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BBC Radio 4 is a radio channel that started transmitting on the 30th September 1967. It replaced BBC Home Service.

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The Preposterous Files

The Preposterous Files: Episode 4: Asylum Seeker or Scrounger?

Episode 4

Episode 4: Asylum Seeker or Scrounger?

Asylum Seeker or Scrounger?

BBC Radio 4 - The Preposterous Files, Asylum Seeker or Scrounger?

When an asylum seeker is found on a ship Churchill sends in destroyers - to bring him back

Julian Putkowski presents a series on cases that show up Civil Service bureaucracy. In 1954, a young man was found aboard a Polish ship. Was he an asylum seeker or a stowaway?

Files from the National Archive reveal preposterous acts both grand and petty. Julian Putkowski distills them down.

Klimowicz was just another Polish stowaway seeking political asylum in London in 1954. The Home Office got ready to boot him out. Then the Prime Minister, Churchill, got involved. His solution? Send in the destroyers. With Shami Chakrabarti

Reader: Crawford Logan


Producer: Matt Thompson
A Loftus production for BBC Radio 4.

Intelligent speech, the most insightful journalism, the wittiest comedy, the most fascinating features and the most compelling drama and readings anywhere in UK radio.

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Factual: History

Julian Putkowski presents a series on cases of Civil Service bureaucracy at its worst

Julian Putkowski presents a series on cases from the National Archives that show up Civil Service bureaucracy at its nonsensical and frequently hilarious worst

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The Preposterous Files

Episode 4: Asylum Seeker or Scrounger?

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