Připravila Deborah Haynes.
Natočeno 2025 (Sky News – Tortoise). Webová premiéra 1. a 2. dílu 9. 6. 2025 (PodBean – Apple Podcasts, 20:45 h.; 52 min.); 3. a 4. dílu 16. 6. 2025, 5. dílu 23. 6. 2025.
Obsah: 1. False Flag. – 2. Armed Attack – 3. Where’s the War Book? – 4. Ultimatum – 5. The Choice.
Pozn.: V roce 2025 vznikla i česká varianta podcastu.
Lit.: anonym: False Flag – The Wargame Ep 1. In web Apple Podcasts, Cit.: Tensions with Russia escalate, and an imaginary week in the near future takes a turn for the unexpected. The Prime Minister calls an emergency Cobra meeting. Russia knows our weaknesses. But do you?
A major five-part series from Sky News and Tortoise which imagines how a Russian attack on the UK could play out – and invites real-life former ministers, military chiefs and other experts to figure out how to defend the country.
Written and presented by Sky News‘ security and defence editor, Deborah Haynes.
Lit.: Šafaříková, Kateřina: Otevřela Britům oči. Ukázala, jak by na jejich zemi mohlo Rusko zaútočit. In web Seznam Zprávy, 14. 7. 2025 (článek + nahrávka k poslechu). – Cit.: Britská televize Sky News natočila simulaci vojenského konfliktu mezi Velkou Británií a Putinovým Ruskem a je to z toho trhák. V pětidílné podcastové sérii s názvem The Wargame (Válečná hra) hrají bývalí členové britské vlády a také někdejší vysoce postavení zástupci armády. Základní zápletka je jednoduchá: Rusko zaútočí na Británii a ta má odpovědět s pomocí zbraní a sil, které má země reálně k dispozici. (…)
Lit.: Haynes, Deborah: The Wargame podcast: Fictional British government faces a terrifying choice in final episode. In web Sky News, 24. 6. 2025 (článek). – Cit.: Former senior politicians, including Sir Ben Wallace, Jack Straw and Amber Rudd, play a fictional British government pitched against an imagined Kremlin.
Under yet another attack from Russia, a fictional British government of former ministers and military chiefs face a terrifying choice in the final episode of The Wargame.
The home secretary, played by Amber Rudd, asks a key question. „We have the nuclear deterrent. In what circumstances would we use it prime minister?“
Sir Ben Wallace, a former defence secretary who is playing the PM, offers his view – but is it one that is shared by the rest of his wartime cabinet?
The British side is struggling to respond to mounting pressure from an imagined Kremlin in episode five of the Sky News and Tortoise podcast series, released on Tuesday.
The Russian leam has unleashed waves of missile strikes and is demanding the UK agrees to an unconditional ceasefire.
London remains defiant, but with only limited conventional fighting power and with its NATO allies still not fully committed to rallying to help, the UK’s options are dangerously limited.
The dilemma exposes the particular peril for a nuclear-armed nation, such as Britain, that has allowed its conventional fighting power to shrink too far.
It means, in a crisis, the UK no longer has the ability to sustain a fight conventionally, so escalating to nuclear war would have to happen far more rapidly – or else admit defeat.
Rebuilding conventional military capability and capacity as well as restoring wider national resilience, though, will be expensive.
Whether or not the government and the public want to pay for this kind of conventional deterrence, well that’s the big choice.
Episode five comes out as the real prime minister, Sir Keir Starmer, travels to The Hague for a major summit of NATO powers.