8. Action

Suspecting that the girls’ true identities have been discovered, Strafford and Celia take action.

In 1940, at the height of Blitz, the two young princesses Elizabeth and Margaret are secretly evacuated from Buckingham Palace for their own safety and sent to an isolated rural estate in neutral Ireland.

However Clonmillis Hall may prove to be even more dangerous than wartime London...

Irish police detective Strafford has been assigned to watch over the girls during their stay and so must form an uneasy alliance with their governess Miss Celia Nashe, an undercover MI5 officer charged with the princesses’ safety.

However, with a contingent of soldiers patrolling the woods and rumours of IRA terrorists in the vicinity, they soon find their task even more treacherous than expected.

But is the real threat from outside, or from within Clonmillis Hall itself?

BW Black's imagined historical adventure is an enthralling mystery.

Abridged by Neville Teller.

Read by Sorcha Cusack.

Producer: Michael Shannon

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in February 2020.