Thank you Alistair Cooke for all those Letters from America

Mar 2, 2004
BBC's Alistair Cooke Signs His Last 'Letter From America'
By Robert Barr
Associated Press Writer

LONDON (AP) - Alistair Cooke, whose weekly "Letter from America" has been a radio fixture in Britain for 58 years, is retiring at age 95, the British Broadcasting Corp. said Tuesday.
Cooke, who missed last week's broadcast, accepted the advice of his doctors that he should retire, the BBC said.

"We are very sorry he has decided to retire but are grateful for all the years he has devoted to the BBC," said Jenny Abramsky, the corporation's director for radio and music.

In a statement released by the BBC, Cooke said "I can no longer continue" with the program.

"Throughout 58 years I have had much enjoyment in doing these talks and hope that some of it has passed over to the listeners, to all of whom I now say thank you for your loyalty and goodbye," Cooke said.

"Letter from America," which was carried on the BBC World Service and on Radio 4 in Britain, started in 1946, and was originally scheduled to run 13 weeks.

Born Alfred Cooke in Salford in northern England in 1908, he earned an honors degree in English from Cambridge University, changed his name to Alistair and joined the BBC in 1934 as a film critic. He has been the BBC commentator on American affairs since 1938.

In a speech to the Royal Television Society in New York in 1997, Cooke traced the development of his urbane, soft-spoken style to his wartime work with the BBC.

"During the end of the war, the BBC in New York invited various famous exiles, Frenchmen mostly, to come and talk to the underground in France - famous, famous, great literary men," Cooke said.

"And I had the privilege of sitting in the control room, and I thought that I will learn about broadcasting from listening to these men. ...

"What I learned is that they were dreadful broadcasters. They wrote essays, or lectures, or sermons and they read them aloud. And I suddenly realized there was a new profession ahead. Which is writing for talking. Putting it on the page in the syntactical break-up and normal confusion that is normal talk," he said.

Cooke also recalled some advice when he started the program.

"A wise old talks producer came to me and said, 'Cooke, a word in your ear. Could I give you a bit of advice?' I said, 'of course.' He said, 'don't get too popular . . . or they'll drop you.'"

In addition to his BBC work, Cooke was London correspondent for the U.S. NBC network in 1936-37, The Manchester Guardian's United Nations correspondent from 1945 to 1948, and chief U.S. correspondent of The Guardian until 1972.

He was host of the "Omnibus" television program in the United States from 1952 to 1961, and presented "Masterpiece Theatre" on the U.S. PBS network from 1971 to 1992.
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On the Net: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/letter-from-america

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