After nearly three thousand broadcasts, spanning 58 years and 11 presidents, Alistair Cooke reads his final “Letter from America” later today. Since its debut in the early 1940s, his BBC radio chats on American life gave many Brits their first taste of this great, mysterious giant across the ocean. Most Americans got to know Alistair Cooke as the dignified, courtly host of Masterpiece Theatre during the 70s and 80s.
He was both the ultimate outsider who never lost the wide-eyed perspective of an immigrant, and an insider at ease with the American way of life. Playwright Arthur Miller once called him an Englishman who makes us feel “there is something steady underneath us.” A look at the legacy of the world’s longest running radio program and the last page of Alistair Cooke’s Letter from America.
Guests:
Nick Clarke, Alistair Cooke’s biographer