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The Lost Women Spies S01E03 (2025) [Full Movie] [Official Release]Full EP - Full
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00:03In the Second World War, British spy agency, the SOE, send more and more female agents behind enemy lines.
00:20With D-Day on the horizon, these women, handpicked by spymaster Vera Atkins,
00:27make daring attacks against Hitler's troops from deep inside Nazi-occupied France.
00:41But, as the Allies push towards Paris,
00:46the Gestapo brutally cracks down.
00:50Unfortunately, some of your agents had to be shot.
00:57What the hell are they playing at?
00:59One by one, Vera's women disappear.
01:03We can't be captured.
01:08Hide what you can, then hide yourself.
01:13We go now. Move!
01:15Halt!
01:29You go. I'll send them off as long as I can. Go! Go!
01:39But, with France liberated, and the Nazis defeated, many are still missing.
01:47Vera's mission was to send these women to war.
01:52Now, she'll do whatever it takes to find them and bring them home.
02:12The Allied invasion of Europe, to recapture France from the Nazis, has begun.
02:17The Allied invasion of Europe, to recapture France from the Nazis, has begun.
02:37The French resistance, supplied and coordinated by SOE,
02:42launch into action.
02:46Across France, the French resistance, supplied and coordinated by SOE,
02:49In London, F-Section monitor the sabotage activity.
02:56There's palpable excitement.
02:59Buckmaster and Vera are watching as these messages come in.
03:03There's already been acts of sabotage,
03:06trying to disrupt the train lines,
03:08trying to disrupt communication lines,
03:10blow up bridges, blowing up telephone exchanges
03:13to try and disrupt the Germans as much as possible.
03:18It's chaotic, but it's exhilarating.
03:21In the flurry of messages coming in from their agents,
03:26they receive one that is unusual.
03:29Sir, message from Paul's sign Leopold.
03:34Leopold?
03:37Leopold is inactive. He was arrested in 43.
03:42Thank you for the large delivery of weapons and ammunition.
03:45Incredibly grateful for the information on your plans and objectives.
03:52Signed the Gestapo.
03:56The Gestapo?
04:00It's not the only message F-Section received that day
04:04from the Nazis' feared secret police.
04:09Mark?
04:10Another.
04:12Thank you for the supply drop.
04:14Equipment gratefully received.
04:16Unfortunately, some of your agents had to be shot.
04:21Others were more open to do what we asked.
04:24The Gestapo.
04:27what the hell are they playing at
04:32send a reply
04:34sorry to see your nerves are shot
04:37and your resilience isn't as strong as ours
04:41Buckmaster
04:42yes sir
04:55still SOE circuits and French resistance fighters
04:58continue their clandestine attacks against the Nazis
05:06and the Allied soldiers fight their way ashore
05:10but their position is precarious
05:13they need to firm up their hold of the beachhead
05:18and be ready for when German reinforcements hit back
05:30work at F section doesn't stop
05:35wireless messages of German targets being hit
05:38continue to stream in
05:42sabotage by those SOE networks
05:45was absolutely crucial during D-Day
05:49and the Germans were so angry at this success
05:53that an order went out to hunt down
05:57Vera's agents
06:00just days after D-Day
06:02F section received news on one of their agents
06:05recently parachuted into France
06:10Buck
06:13Violette Sabot has been captured
06:17Violette is already a widow
06:19she's got a two-year-old daughter
06:21she's got a two-year-old daughter
06:22and the thought that
06:23Violette might not come back
06:25is just unthinkable
06:28where?
06:31the report is brief
06:36does it say where she's being held?
06:41it just says captured
06:43nothing else
06:58in the Limousin region of France
07:01resistance fighters pull off an audacious mission
07:05they have kidnapped the commander of the 2nd SS Panzer Division
07:10das Reich
07:11and of course the Nazis are furious about this
07:15they want their commander back
07:17and so they start to ramp up their control of the area
07:21they put in roadblocks
07:23trying to capture resistance members
07:25and they start to punish the resistance for what they've done
07:30the Nazis are out for revenge
07:32and choose the village of Ouradour-sur-Glane
07:36to send a bloody message to the French people
07:44in London
07:45F section monitor sabotage attacks across France
07:50they've hit another fuel depot
07:52good
07:54their tanks are thirsty beasts
07:57they'll be running on fumes by the time they reach Normandy
07:59if they may get that far
08:03but soon
08:04news of the massacre
08:05reaches Buckmaster
08:08sir
08:08a report from France
08:10you need to read it now
08:11thank you
08:19Buck
08:25what is it?
08:29the SS
08:33the resistance captured their commander
08:41they massacred a village
08:45what?
08:49over 600 dead
08:51women
08:53children
09:00I thought the Germans had honour
09:03that they acted like gentlemen
09:08Buck
09:09I never thought they'd do something like this
09:22the news of the massacre at Ouradour-sur-Glane
09:25really is shocking for Buckmaster
09:28that the Germans have sunk so low
09:30that they'll massacre innocent women and children
09:35where did this happen?
09:39Buck
09:40where did this happen?
09:49a limousine
09:54limousine
09:55limousine
10:02limousine
10:03Fionette was operating out of the limousine
10:05before capture
10:13but no further information on Violet
10:16has come through
10:27in northern France
10:28the Allies consolidate their foothold in Normandy
10:33and prepare to push out deeper
10:35into the country
10:41F section is
10:43a hive of activity
10:44organising
10:45weapons drops
10:46ammunitions
10:47explosives
10:47for the French resistance
10:49to stop the Germans
10:50being able
10:51to defend themselves
10:52against the Allied attack
10:58Buck
10:59a message from callsign Bursa
11:01the Scholar Circuit
11:02are requesting a supply drop
11:04to the Girard region
11:06Bursa is Vera's agent
11:09Yvonne Basden
11:10and she's been operating in France
11:12for about three months
11:13in the Jura region
11:14which is to the east of France
11:17authorise the drop
11:20on the 25th of June 1944
11:2232 flying fortresses
11:25were flown over by the RAF
11:29and they released 440 parachutes
11:32and attached to those parachutes
11:34were canisters full of weapons
11:36and explosives
11:37and arms
11:38and equipment needed
11:39by the resistance
11:44it's the largest
11:45daylight parachute drop
11:46of the war
11:48hidden at the drop zone
11:49is Yvonne
11:51with a team
11:52of resistance fighters
11:55it took 48 hours
11:57for those canisters
11:58to be emptied
11:59and for the equipment
12:00to be stored
12:01meaning that every minute
12:02and every hour
12:03that went by
12:04they were more
12:05and more at risk
12:06of being caught
12:07but Yvonne was so excited
12:10when this happened
12:11and she said
12:11as every one of those
12:12parachutes opened
12:13hope was attached to them
12:21after a frantic
12:22two days on the ground
12:25Yvonne and her team
12:26are exhausted
12:28with the last container
12:30collected
12:30they leave the drop zone
12:32and head back
12:33to their headquarters
12:46at F section
12:47messages from the circuits
12:49flood in
12:51targets are being hit
12:53the resistance
12:54are taking the fight
12:55to the Germans
12:56across the country
13:00but that's tinged
13:02with uncertainty
13:04what about the agents
13:06how many have survived
13:09how many have the Germans
13:11managed to capture
13:13then F section
13:15finally receives the report
13:17they've been waiting for
13:21Eva what is it
13:34Bialet is with two resistance men
13:37and they're driving
13:37to meet other SOE leaders
13:40but what they don't know
13:42is the resistance
13:43have caught
13:44one of the SS commanders
13:45of the 2nd Panzer Division
13:47and the Germans
13:48are frantic
13:49to get him back
13:50they start mounting
13:52roadblocks
13:52and they start
13:53searching people
13:54asking everybody
13:54for their papers
13:55where were they
13:56when this happened
14:00no
14:01what
14:03I thought you said
14:04this road was clear
14:07it was
14:08what
14:09it was
14:10it's a new checkpoint
14:11they can't search us
14:13I know
14:13they can't search us
14:15if they search the car
14:16they'll find our weapons
14:16we have British weapons
14:19if they search the car
14:20they'll know
14:20we're resistance
14:26we can't be captured
14:28stop the car
14:40we make for the woods
14:42try to lose them
14:45we go now
14:46move
14:49halt
15:10as Violet's escaping
15:12she twists her ankle
15:14it was already damaged
15:15from the parachute
15:16drop she'd done
15:17during training
15:18as an SOE agent
15:30are you hit
15:32it's my ankle
15:33can you walk on it
15:34no
15:35you go
15:36I'll fan them off
15:37as long as I can
15:39go
15:40go
15:42she's basically
15:43immobile
15:44at this point
15:45so she provides
15:46cover fire
15:47for the resistance men
15:49so that they can get away
15:50if it's the same
16:38The report ends.
16:42Violette was held by the SS in the French city of Limoges,
16:48but has since disappeared.
16:52She is one of many agents now missing.
17:06Since D-Day, Allied forces have made steady gains against the Germans.
17:14Two months after the Normandy landings,
17:17the Nazis are forced to abandon the French capital.
17:26The liberation of Paris was the moment everybody had been waiting for.
17:31The relief of finally being able to be in the city
17:34and not be under German occupation just must have been phenomenal.
17:39With the Allies pushing deeper into France,
17:43what's left of SOE's circuits begin to lose their importance.
17:50Boddington is travelling,
17:53he's lecturing to Allied forces on the conditions in France.
17:57Buckmaster himself has set up in the Hotel Cecil in Paris,
18:01and he will then very quickly start a tour of the surviving circuits.
18:08At F section, work begins to slow down and staff start to leave.
18:16But disturbing reports are coming in about the fate of SOE's agents.
18:23Vera is tasked with making sense of them all.
18:37But Vera, no longer a civilian,
18:40and now commissioned in the Women's Auxiliary Air Force,
18:43stays in London.
18:50Paris is back in Allied hands.
18:54But the victory came at a huge cost to SOE's agents.
18:59It was understood that the casualty numbers would be quite high,
19:04particularly surrounding the D-Day landings.
19:09Many more female agents had been sent out in 1944 than before,
19:14and this was Vera's responsibility.
19:17She's the one who's sent them to France in the first place.
19:21With Paris liberated,
19:23the human toll of this decision comes into focus.
19:29Of the more than 400 SOE agents dispatched to France,
19:34118 are missing.
19:3716 of them are Vera's women.
19:58After the liberation at the hotel where F section have set up a new office,
20:03a man turns up and he's angry.
20:06He's furious.
20:09Marcel Rousset, an F section agent with the codename Leopold,
20:14demands to see anyone in the British Secret Service.
20:22I'm sorry to interrupt,
20:23but do you think you could fetch someone from SOE for me?
20:26Now!
20:27He had been captured by the Gestapo,
20:29and in fact it was even his radio that was used by the Gestapo
20:33to send the taunting signals to SOE headquarters on D-Day.
20:40Hello, I'm Nancy.
20:41How can I help?
20:42It's why you need jobs.
20:43I am...
20:43He is angry.
20:45He's absolutely furious at mistakes that SOE has made,
20:50that so many agents have been captured.
20:53Please take a seat here, sir.
20:56An SOE officer sits down with Rousset for a debriefing on his time in captivity.
21:02He might know who has actually been arrested by the Gestapo.
21:06He might know who has survived.
21:10So, Buckmaster...
21:11Rousset says how stupid everyone at F section had been,
21:16particularly Buckmaster and Vera,
21:18and how they had risked agents' lives.
21:22I would love to meet him based on...
21:24The SD, Sicherheitsdienst,
21:26force him to relay radio messages back to London,
21:29and he quite deliberately, totally follows SOE protocol,
21:34which is that he doesn't include special code words
21:37as a warning to SOE,
21:40but they just ignored this
21:42and continued to accept the messages
21:45that came from his radio as genuine.
21:50His interrogation report is explosive
21:53and provides Vera with important leads
21:57to the whereabouts of her missing agents.
22:06At F section, Vera receives Rousset's interrogation report.
22:15After his arrest,
22:17he's taken to the SD headquarters in Paris
22:21at 84 Avenue Foch.
22:27The SD is the SS intelligence agency
22:31and worked hand-in-hand with the Gestapo.
22:36Here, Rousset is confronted
22:38with Prosper's wireless operator,
22:41Gilbert Norman, codenamed Butcher.
22:45It was Norman who told the Germans
22:47that Rousset was SOE wireless operator Leopold.
22:54And he also tells Rousset
22:56that the Gestapo know everything
22:58about SOE and their activities.
23:06So Suttel, who was the organiser of that circuit,
23:10and Norman had given up everything
23:12about the Prosper circuit in Paris
23:16in order to try and save his life
23:19and maybe other agents' lives as well.
23:22Rousset is advised to do the same.
23:26Had he given up every piece of information?
23:29What had he told them?
23:31Can you imagine how awful it was for Vera
23:33just finding out that they could have revealed so much
23:37that every time Vera sent a woman over,
23:40she was just basically feeding them
23:42straight into the German prisons?
23:46In the Gestapo's cells, Rousset is held in solitary confinement.
23:53But by tapping on the wall in Morse code,
23:56he manages to communicate with an SOE agent
24:00in the cell next to his.
24:02Rousset learns that a wireless operator
24:05with the codename Madeleine is also being held by the Nazis.
24:11Noor Inyat Khan goes under the codename Madeleine.
24:16Noor hadn't surfaced after the liberation of Paris.
24:22Vera assumed she'd been captured,
24:25but no further intel had been discovered.
24:31Rousset's report suggests
24:33that Noor had been in the Gestapo's prison in Paris.
24:39His report continues.
24:43From Paris, the women prisoners were then transferred to Germany.
24:49This is news to Vera.
24:52She wasn't aware that any female prisoners
24:55have been transferred to Germany.
24:57Where were they?
24:58Where have they gone?
25:01Could those women have been her agents?
25:03Could one of them have been Noor?
25:07Frustratingly, Rousset's intel now dries up.
25:12He remains in the Gestapo's prison,
25:14working as a cleaner until two days after D-Day.
25:20Noticing a gate unlocked,
25:23he knocks out a guard
25:24and makes his escape.
25:49Vera haunts the F-Section operations room,
25:54waiting for any news on her missing women spies.
26:01Then, a report comes in
26:04from a member of Yvonne Bazden's SOE circuit.
26:11After Yvonne and her colleagues
26:12had hidden all the equipment
26:14that had come in on this daylight parachute drop,
26:17they headed back to their headquarters.
26:22But soon after they arrive,
26:24everything changes.
26:29The Germans, they're coming.
26:31What?
26:32We spotted a patrol of German soldiers.
26:34They're heading for us.
26:35Do we have time to move?
26:37No.
26:39Hide what you can, then hide yourself.
26:53The Germans who arrived,
26:54they just heard a tip-off
26:56that this building might be of some interest,
26:58and they're just going to do a cursory search.
27:25There is literally nobody in sight.
27:27They can't find anybody.
27:28So they leave,
27:30but they just leave behind one person.
27:33He's effectively watching it
27:35just in case something happens
27:36or somebody arrives.
27:38One can only imagine
27:39what would be going through
27:40the minds of Yvonne and her team
27:42as they are hiding,
27:43holding their breath,
27:44not moving,
27:45because they have to be totally quiet.
27:47And then the plumbing makes a noise.
27:57Hello?
27:59Is anybody in there?
28:08I heard something.
28:10Keep searching.
28:12Keep searching.
28:13Keep searching.
28:14I don't know.
28:47In London, Vera scours Allied intelligence reports, searching for any clues to her agents' whereabouts.
28:57Who survived? Where were they being helmed? And where were they now?
29:03She has cause for optimism. Some agents are surfacing after the liberation of Paris.
29:13One of her agents, Mary Herbert, astonishingly has survived hiding in a farmhouse in France.
29:21It gives Vera hope that some of the other women might still be alive.
29:28But for those still missing, few details are known.
29:34F-section operations are all but wound down.
29:38But Vera remains.
29:43She is worried about her agents, about the women she's sent into the field.
29:49She has to find out where they are.
29:55The work is all-encompassing.
29:59Searching for any trace of where her agents were transported to in Germany.
30:05And where they could be rescued from once the Allies are victorious.
30:12In October, British officials investigate 84 Avenue Foch.
30:20The Nazis' former intelligence headquarters in Paris.
30:27Some of her agents were held in captivity there.
30:32By piecing together what happened there, maybe she'll get some information about her lost agents.
30:40I visited the torture chamber at Avenue Foch, where Kiefer had an office.
30:52Hans Kiefer was the head of the SD in Paris during the German occupation.
31:00He's the man who convinced Gilbert Norman to reveal everything he knew about SOE operations.
31:08Hans Kiefer would have been personally in charge of the SOE agents who were held at that prison.
31:15Kiefer would have to have known, first of all, who was held in his prison and what happened to them.
31:25The report continues.
31:28I found a moving inscription from men and women who knew they had lost everything except their honor.
31:36But I was informed during the last few days before the departure of the Germans
31:41that several people had been taken downstairs into the courtyard and shot.
31:49It's a tragic revelation.
31:52Were her agents executed in this group?
32:12In the meantime, she has the agonising task of updating the families of the missing agents on what is known
32:21about them.
32:25Before Noor departed for France, Vera had promised to send her mother periodic good news letters, which she had.
32:41From all the reports of Noor's training, everybody was saying that she wasn't ready.
32:47But Paris needed a wireless operator.
32:50And immediately she'd put this young woman into the jaws of the Gestapo.
33:01Dear Mrs. Inayat Khan, I am extremely sorry to have to inform you that we have recently lost touch with
33:08your daughter.
33:09Due to the confused state of affairs in France, we were not unduly worried.
33:14But I am afraid now your daughter must be considered as missing.
33:19Although there is every reason to believe that she will eventually be notified to us as a prisoner of war.
33:26Just the idea of writing letters to the family, that's heartbreaking.
33:30But Vera's got other issues that she has to worry about.
33:33The British government was never very happy about sending women combatants overseas.
33:38Because they were not protected by the Geneva Convention.
33:41And that meant the Nazis could do whatever they liked with them.
33:45She also has fear about her own future.
33:48Because once it is revealed in the public that something has happened to these women,
33:52she's also fearful about the consequences for her as the person who sent them out.
34:02I would impress upon you in the interests of your daughter's safety
34:06that you make no inquiries with regard to her.
34:11Except through me.
34:23By January 1945, the Allies are making steady gains.
34:30And Nazi Germany is on its knees.
34:42But many agents are still missing.
34:47Despite combing through any and all intelligence documents,
34:51Vera's investigation finds no trace of them.
34:56She now lobbies inside SOE.
35:04What Vera wants to do as the Allies are moving through Germany
35:07is to give the names of her agents to the Allied troops
35:10so that when they liberate camps and prisoners of war,
35:13they can see if any of her agents are prisoners.
35:16They can rescue them.
35:18At the height of F-section operations,
35:21Vera is Buckmaster's right-hand man.
35:23She's right in the centre of all of the major decisions.
35:26But once F-section is over and Buckmaster is gone,
35:30it becomes incredibly difficult to convince anybody
35:32that her plight within SOE is worth pursuing.
35:37Particularly John Centre,
35:40the head of SOE's security division
35:42and a commander in the Royal Navy.
35:46Atkins.
35:47Yes, sir.
35:49A memo of yours just came across my desk.
35:53Yes, sir.
35:56A memo suggesting that we give out the names of our agents?
36:05Publish their names for the Red Cross,
36:09the American Army,
36:12the Soviet Army?
36:16Yes, sir.
36:17So that once those forces begin liberating POW camps,
36:21they will have a register of all of our missing agents.
36:27Atkins.
36:28You do understand what we do here.
36:31The work we did during the war.
36:34Yes, sir.
36:35But...
36:36Then you'll also understand the meaning of secret.
36:38Secret, as in the term secret agent.
36:43Sir, if I may...
36:44Flight Officer Atkins.
36:47Let me remind you,
36:48you are addressing a commander in the Royal Navy.
36:52Sir.
36:58The war is not yet over.
37:02How long do you think it would be
37:03before the Germans
37:05also got to see those names?
37:09Why should we advertise
37:10who our agents are
37:13on a register
37:14for our enemies to see?
37:17Sir, the Germans are spent.
37:20This is our best chance
37:22of finding our agents,
37:24women agents,
37:25alive.
37:26Sir.
37:32Consider your request denied
37:34on security grounds.
37:36He's wanting to find out
37:38where were the security leaks in SOE.
37:40He's not interested
37:42in the fate of the missing agents.
37:47Stick with the welfare work.
37:54Vera is stymied
37:55from trying to find her agents.
37:57All she can do
37:57is just pick up on intelligence reports
37:59to find out
38:00what's happened
38:01to these agents
38:02because unless she finds out,
38:05who will?
38:10In March 1945,
38:13Vera receives a report
38:14by French investigators
38:16searching Fren prison
38:18in Paris.
38:20This is the Gestapo prison
38:22where people were held
38:23when they were not being
38:25interrogated and tortured.
38:26and it indicates something
38:28really quite disturbing
38:29for Vera.
38:30Next to the name
38:32of one of the prisoners
38:34is N and N.
38:36This means
38:36Nacht und Nebel
38:38or night and fog.
38:40The Nacht und Nebel order
38:41was decreed by Hitler
38:44that people who have been involved
38:45in espionage
38:47or resistance
38:48are to him
38:50so despicable
38:51that they have to be punished
38:53in an extraordinary way.
38:55Not only will they be
38:56captured,
38:57interrogated,
38:58tortured
38:59and then killed,
39:00but they're supposed
39:01to disappear
39:02without a trace.
39:03They will disappear
39:04as into night and fog.
39:07Time is running out
39:09to find her missing women
39:11alive.
39:20By April 1945,
39:23Germany is in total collapse.
39:27The Foreign Office,
39:28now they want to release
39:30the SOE agents' names.
39:32Vera is allowed
39:34to issue the names
39:35of her agents
39:36so that people
39:37liberating these
39:38prisoners of war camps
39:39can find them.
39:42If they are found,
39:43there is now a register
39:45for their return
39:46to Britain.
39:48If they survived.
40:06On the 30th of April,
40:081945,
40:09with Berlin
40:10been all but captured
40:11by the Red Army,
40:16Hitler commits suicide.
40:23By the 8th of May,
40:25the Allies accept
40:27Nazi Germany's
40:28unconditional surrender.
40:31The war in Europe
40:32is over.
40:49Amid the celebrations
40:50in London,
40:51Vera gets news
40:52that gives her hope
40:54her agents survived.
40:57on the 20th of May,
40:591945,
41:01Yvonne Basden,
41:02captured and missing,
41:04turns up at Euston Station
41:06in London.
41:12Miss Atkins,
41:13how did you get here?
41:15Yeah.
41:32Where are we going?
41:34I'm taking you home.
41:36Your father is waiting.
41:37My father?
41:39My father?
41:49From Euston Station,
41:51Vera takes
41:52Yvonne Basden
41:53back to her family home
41:55in Brockwood Park
41:56in London.
42:14Yvonne Basden,
42:19please come here.
42:36you look um weak let me make you something to eat
43:05what happened after you were captured did you see anyone else other agents
43:19Yvonne I need you to think
43:28after I was caught they sent me east to a to a prison to a place called Saarbrocken
43:43um that there I started seeing some some familiar faces agents I'd been in training with I saw
43:57they've got the hold of Baker Street I didn't talk to them I I I kept my distance
44:09you see I told the Germans after they caught me that I was just an ordinary French girl
44:16caught in the wrong place at the wrong time that was my cover
44:20so I I had to keep my distance I I couldn't let the Nazis know that I was an agent
44:31it was my only hope of getting out alive
44:38her uh then then then they moved us um all to a camp uh north of Berlin
44:49who went with you
44:54I remember Violette
44:57a couple of others from from F section
45:03Violette Sabo
45:10Violette and and the others we were all uh we were all sent to um um Ravensbrück concentration camp
45:17it was a camp just for women
45:24Ravensbrück
45:27a women's only concentration camp
45:34yes
45:38at this time very little is widely known about concentration camps
45:42very few people have heard about them
45:44the idea of there being one just for women
45:47I mean it it's completely horrifying
45:52one day
45:55Violette
45:55and the others just
46:00just disappeared
46:06I never saw them again
46:13then um the Russians came and liberated us
46:16the Red Cross uh took me to Malmo in Sweden in a bus
46:21the RAF flew me to Scotland
46:25I found a train to Houston
46:31while horrific that Vera finds out her agents went to Ravensbrück
46:35the female concentration camp
46:37she can place them somewhere and she knows where they were
46:54thank you
46:57I'll leave you with
46:59you have a lot to catch up on
47:09Vera was incredibly happy to find Yvonne
47:11it might be possible she's able to trace all of her missing agents
47:19but had they survived
47:21and where were they all now
47:23and where were they all now
47:53but they were so good
47:53I can't believe that they were only one of her
48:11Transcription by CastingWords
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