The Secret World of Roald Dahl

4.8 (13K) · FICTION · UPDATED WEEKLY

An immersive audio drama series exploring the hidden stories and dark imagination of the world's best-loved children's author. Produced by Somethin' Else with the Roald Dahl Story Company.

5D AGO

Episode 8: The Legacy — What Dahl Left Behind

The final episode. Roald Dahl died in 1990 leaving behind a complicated legacy — adored by millions of children, condemned by critics for his antisemitism, celebrated for his imagination, criticized for his cruelty. This episode asks whether it's possible to hold all of these things at once.

12D AGO

Episode 7: Patricia and the Tragedy

In 1961, Patricia Neal — Dahl's wife and Academy Award-winning actress — suffered a series of devastating strokes. Dahl's response was extraordinary: he designed a brutal rehabilitation program that restored her speech and cognitive function. This episode dramatizes what that looked like from inside.

SUBSCRIBERS ONLY

The Unpublished Letters: Roald Dahl to His Mother, 1939–1945

Roald Dahl wrote hundreds of letters to his mother Sofie during the Second World War. The Dahl estate has permitted us to read from the most extraordinary of these — letters from the RAF training base in Nairobi, from the cockpit correspondence, and from the hospital in Alexandria where he was treated for his crash injuries.

26D AGO

Episode 6: The Spy Who Wrote Children's Books

During the Second World War, Roald Dahl was a spy in Washington D.C., gathering political intelligence for British intelligence while posing as a charming RAF war hero. This episode explores what Dahl actually did, how effective he was, and how his spy years shaped the darkness in his fiction.

33D AGO

Episode 5: Charlie and the Origin of Imagination

Where did Roald Dahl's extraordinary imagination come from? This episode traces the specific experiences — the Norwegian fairy tales, the English public school cruelty, the wartime horror — that fused into the sensibility behind Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The BFG, and Matilda.

40D AGO

Episode 4: The Crash That Changed Everything

In September 1940, flying a Gloster Gladiator biplane over Libya, Dahl ran out of fuel, crash-landed in the desert, and was nearly killed. The injuries he sustained left him with a repaired skull plate and chronic back pain for the rest of his life. This episode reconstructs those moments and their consequences.

47D AGO

Episode 3: The Norwegian Childhood

Roald Dahl was born in Wales to Norwegian parents and spent his childhood summers in Norway. His mother's storytelling shaped everything. This episode follows Dahl's early years and the specific incidents — the sweet shop, the school cane, the dead mouse in the jar of gobstoppers — that appear directly in his fiction.

54D AGO

Episode 2: The School Years and the Making of a Rebel

Dahl attended some of England's most prestigious schools and hated almost every minute of it. This episode examines the public school system that scarred him, the teachers he later immortalized as villains, and the specific cruelties that gave him both his moral clarity and his capacity for revenge.

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Hosts & Guests

Benedict CumberbatchLead Actor (Roald Dahl)

4.8

out of 5

13K Ratings

Audio drama at its finest

Benedict Cumberbatch is perfect as Dahl — the voice, the intelligence, the barely contained darkness. But it's the production and writing that make this essential. The real Roald Dahl was even more extraordinary than the books suggest, and this series does full justice to him.

DahlFan · Mar 7, 2026

Made me fall in love with Dahl all over again

I grew up on Roald Dahl's books but I had no idea about the man behind them. The spy episode alone justified everything. This is biography as entertainment done brilliantly — you learn enormous amounts while being completely gripped.

ChildhoodReader · Feb 22, 2026

The production quality is extraordinary

Somethin' Else has been doing excellent audio drama for years but this may be their masterpiece. The music, the sound design, the performances — everything is at a level that makes it feel like you're watching a film. The final episode made me cry.

AudioDramaFan · Feb 7, 2026

About

The Secret World of Roald Dahl is a Somethin' Else audio drama produced in partnership with the Roald Dahl Story Company. The series explores the real life behind the most beloved children's stories in history — the wartime experiences that shaped Dahl's imagination, the family tragedies that gave his work its darkness, and the uncompromising personality that made him both celebrated and controversial. Featuring dramatizations of key moments in Dahl's life alongside readings of his most extraordinary unpublished letters and diary entries, the series offers the most complete portrait of Roald Dahl ever produced in audio. The production features an all-star cast including Benedict Cumberbatch as the adult Roald Dahl.