing solid support as Marines Clarke & Ruddock respectively.
Although The Cockleshell Heroes was a hit with audiences and looks gorgeous in Technicolour it doesn’t tend to get talked about as much as other similar WW2 films of the period and perhaps this was partly down to the almost anti-climactic third act. However, thanks to shameless plugging by David Lodge on a frequent basis some two decades later as part of Spike Milligan’s Qseries the film is still regarded affectionately by some people, particularly listeners to this podcast, and it seemed a nice idea to put it under the scrutinisinggaze of your host and his special guest this week.
Joining Tyler is Warren Cummings, host of The CinematicSausage podcast and someone with a very direct link to the true events which this film depicts – his grandfather served alongside the ‘Cockleshell Heroes’ in WW2.
It’s a great chat with tons of fascinating factualinformation about Operation Frankton and how the film reflected the true events, plus there’s a long-deserved tribute to David Lodge, without whom this podcast would be poorer.
Goon Pod
A podcast where we talk about classic comedy with particular focus on the work of Spike Milligan, Peter Sellers, Harry Secombe & Michael Bentine. You'll also hear us discuss the likes of Monty Python, Hancock, Blackadder, the Carry On films, Peter Cook, Steptoe & Son and countless other comedy figures & fixtures from the postwar era.Please follow on Bluesky @goonpod.bsky.social and Twitter @goonshowpod
- No. of episodes: 196
- Latest episode: 2025-06-04
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