Wndyry plus subscribers can binge all episodes of The Price of Paradise early and ad-free. Join WNDYRY plus in the WNDYRY app or on Apple podcasts. The Gaskins are finally starting to feel at home on their dream island, Janique. Small fish dart in the bright blue sea as the children try to tempt them with their made fishing rods. Jane Gaskin is relaxing outside in her hammock, eyes closed, feeling the burning sun warm her skin, letting the sounds of the island, her island, fill her senses. Then she hears it, a boat coming towards them. She squints against the sun and scans the horizon. It's not one boat, there's a bunch of them. Jane waves to take a look. After the false alarm with the drug boats, they're both on high alert. They usher the children away and watch what now looks like a flotilla of small vessels heading right for them. Jane starts counting, well over 50 people. One by one, the boats pull up on Janique. The passengers splash out and stride up the beach. Jane notices that some of them are holding machetes. The Gascun's retreat towards their small shack. Who are these people? Wonders Jane.

Why are they storming onto her island? But that's the problem. The protesters are from the local communities around Pearl Lagoon, and they're here because they say Line Key doesn't belong to the Gaskins. It belongs to the people. It's not, and never will be, Janique. Jane stands firm. She will not be swayed by their arguments.

We have to try to get you from here. We have invested our money here. Okay.

It's our home. We're in this world.

We would like to bring some tourism here.

There are so many people. Jane can hardly hear them all. Some carry homemade posters. Our keys will be defended until the end. We demand shelter for our fishermen. Phil's mind is worrying. What should he do? As the voice to start to die down, he spots his chance. He leans over the balcony in his billowing white shirt and addresses the crowd. If my grandfather sold a house for a bottle of rum in England 200 years ago, I have no right whatsoever to disrespect his wishes at the time to sell something.

Your grandfathers have traded these keys for 200 years. These keys have got more documentation about them being private than your house for your house for your house.

But Phil is adamant. He has legal paperwork. He's convinced the Gascins were sold the keys fair and square, no matter what these locals think. Say, Phil has won the local crowd over with his ground-breaking, fearless, straight-talking TED Talk on racial issues. I'm of course, joking. Weirdly, they didn't like being called racist, and things are worse than ever. The protesters turn to leave it there. But now Phil is on a roll, and he's going to tell them exactly what he thinks. Yet you still disrespect the law of the land and the judge of the They may not have got their island back, but they've definitely made their point. And it's all been captured on film by the channel 4 TV crew ready to broadcast to the world. However, the Gaskins are steadfast. The deal has been done. This is their island now.

I'm not just going to walk away for this island.

We put all our money into it.

I don't want the money, but I want the island.

And if the locals are going to launch a battle, then the Gascins are up for a fight.

From Wondery, this is the Spy Who. This month, we open the file on Oleg Lelen, the spy who saved MI5. Lelen's actions changed the course of the Cold War in the 1970s, a Russian who defected to Britain after being caught in a love affair that shook the world. His actions triggered the biggest removal of spies by any government in history. It's a story of an overstretched security service in need of a win and a covert plan to bring catastrophe to Britain's streets. Follow the Spy Who on the WNDYRI app or wherever you listen to podcasts, or you can binge the full season of The Spy Who Saved MI5. Early and ad-free with WNDYRI Plus.

Hello, I'm Emily, one of the hosts of Terrible Famous, the show that takes you inside the lives of our biggest celebrities. Some of them hit the big time overnight, some have to plug away for years. But in our latest series, we're talking about a man who was world famous before he was even born. A life of extreme privilege that was mapped out from the start, but left him struggling to find his true purpose. A man who, compared to his big brother, felt a bit, you know, spare. Yes, it's Prince Harry. You might think you know everything about him, but trust me, there's even more. We follow Harry and the obsessive, all-consuming relationship of his life, not with Megan, but the British tabloid press. Houndered and harassed, Harry is taking on an institution almost every bit as powerful as his own royal family. Follow Terrible Famous wherever you listen to podcasts or listen early and ad-free on WNDYRI Plus on Apple Podcasts or the WNDYRI app.

From WNDYRI, I'm Alice Levine, host of British Scandal, and this is the Price of Paradise.

Episode 2, Up in Arms.

It's seven weeks before the protest, and Phil's staring at the deed the Gaskins were given when they bought the island. It looks legit. And by that, I guess it's typed and signed and has stamps and logos on it. I mean, what does a legit deed for a tropical island that you bought online look like? But Lime Key isn't the only tropical island that's being sold. Deeds for six of the other islands are up for grabs on the same website. Phil thinks, they can't all be bogus. Can they? And the simple answer is, well, yes, they definitely could all be bogus. Producing Rucia Billy has seen the paperwork, too. Phil had shown him proudly when they first arrived on the island.

I did get a glimpse of the deed that supposedly gave the Gaskins ownership that they'd got when they bought the island. It did They'd say that it was sold to them and was once owned by X and Y. The names meant nothing to me. But there were local names, local people.

But it's not quite so simple because for hundreds of years, there was an agreement that these islands belonged to the local community. They provide a stopover for fishermen, and they're also home to Natural Spring, the only fresh water this far from the mainland. It's not only the local people who need them, Endangered Hawksbill turtles have chosen the islands, including Janique, to make their nests, nests that conservationists are fighting hard to protect. So there are a lot of people and several turtles, who are very unhappy that the keys were sold to foreign buyers who don't understand the area, none of which the Gascins knew before they set foot in Nicaragua. But what the locals don't realize, thinks Phil, is that he's got big plans for the island. Of course, they'll change their minds when they hear about his new dive resort. It's going to transform the whole region. Money, tourism, investment. Then the locals will be thanking him. He just needs to sell his vision. Get people excited. Phil decides he needs to start at the top. So the Gaskins get into their custom pink panga and sail to the mainland to meet the mayor of the local municipality, Pearl Lagoon.

But as Jane and Phil sit in the scruffy bear office, ready to clear this matter up once and for all, it sounds like this mayor has already made up his mind.

Why do we open We will not give up our fight around these keys. What do you- Our struggle to defend our keys will continue.

Okay, not how the elevator pitch was supposed to go. Phil and Jane are shocked. They're seen as some colonial occupiers, the bad guys. As the mayor stares into his eyes, Phil tries to outline his grand vision for Janique with all the passion in his voice that he can muster.

This is hope. This is the future. This is like Belize 25 years ago. They had nothing and then everything. And this is your golden opportunity. And what are we doing? Fighting on for it.

Phil is nothing if not a salesman, but the mayor is unmoved by their diving resort dreams. He takes a deep breath and speaks slowly to try to spell it out clearly to these Brits.

The properties of the indigenous people cannot be loan. It cannot be given by no one, absolutely by no one. It is something that is protected for the use and the benefit of the people and should be passed from one generation to another generation. There was a bit of a shock when the mayor turned around and said, There's absolutely no way that this island belongs to you. It never will. It never has been. And I don't really care about your tourist aspirations.

It's fair to say Jane and Phil are not prepared for how unpopular their arrival is turning out to be, and their reaction is quite a shock to producer Billy.

It weirdly seemed to make them even more determined to somehow stay there and to prove that they did have a legitimate right.

Let's not forget, they don't have a life in England anymore. They've given up their Hampshire house for Janique, sunk everything they had into the island, left family, friends, school. For the Gaskins, there really is no going back. But if they thought it might just all blow over if they plowed on undeterred by this little dispute in a remote corner of Nicaragua, they could not be more wrong. The stakes are suddenly raised because the sale of the keys to foreign buyers has started to make headlines in the national press. An uncertain investment in the keys, says one headline. The Pearl keys are being invaded and destroyed, declares another. Yeah, in this case, not all publicity is good publicity. After all of this, how's Phil going to persuade tourists to dive into Janique? Phil is beginning to feel a deep foreboding the level of attention now trained on the islands. It no longer feels like something that might just go away as people lose interest. Just a short while later, the Pearl Quays are set to receive a very important visitor. Jane and Phil have been invited to attend as they watch as a group of boats approach the shore.

But these aren't local pangas. One is the National Coast Guard, another is painted in camo with an onboard machine gun. The launches glide against the jetty, and now the Gaskins can see their latest visitors clearly. About a dozen people, including a camera crew, men in smart uniforms, and a man in a white T-shirt, a party-branded baseball camp, and big, colorful shorts. He walks over, flanked by two security guards, one hand outstretched. The President of the Republic of Nicaragua greets the Gascins warmly. He tells Jane in Spanish, via his translator, that Nicaragua is the safest country in Central America. And then he wades into the crystal clear waters to join his entourage, the camera rolling the whole time before turning to the Nicaragua news crew to explain that he's here to protect the islands, to win them back for local people. The Gaskins are almost unable to comprehend what they're seeing, the surreal sight of the head of state cooling off in the sea in front of them. When they've finally gone, Jane turns to the camera and seems quite happy to let everyone know she will not be exiled from her own island. And if anyone tries, there's going to be trouble.

I love to see how they come in the morning. I was going to put it with deep.

Look at that.

Okay, a quote from From Apocalypse Now, famously a film that depicts the atrocities of the Vietnam War, that's a choice, Jane. That's a choice. But what's clear is that Jane won't be ousted by anyone, not even the President. But what she doesn't know is that the opposition is about to recruit a formidable new ally. I'm Alice Levine.

And I'm Matt Ford.

And we're the presenters of British Scandal.

And in our latest series, Hitler's Angel, we tell the story of scandalous beauty, Diana Moseley, British aristocrat, Mitford Sister, and fascist sympathizer.

Like so many great British stories, it starts at a lavish garden party. Diana meets the dashing fascist, Oswald Moseley. She's captivated by his politics, but also by his very good looks.

It's not a classic rom-com story, but when she falls in love with Moseley, she's on a collision course with her family, her friends, and her whole country.

There is some romance, though. The couple tied the knot in a ceremony organized by a great uncelebrated wedding planner, Adolf Hitler.

So it's less Notting Hill, more Nuremberg. When Britain took on the Nazis, Diana had to choose between love or betrayer.

This is the story of Diana Moseley on her journey from glamorous socialite to political prisoner.

Listen to British Scandal on the WNDYRI app or wherever you get your podcasts.

I'm Afua Hirsch.

I'm Peter Frankerpan.

And in our podcast, Legacy, Today, we explore the lives of some of the biggest characters in history. This season, we delve into the life of Alan Turing. Why are we talking about Alan Turing, Peter?

Alan Turing is the father of computer science, and some of those questions we're thinking about today around artificial intelligence. Turing was so involved in setting and framing what some of those questions were, but he's also interesting for lots of other reasons, Afro.

He had such a fascinating life. He was unapologetically gay at a time when that was completely criminalized and stigmatized. From his imagination, he created ideas that have formed the very physical, practical foundation of all of the technology on which our lives depend.

On top of that, he's responsible for being part of a team that saved millions, maybe even tens of millions of lives because of his work during the Second World War, using maths and computer science to code break. Join us on Legacy wherever you get your podcasts.

I was very optimistic. I was young and energetic, and I was passionate.

Maria Acosta is a human rights lawyer, and the second woman in our story. She's a single mom in her 30s, the woman who won't shrink away from an argument. In fact, she'll take great pleasure in pulling apart your theories one by one. But with such a warm smile on her face and charm in her voice that it's completely disarming. Don't let that fool you, though, because she is tough and determined. Maria arrived in the town of Bluefields a few years before Jane and Phil made their first appearance on the mainland. Shopping for island essentials, if you recall, like washing up liquid and guns, Maria had also traveled a long way into the unknown. Soon.

I was raised in the other side of the country, in the Pacific side, and we didn't know much about the other side. For me, it was an adventure.

Maria's hometown, Chinandega, is 300 miles away from Bluefields on the Pacific Coast, and a 10-hour trip cross country.

Like most of Nicaragans have never been there, now they have a road, but at that time you have to fly or you have to go through the river.

The Port used to be a base for the slave trade, and before that, a refuge for pirates and buccaneers. Now, it's a real melting pot of different communities. You're more likely to hear people talking in Creole or one of the many indigenous languages than in Spanish. It's the local community that's drawn Maria, a subject she's passionate about.

I was interested in working with indigenous peoples. This is the region where the most indigenous and Afrodescendent people to live.

Maria's here because she's taken up a new job, teaching at Bluefield's Indian and Caribbean University, alongside her legal casework.

My work is a very political work, working with people that are disadvantaged, people that are marginalized. I don't see this as a job. I see this as a vocational thing, gives meaning to my life. It's part of what I am.

This is a big move for her, not just because it's from home, but she's also leaving her two children, Anna and Alvaro, behind with her parents until she finds her feet here. So this has to work. It has to be worth it. Soon, Maria gets down to business, and it's not long before she's making a name for herself with some high-profile cases, like helping shrimp fishermen, sue for better working conditions.

There were not many lawyers that would take those cases not for Indigenous peoples, and that's what makes my work special.

Maria soon feels at home. She's moved into a cute yellow house on the hill with balcony views over Bluefields Bay. She's not looking for love She's far too busy with work, but her friends have other plans. They introduce her to the only man in town good enough for her, as they put it, Frank Garcia. He's a great dancer. He's funny. He knows everyone. And like Maria, he's divorced, too. At first, she's not convinced they're more than just friends. But as time goes on, Maria starts to feel something more. And one warm night, standing together on the balcony, Maria decides it's time to find out.

I thought, maybe if I kiss him, I would discover what his real feelings are. And I did. And he responded very well. I used to tell him, Frank, if I had never kiss you, you would never kiss me. And I said, No, don't say that. Don't say that. But it was how it happened.

Sometimes you got to take fate into your own hands. And by fate, I mean the make-out sesh. She's a busy woman. She can't be waiting around for a shy guy to kiss her. And her kids were equally as thrilled as me.

He just became part of the family without saying it. The three of us somehow began to feel the fourth of us.

As Maria settles into family life in Bluefields, she can't miss the arrival of a new woman in town. Jane Gaskin's in frequent trips to the mainland always caused a stir.

She was different. It was weird the way she dressed and the way she acted. She had this bossy attitude all the time. She used to wear the bra of a bikini and very short shorts. People don't dress like that in downtown Bluefield. They do that at the beach.

Maria is going to blush when she sees what Jane actually wears on the beach or doesn't wear. But let's put it this way, they were different kinds of people with different styles in every sense. And that would be fine and dandy, except their worlds are about to collide. Maria is at her desk when she gets the phone call. It's an American woman, a turtle researcher, she says, and she's clearly distressed. One of their local conservationists has been thrown in jail for trespassing while conducting a survey of turtle nests on the Pearl Quays. They used to have free access to the islands to do their work, but since they've been sold online to foreign buyers, everything has changed. Maria learns that the man behind tropicalislands. Com, the man who's selling the Pearl Kees off, is an American-Greek businessman called Peter Sokos, and a worrying pattern is emerging. A freshwater spring on one island, used by locals for as long as anyone can remember, has been blocked off behind a concrete wall. No one can access it. Maria hears that some members of the local communities who have always used the islands are being driven away by men with AK-47s.

Sevens.

I was shocked. These keys have been part of the culture and the environment and the territory of Indigenous and Afrodescendent people that they need for their survival.

Maria She is furious because she knows the Pearl Quays well, and they're close to her heart. She first visited the area as a university student and found the islands breathtaking.

Oh, they're beautiful. They're small islands. They have white and they have transparent blue or green water.

The Pearl Quays are made up of 18 picture-perfect tropical islands, 20 miles off the mainland.

And there are palm trees, coconut palm trees. It's a beautiful, beautiful place. It wasn't like being in a movie.

The idea that these fragile untouched islands are now being sold off to foreign buyers who are trampling over hundreds of years of culture, tradition, wildlife. It just doesn't bear thinking about. Maria is determined to get to the bottom of what's happening and why. First Port of Call is one of the Creole community leaders. We're calling him Jerry because to protect his anonymity, we agreed to change his name, and his words are read by an actor. When you see how this story plays out, you'll understand why. Gerry knows everyone involved in the Pearl Keyes dispute and how strongly they all feel about it. When Maria arrives, he's happy to fill her in.

Those islands belong to the community.

It's not for one person to sell.

No one is supposed to take it and do what they want with it.

He explains that they're fighting to stop Peter Soccos from selling their own land from under their feet, and now people are arriving on the islands from all around the world.

People need the islands for fishing, and now he's buying them stopping people from using them. We don't permit anyone to buy them.

Maria wants to help, but it's going to take patience and courage. But he trusts her, and Maria has always been straight with him.

She says it from the beginning.

It's not going to be easy. We are going to be facing someone with lots of money, and it can be dangerous, and we need to expect anything to happen.

In a country where corruption is commonplace, Maria is incorruptible, and that's why the local communities have come to trust her. They suspect people with deep pockets and even deeper connections are behind the sail of the Pearl Quays, and Maria is one of the only people in Bluefields they can be sure is on their side.

I was an outsider because I always put the love first to friendship or any other interest. The legal environment, the legal system was very corrupt in Bluefield. Lawyers and judges used to go and drink and decide the cases while drinking. And I never did that. Never. So that's why I was considered by them an outsider.

Maria is fearless. Not only is she not having a cocktail with the establishment, she's earned a reputation for doggedly fighting the authorities, and in the process, a rather unflattering nickname.

We witch. It was funny once when I met somebody from Ministry of Environment, and I introduced myself, and she looked at me and she said, Oh, you're Maria Costa. You're not a witch as they say you are. And I was like, I didn't know they said that.

But Maria won't be derailed by petty gossip. She has a huge job ahead, and she's going to need all her focus to to protect the Pearl Key Islands for the local community.

The people in power see this work as a threat.

And soon this threat will become very real. Despite the bad press and the mayor's ambivalence towards their business plan, the Gaskins have spent every day since their arrival five months ago, trying to build a dive resort from scratch, and they're running way behind schedule. I want the record to state that I always believed in Phil's ambitious timeline for the breathtaking Janique Resort. #sponsored #giftedstate. The Gaskins still can't dive or even swim, but they have hired more workers and put buff boss, Tia Doro, in charge of them. Billy, resident skeptic from channel 4, hasn't entirely reversed his opinion. Tia Doro remains an unsettling presence, and he doesn't totally trust him. But he has to admit he and the new builders are getting things done. Yeah, you can live with a chilling sense of foreboding if someone's good at grouting. Jane, however, is unimpressed. She thinks putting Tia Doro in charge has just given him license to delegate the hard work to others. Phil and Jane look fed up as they have a good old moan about him.

Since you told him he was going to be the boss, he didn't want to work anymore. He just wanted to boss. Yeah. And he wasn't even good at that. He didn't even bother to do that properly. He had to tell him, What are the men doing, Theodoro? How is that boy working? I don't know. You want me to look? I said, Yeah, I want you to look. It's your job.

But this stuff is small fry. The real issue isn't Theodoro's work. It's what he does in his downtime. As the number of staff on Janique has started to grow, one of the cooks they've hired has caught his eye. Jane sounds almost incredulous as she reveals Tiadoro's latest exploits.

The final straw for me was when he started messing around with the cook, and then he got upset as well. He He's up all night having sex with a cook and expect to be paid for it at the same time. I mean, it's just a joke.

Preach, Jane. She's right. You can't be up all night having sex with the cook and get paid for it. That is life. The sooner you guys learn that, the better. But something about his affair with the cook really seems to be bothering Jane. As for Phil, it's Tia Doro's slow progress on the dive resort that's concerning him. At this rate, he's worried they're going to run out of money before the toilet block is even finished. And so, after a crisis summit in the cabin, the Gaskins decide to fire Tia Doro. Phil heads out onto the beach and pulls him aside for a chat. Frowning, Tiadoro quickly gathers up most of his things before climbing into the boat. He gazes back at Jane with a look that's hard to read. For Billy, it's a look that means trouble. In the In the days following his departure, Phil perseveres as foreman, but it's hardgoing. They've got none of the right stuff, and it's not like they can just pop to the local DIY store when they need a spanner. The project was going slowly before, but now with Without his head builder or the materials they need, it's beginning to feel impossible.

But then, out of the blue, just two weeks after being sacked, Tia Doro makes a surprise reappearance. Producer Billy he senses that something big is about to happen as he sees a boat approaching and Theodoro climbing out.

He's coming back to get some of his stuff, but also to say a few things to Jane.

Okay, this could all be fine. He just wants his job back, maybe. Jane certainly sensed it wasn't a friendly drop-in.

She actually said, Do you want to come and film this? Because I'm going to tell him to get off the island.

You don't have to ask a documentarymaker twice. Billy readies the camera to capture the latest drama..

Bosse everyone on my island, Teodoro. You must love bossing people on my island. There's nothing to say, Teodora, okay? I don't know how much English you understand. You mess around with me. Next thing, you mess with the cook. I remember thinking, wow, she hasn't asked us to stop filming because this is getting quite personal. I don't want to day someone like that on my island. I can't have you here. You don't like me anymore. That's fine. But you don't work here and sleep with the cook in front of me after you and me. You understand what I'm saying? You mind mind me? As the conversation unfolded, I was really shocked hearing what came out because I had no idea that Jane had been with Tia Doro. Phil didn't seem to react in a way that you thought he might react with his partner sleeping with somebody else. I guess that's when I realized maybe that Phil knew about it all the time.

Billy keeps filming, and Tia Doro turns away from Jane and walks towards the camera.

He was angry. He'd been muttering about the fact that it was his island. So I asked him, So this is your land, is it? It's your country, yeah? Yeah, this is my country. One day she gone from this island. I have stayed in my country Worse than that.

Theodoro seems pretty confident that Jane won't be around for much longer. They all watch as Theodoro storms off and climbs into his boat.

So the boat moves off. He goes, and I thought, Well, that's the last that we're going to see of Theodoro. How wrong could I be?

I'm going to say very, very, very, very wrong, Billy. The Gaskins have made a dangerous new enemy. Next time on The Price of Paradise. The whole family are in shock when a terrifying encounter leaves Phil a changed man.

Phil, who up until then, had been this happy Ego-lucky, charming, funny, always pleased to see us. Kind of guy, looked like a skeleton, ashen, white, unshaven, with a hideously burnt left arm.

Follow The Price of Paradise on the WNDRI app, Amazon Music, or wherever you get your podcasts. You can binge all episodes early and ad-free right now by joining WNDRI Plus in the WNDRI app or on Apple podcasts. Before you go, Tell us about yourself by filling out a short survey at wondery. Com/survey. From WNDYRI, this is episode 2 of 7 of The Price of Paradise. A note about this podcast. Not everything was captured on film at the time, so we can't always know exactly what was said in every moment. In places, our script is based on the testimony of our interviewees and all other sources available to us. The Price of Paradise is produced by Forest Sounds and is hosted with additional writing by me, Alice Levine. For Forest Sounds, our producers are Ella Cattle and Aaron Keller. The Assistant Producer is Valeria Rocker. The managing producer is Anne Fitzgerald. The production coordinator is Nina Abdullah. The researcher is Tom Cass. Executive producers are Pete Sayle and Jeremy Lee. For WNDYRI, our producer is Theodora Leloudis. Our managing producer is Rachel Sibley. Our consulting producer is Brian Taylor-White. The production assistant is Imogen Marshall. Music composition by Ian Chambers.

Sound design by Joe Richardson and Ian Chambers. Our sound supervisor is Marcelino V. Alpando. The Music Supervisor is Scott Velasquez for Frissons Inc. Archive material from No Going Back, courtesy of Ricochet and channel 4. Executive producers for WNDRI are Michelle Martin, Jessica Radburn, Marshall Louis, and Jenn Sargent. Wndri.