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Jacques Duchesne on the BBC

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dessin de MSD par Oberlé
As a liaison agent for the British headquarters, MSD was forced to flee to London when the troops had to retreat in Dunkerke, for the Opération Dynamo, in June 1940.

Great Britain had already decided at the time that it was necessary to face the new French ideology and to resist censorship. As a result, from May 1940 onwards, the BBC started broadcasting French programs in London. The British soon decided that in order to develop the French programs, they needed a French team, which would establish a link with French people. MSD was chosen to fulfill this mission.

MSD started using a pseudonym and he became Jacques Duchesne (a name that was greatly inspired by Father Duchesne, a major figure of the French Revolution). He chose his team and hired people such as Pierre Bourdan, Jean Oberlé, Jean Marin, Maurice Van Moppès, Jacques Borel and Pierre Lefèvre.

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J. Oberlé, MSD et P. Bourdan
The programs started on July, 14th 1940 and in September, “Les Français parlent aux Français” became the official name of the show (as a tribute to De Gaulle’s call on June, 18th 1940).Weekly programs such as “la discussion des trois amis” or “la petite académie” were soon greatly successful in France and Jean Oberlé came up with a pun that would become really famous “Radio Paris ment, Radio Paris ment, Radio Paris est allemand” (Radio Paris is lying, Radio Paris is lying, radio Paris is German”). In September 1943, the humorous songwriter Pierre Dac joined the team and he began writing songs, slogans and gimmicks such as the now famous phrase “La révolution a commencé avec un bâton et sept étoiles, elle finira avec une trique et trente six chandelles” (“The revolution started up with a stick and seven stars, it will end up with a hickory stick, seeing millions of stars”).

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j. duchesne au micro
On August, 25th 1944, Radio London offered the Programs to Radiodiffusion de la Nation Française (the French National Radio), which happened to be the free French Radio. The French programs could be heard on the BBC until November, 22nd 1944. That day, Radio London broadcast for the last time the famous “Ici Londres, Les Français parlent aux Français”.

 

Listen to extracts from Radio London

Read Bernard Lauzanne’s article on Jacques Duchesne

Read MSD’s texts on World War II

Watch a video of MSD talking about Winston Churchill

A few pictures of the BBC

Website “Chemins de mémoire” on the French Department of the BBC

 
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