Operation Mincemeat - in Popular Culture

In Popular Culture

An episode of the Goon Show was entitled "The Man who Never Was" and was set during the Second World War, referred to a microfilm in the uniform of someone dressed up as a naval officer (though this was about a secret weapon.) Operation Mincemeat inspired a similar plan in Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson, in Red Rabbit by Tom Clancy, in Body of Lies by David Ignatius, in the film version of You Only Live Twice, in the Dorothy Sayers / Jill Paton Walsh novel "A Presumption of Death", and in the science fiction series Space: Above and Beyond and the Star Trek: Deep Space 9 episode "In the Pale Moonlight". A play of the same name, written by Adrian Jackson and Farhana Sheikh, was first staged by Cardboard Citizens in 2001 in the old Hartley's Jam factory in Southwark. It was staged once again as a site-specific, promenade performance in Cordy House, Shoreditch, in June–July 2009. Cardboard Citizens deals with issues surrounding homelessness, and the play examined identity, together with Major Martin's quest to find out who he was. In 2008 Simon Corble launched his play, also called Operation: Mincemeat with a script-in-hand run performed by the Found Theatre Company. This play saw its world premiere in the 2010 Adelaide Fringe Festival, performed by the Adelaide University Fringe Club to critical acclaim. In his book, The Double Agents, W. E. B. Griffin depicts Operation Mincemeat. Fictional characters are blended with Ian Fleming, the actors David Niven and Peter Ustinov, and other historical figures as members of Montagu's "committee" to plan and execute Operation Mincemeat.