reporter

Charles Wheeler

July 4th, 2008 by Steve Bowbrick

Charles Wheeler, remarkable reporter of the generation schooled during the Second World War, has died, aged 85 (he joined the BBC in 1947). Martin Bell, a long-time colleague, has written an appreciation for The Guardian and, here, from the archive, is Churchill Confidential, an Archive Hour he presented during 2006 (MP3). We’ve featured two of his programmes in the past: a 50th anniversary celebration of From Our Own Correspondent (a programme he made many contributions to) and an amazing feature about the voyage of the USS Nautilus under the North Pole in 1958. These are all programmes from Wheeler’s late career: I’m going to keep my eyes peeled for recordings from his decades as a foreign correspondent.

Presenter: Charles Wheeler
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Listen: [MP3]

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50 Years of From Our Own Correspondent

November 24th, 2007 by Steve Bowbrick

Roo reminded me about this From Our Own Correspondent 50th anniversary special from 2005. FOOC (that’s what they call it) is a show whose format hasn’t changed in 50 years: short reflections from foreign correspondents. No other voices - no matter how good your material is. Is there another broadcast show in the world you could say that about?

It’s a measure of how seriously the Corporation took the abduction and ultimate release of Middle East correspondent Alan Johnston that they saw fit to vary FOOC’s 50 year-old format for a one-off featuring only Johnston (still no interviews, though).

Here’s an MP3 of the anniversary show and here’s a nice page of stories from the FOOC archive. Here’s a page of background and here’s a FAQ.

Presenter: Charles Wheeler
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Listen: [MP3] [Real]

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