Happy anniversary to me! On this day last year I wrote my first column for the Evening Echo. If someone had told me back then that I would have written fifty two articles by now I probably would have advised them to ease off the funny mushrooms. After I first agreed to write the column I sat in front of the laptop and I may as well have been looking at the toaster. My mind went blank because, while all along I had just been scribbling for fun, now all of a sudden, there was a thing called a ‘Deadline’. That small word changed everything and initially it scared the pants off me but, thankfully, it didn’t last long.
This last year has been great fun. The feedback has been overwhelmingly positive and it’s great to think that so many people seem to get a kick out of my ramblings. People have approached me in all sorts of places to pass a comment on something they’ve read or to ask me where I get the ideas from. A lot of what I write is pure nonsense but it’s all designed to be entertaining.
The good news for those of you who enjoy the column is that I have enough rubbish in my head to keep it going for another while. That’s probably bad news for those of you who would rather read the TV listings but as long as the Editor isn’t one of those then we should be ok for another bit. But I don’t imagine that I will last as long as a man by the name of Alistair Cooke.
I first came across Alistair Cooke and his ‘Letter from America’ in the eighties. He was an English journalist working in the States and he would read his letter once a week on BBC Radio 4. I used to listen to him in the car on the way to work and if you’ve never heard him speak then you are missing something. He wrote about his observations on life in America generally and his experiences there. He died on March 30th 2004 but he will be remembered as one of the greatest radio presenters of all time. He wrote and presented ‘Letter from America’ for over fifty-eight years.
He was born in Manchester in 1908 and joined the BBC as a journalist in 1934. In 1937 he moved permanently to New York, continuing to report for the BBC on U.S. politics, and after 1939, he reported on the American perspective on World War II.
After the war, the BBC Director of the Spoken Word suggested that Cooke should begin a series where he could talk about everything that he had experienced in American life. So in March 1946, Alistair Cooke’s ‘Letter from America’ was born, but with the proviso that no matter how successful the Letter became, it would not be financed beyond two series or twenty-six weeks. It was, basically, a six-month assignment.
It did, however, run for a little longer than that and ‘Letter from America’ remains unbeaten as the longest running one-man series in broadcasting history. It has been heard in over 50 countries with an estimated audience of 34 million. It was first broadcast in 1946 and he broadcast his last letter in February 2004 just one month before he died at the age of ninety five. It was some achievement.
Alistair Cooke had a very distinctive, deep, soft voice which was not easily forgotten and he delivered his lines as if he had all the time in the world. He was completely unhurried. He wrote about ordinary life in America and he made it uncomplicated and easy listening. The Times described him as someone who read as well as he sounded and his voice reminds me a little of Peter Aliss, the great golf commentator.
He was hugely popular and many terms have been used over the last half-century to describe Alistair Cooke’s presentation in his Letter; Urbane, charming, informed, informal, shrewd, erudite, witty, perceptive, enlightening and elegant. Whatever the description, he certainly captivated his audience. The show was aired late in the evening on BBC Radio Four and lasted for about fifteen miniutes. It appealed to all ages and attracted a large and diverse audience. Many drivers, me included, often arrived at their destination and had to sit in the car until he finished his piece.
Harold Macmillan tuned in regularly and his chauffeur timed their trips to coincide with the repeat of the Letter. He wasn’t short of well-known admirers. Clementine Churchill once sent him a copy of her husband’s memoirs with the inscription, ‘to Alistair Cooke, whose broadcasts gave the author such pleasure.’ Ronald Reagan recorded a special 80th birthday tribute to Cooke, and ex-President FW de Klerk of South Africa often picked the broadcasts up on the World Service.
When Cooke was awarded an honorary knighthood in 1973, the Queen is supposed to have expressed admiration at his ability to sit down, week after week, and communicate so directly with his audience. What is also amazing is the fact that he never knew what he was going to talk about any week until he actually sat down to write and most of what he did write came from memory. He was simply a pure natural talent and a model for all would be presenters.
He signed off from his final broadcast and said farewell in typical fashion, “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.”
Hopefully it will be some time before I sign off and bid farewell to my solitary follower, my mother.