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\n\tEXCLUSIVE:<\/strong> If you know your Willy Wonkas from your BFGs, iHeartPodcasts and Imagine Entertainment have the podcast documentary for you.<\/p>\n \n\tThe pair have created The Secret World of Roald Dahl<\/em>, a doc podcast series that peels back the secret spy life of the beloved children\u2019s author, revealing \u201ca life far stranger than fiction.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tThe first episode is dropping on Monday (January 19). Created and hosted by Aaron Tracy, the story will explore how the author of \u2018Charlie and the Chocolate Factory\u2019, \u2018The BFG\u2019, \u2018Matilda\u2019 and many other classic children\u2019s books spent a period of his life as a spy for MI6, along with his personal relationships, creative failures and other experiences that shaped him.<\/p>\n \n\tThe podcast is the sixth to come out of a pact between iHeartPodcasts and Imagine, following Hello Isaac<\/em>, Unf**ing the Future<\/em>, Big Sugar<\/em>, The Tao of Muhammad Ali<\/em> and Obscurum<\/em>. Another series will be unveiled shortly, we hear. Nathan Kloke exec produces The Secret World of Roald Dahl<\/em> alongside Kara Welker for Imagine Audio. iHearPodcasts will distribute, with episodes dropping weekly.<\/p>\n \n\tDahl was born during World War I in 1916 and died eight decades later in 1990, during which time he had become one of the world\u2019s most beloved children\u2019s authors. He was also married to The Day the Earth Stood Still<\/em> actress Patricia Neal, having five children together before divorcing. <\/p>\n \n\tMany of Dahl\u2019s books were adapted as films, with Gene Wilder and Johnny Depp both playing the chocolaltier Will Wonka in Hollywood versions of \u2018Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory.\u2019 Timoth\u00e9e Chalamet played the character in a 2023 film about the character\u2019s life.<\/p>\n \n\tOther books, such as \u2018The BFG\u2019, \u2018James and the Giant Peach\u2019 and \u2018Matilda\u2019 were also adapted for screen. However, it\u2019s his life away from the pen that Tracey will explore.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cRoald Dahl played a huge role in our childhoods, but most people have no idea he lived one of the noisiest lives of his century,\u201d said Tracy. \u201cHe was a fighter pilot, a British spy for MI6, a struggling screenwriter, the husband of an Oscar winner, a writer for The New Yorker<\/em>, and an amateur neuroscientist who saved thousands of lives before he finally found his voice as a children\u2019s author at 45. iHeart and Imagine have been dream collaborators to help reveal these hidden chapters of Dahl\u2019s life and explore the complicated, controversial person behind the stories.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cWe all grew up on Roald Dahl\u2019s books over here, and the opportunity to work with Aaron Tracy in the podcast space to dig into Dahl\u2019s life was just too good to be true,\u201d added Kloke, executive producer for Imagine Audio. \u201cAaron connects with Dahl across his work, his humanity and his flaws. It is a wonderful piece of work from a very talented documentarian.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n