The First Man Ever to be Awarded the Victoria Cross Twice: Arthur Martin-Leake

Neil Armstrong: What He Actually Said on the Moon

He learned to fly before he could drive. At 20, a cable strung across a Korean hillside ripped three feet off his wing at 350 miles an hour, and he nursed the plane to the sea before ejecting with half a second to spare. A decade later, he stopped a spacecraft spinning at one revolution per second using nothing but his nerve. Then NASA gave him a $678 pay rise and told him to go and land on the Moon. In this episode, Johnny Vaughan and Gavin "The Woodman" Woods take on Neil Armstrong, the quiet kid from Ohio who became a naval aviator, a test pilot in a job with a one-in-four survival rate, the first civilian astronaut, and the first human being to set foot on another world. All while being described as the calmest man alive. What You'll Hear in This Episode: Flying before driving - How a kid from small-town Ohio got his pilot's license at 16, before he was even allowed behind a steering wheel The Gemini 8 death spin – How Armstrong saved himself and David Scott from a spacecraft rotating once every second, and why NASA knew he was their man 40 seconds of fuel - The terrifying final moments of the Apollo 11 landing, when Armstrong took manual control to dodge a boulder field 🎥 Watch the full episode now on the Bloomin' Legends YouTube channel! Got a legend you want us to cover? 📩 Send it to: bloominlegends@global.com [bloominlegends@global.com] 📲 Follow us on TikTok & Instagram: @BloominLegends 🎥 Watch the full episode on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@bloominlegends [https://www.youtube.com/@bloominlegends] Listen to all episodes on Global Player, download the app, or visit www.globalplayer.com [http://www.globalplayer.com/] Bloomin' Legends is a Global production Produced by Ben Fairclough and Cassie Merritt New episodes are released every Wednesday & Sunday. Subscribe to never miss an episode!

The Extra Legendary Bit: Himalayan Cowboys & South African in Disguise

He rode a horse through the Himalayas in a dinner jacket, got dragged 30 yards along a mountain path, stood up, brushed himself off, and told everyone he was fine. He wasn't fine. He was heavily medicated and privately terrified. The Extra Legendary Bit is the bonus episode where Johnny Vaughan and Gavin "The Woodman" Woods leave the history books behind and dive into the gloriously unhinged stories sent in by you, the listeners. What You'll Hear in This Episode: 🐴 James Bond in the Himalayas - He turned up for a Tibetan horse trek in a dinner jacket. The horsemen gave him the wildest stallion and stuck him at the front. It went exactly as badly as you'd expect. 🥃 The Welsh Smuggler Who Forgot His Own English – A WWI veteran smuggles booze across the Irish Sea in WWII. When caught, he pretends he can't speak English and uses the interpreter's translation time to think up better lies. 🍺 Beer In, Ear Out, Australian Forever – A South African pours beer in his ear as a party trick, gets an infection, and accidentally lets the doctor think he's Australian. He has to keep up the accent at every appointment from then on. 📩 Send it to bloominlegends@global.com [bloominlegends@global.com] — we're celebrating dads all month. 📲 Follow us on TikTok & Instagram: @BloominLegends Listen to all episodes on Global Player, download from your app store or visit www.globalplayer.com [http://www.globalplayer.com/] This is a Global Original Podcast, produced by Ben Fairclough and Cassie Merritt New episodes are released every Wednesday & Sunday. Subscribe to never miss an episode!

Butch Cassidy: He Blew Up a Bridge & Vanished Forever

His first crime was stealing a pair of jeans and some pie. He left an IOU, got taken to court, and the jury let him off. Within a decade, he'd blown up a railroad bridge, robbed trains and banks across six states, and racked up the equivalent of $13.5 million, all while being described as charming, clever, and the least likely member of his gang to pull the trigger. In this episode, Johnny Vaughan and Gavin "The Woodman" Woods tackle Butch Cassidy, the Mormon butcher's boy from Utah who assembled the Wild Bunch, pulled off the longest string of successful bank and train robberies in US history, fled to Argentina with the Sundance Kid, and may or may not have died in a Bolivian shootout. 🎥 Watch the full episode now on the Bloomin' Legends YouTube channel! Got a legend you want us to cover? 📩 Send it to: bloominlegends@global.com [bloominlegends@global.com] 📲 Follow us on TikTok & Instagram: @BloominLegends 🎥 Watch the full episode on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@bloominlegends [https://www.youtube.com/@bloominlegends] Listen to all episodes on Global Player, download the app, or visit www.globalplayer.com [http://www.globalplayer.com/] Bloomin' Legends is a Global production Produced by Ben Fairclough and Cassie Merritt New episodes are released every Wednesday & Sunday. Subscribe to never miss an episode!

The Extra Legendary Bit: The Capsize King & Extraordinary Bastards

A man so obsessed with the perfect racing finish on his dinghy that he moved it into the family hallway, sealed it inside a polytunnel, and was found at 4am, naked, still battling a mysterious dust problem he couldn't solve. That man was Johnny's dad. And this is Johnny's tribute to him. The Extra Legendary Bit is the episode where Johnny Vaughan and Gavin "The Woodman" Woods leave the history books behind and dive into the gloriously unhinged stories sent in by you, the listeners. Got a legendary dad story? A classic catchphrase? The thing he always said when something went wrong? 📩 Send it to bloominlegends@global.com [bloominlegends@global.com] — we're celebrating dads all month. 📲 Follow us on TikTok & Instagram: @BloominLegends Listen to all episodes on Global Player, download from your app store or visit www.globalplayer.com [http://www.globalplayer.com/] This is a Global Original Podcast, produced by Ben Fairclough. New episodes are released every Wednesday & Sunday. Subscribe to never miss an episode!

She Stole a Dead Nun & Set a Convent on Fire: Julie D'Aubigny

She was a swordswoman who could beat three men at once, an opera singer with the greatest voice Louis XIV had ever heard, and a woman so fearless she broke into a convent, stole a dead nun's body, set the place on fire, and escaped with her lover. She was 17 at the time. In this episode, Johnny Vaughan and Gavin "The Woodman" Woods tackle Julie D'Aubigny, the 17th-century French hell-raiser who seduced counts, outfought noblemen, and became one of the most extraordinary figures you've never heard of, all before dying at 33. What You'll Hear in This Episode: ⚔️ Sword-fighting child prodigy. By 12, she was fencing grown men, and by 14, she was the mistress of the Count of Armagnac 🏃‍♀️ On the run: after her fencing instructor boyfriend killed a man, they fled Paris and toured France doing sword exhibitions by day and singing in taverns by night 🔥 The convent escape: body snatching, arson, a dead nun used as a decoy, and a plan that almost worked… almost 🎭 Opera stardom: spotted singing in a Marseille tavern like a French Elvis in King Creole, she became one of the most celebrated voices in Paris 💔 The love that ended it all: she stole the most beautiful woman in France from the king's own son, fled to Belgium, and never recovered when her lover died two years later If you love outrageous true stories, legendary women, French chaos, duels, opera, and comedy podcasts, this episode of Bloomin' Legends is for you. 🎥 Watch the full episode now on the Bloomin' Legends YouTube channel! Got a legend you want us to cover? 📩 Send it to: bloominlegends@global.com [bloominlegends@global.com] 📲 Follow us on TikTok & Instagram: @BloominLegends 🎥 Watch the full episode on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@bloominlegends [https://www.youtube.com/@bloominlegends] Listen to all episodes on Global Player, download the app, or visit www.globalplayer.com [http://www.globalplayer.com/] Bloomin' Legends is a Global production Produced by Ben Fairclough New episodes are released every Wednesday & Sunday. Subscribe to never miss an episode!