“The war of the airwaves”

October 1943, Pierre Dac, France’s most famous humourist, finally arrives in London after a long period of captivity and exile. He joins the Free French team at the BBC who host the daily Radio-Londres radio broadcast.

His interventions countered the lies of the Nazis and their collaborators in the fight to break free of the pervading climate of fear. He wielded humour like a weapon. For nine months, this “most listened-to French person speaking to the French” was to help the Allied victory in his own inimitable way.

His songs, chronicles and editorials, disavowing Radio-Paris, and in particular his verbal battle with Philippe Henriot, were key moments in the fight against the occupier.