Letter from America by Alistair Cooke now online.

October 18, 2012 3:25 PM

Letter from America was a long-running weekly 15-minute radio series in which journalist Alistair Cooke introduced topical issues from the US to British listeners. Now, the BBC have made 925 episodes from across the years available online, beginning with a fragment from 1947 reflecting on the dropping of the atomic bomb a year earlier.
posted by feelinglistless (10 comments total)

Huh, somehow I thought that he died decades ago.
posted by octothorpe at 3:55 PM on October 18, 2012

Alistair Cooke being attacked by a duck
posted by philip-random at 4:00 PM on October 18, 2012 [2 favorites]

The atomic bomb was first dropped in 1945, which would be two years earlier than 1947.
posted by w0mbat at 4:12 PM on October 18, 2012

w0mbat: “The atomic bomb was first dropped in 1945, which would be two years earlier than 1947.”

Technically the bomb was dropped in in August, 1945, and the program was recorded in January, 1947. So it was less than a year and a half earlier. I'd say "a year earlier" is close enough, really.
posted by koeselitz at 4:25 PM on October 18, 2012 [1 favorite]

Holy crap - he broadcast until 2004?

He took up cricket after that.
posted by dng at 4:37 PM on October 18, 2012

Alistair Cooke died in 2004 at the ripe old age of 94. Then a gang of New York body part thieves stole his cancerous bones for implantation in other people's bodies (without their knowledge). No, really.
posted by Nelson at 4:44 PM on October 18, 2012 [6 favorites]

Oooh ooh ooh! I am so excited about this, loved his reports.
posted by arcticseal at 6:26 PM on October 18, 2012

Thanks for this. Intensely nostalgic.
posted by carter at 6:46 PM on October 18, 2012

Oh god he's come back from the grave to haunt me with his late imperial drivel.
posted by clarknova at 7:04 PM on October 18, 2012

OH, HELL YES! THANK YOU so much! This is great, and the BBC rocks. I still remember late one night around Christmas (maybe even on Christsmas) driving home with my dad and listening to an episode, and we had a true driveway moment, but surprisingly to me, _he_ was the one who sat in silence and left the car running to hear the rest of it. without my urging.
posted by old_growler at 1:30 PM on October 19, 2012 [1 favorite]