Dame Harriet Walter, known for roles in Killing Eve, Succession, and many others, was left speechless after discovering the truth about her mother's wartime work on Who Do You Think You Are?.
The 75-year-old actress learned that her mother, Xandra Lee, had been in charge of the entire naval intelligence picture for the D-Day landings in 1944—a secret she had kept for life.
Mother's Hidden War Work
Showing old photographs, Harriet described her mother as "a very sweet woman, had the most amazing sense of humour, but she was sort of slightly belittled by the men in my family." She knew her mother worked in naval intelligence at the Admiralty during the war, but said her mother told her: "You would never in a million years tell your best friend, your husband, anybody what you were doing. You just would not do it."
Harriet recounted: "She said she was one of thousands of cogs in the machine and I just want to know much more about exactly what that machine was doing and what her part in it was."
Groundbreaking Research Reveals the Truth
To uncover the full story, Harriet met Dr Helen Fry at the Old Admiralty Building in London. Dr Fry, who conducted ground-breaking research on women in wartime intelligence, revealed archive details and said: "To get this into perspective, your mother was in charge of the whole intelligence picture for naval intelligence for the D-Day landings."
Harriet reacted with disbelief: "Wow, wow. It's just astounding. It's astounding. I had this rather frivolous idea of her sort of just having a great time in the canteen and flirting with the boys and I had no idea she had this sort of responsibility."
Life-Long Oath of Secrecy
Dr Fry noted that her mother's work was "detailed analytical work" and "highly responsible," and that "The oath of secrecy, they knew when they took it, it was for life and she kept it." Harriet reflected on how her mother was treated: "That is extraordinary. I'm sorry to say this, but when I think how she was sort of put down by my dad and my stepfather and, you know, 'your mother's not very logical', you know, had they only known what she'd done, they might have treated her with more respect."
She added: "Blimey. It's so extraordinary. I'm rethinking my mother entirely. You know, it's extraordinary how that changes your image of somebody, to think of her in that position of responsibility. I have such a mixture of feelings."
A New Perspective on Fame
Harriet contrasted her own fame with her mother's hidden contribution: "I feel certainly silly that I've got some kind of fame for having done absolutely nothing except, you know, pretend to be other people for a living. And she, who had a quite a strong role in the D-Day landings, which opened up the whole path to peace. Good for her. Good for Xandra Carandini Lee."
Who Do You Think You Are? airs at 9pm on Thursday on BBC One and BBC iPlayer.
