The Reith Lectures are named in honour of John Reith, 1st Baron Reith, the BBC's first director-general

The Reith Lectures is a series of annual BBC radio lectures given by leading figures of the day. They are commissioned by the BBC and broadcast on Radio 4 and the World Service. The lectures were inaugurated in 1948 to mark the historic contribution made to public service broadcasting by Lord Reith, the corporation's first director-general.

Reith maintained that broadcasting should be a public service that aimed to enrich the intellectual and cultural life of the nation. It is in this spirit that the BBC each year invites a leading figure to deliver the lectures. The aim is to advance public understanding and debate about issues of contemporary interest.[1]

The first Reith lecturer was the philosopher and later Nobel laureate, Bertrand Russell. The first female lecturer was Dame Margery Perham in 1961.[2] The youngest Reith lecturer was Colin Blakemore, who was 32 in 1976 when he broadcast over six episodes on the brain and consciousness.[3]

The Reith Lectures archive

In June 2011 BBC Radio 4 published its Reith Lectures archive.[4] This included two podcasts featuring over 240 lectures from 1948 to the present day as well as streamed online audio, and the complete written transcripts of the entire Reith Lectures archive:

  • Podcast 1: Archive 1948–1975[5]
  • Podcast 2: Archive 1976–2012[6]
  • Transcripts 1948–2010 [7]
  • In pictures[8]

The BBC found that some of the audio archive of the Reith Lectures was missing from its library and appealed to the public for copies of the missing lectures.[4]

The Reith Lectures 1948–2020

1940s

1950s

1960s

1970s

1980s

1990s

2000s

2010s

2020s

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Radio 4 - The Reith Lectures - About Reith". BBC. 1 January 1970. Retrieved 2 November 2013.
  2. ↑ "Margery Perham: The Colonial Reckoning: 1961, The Reith Lectures - BBC Radio 4". BBC.
  3. ↑ "Colin Blakemore: Mechanics of the Mind: 1976, The Reith Lectures - BBC Radio 4". BBC.
  4. 1 2 "BBC Radio 4 unveils 60 years of Reith Lectures archive". BBC News. 26 June 2011.
  5. ↑ "Archive 1948-1975 - The Reith Lectures - Downloads - BBC Radio 4". BBC.
  6. ↑ "Archive 1976-2012 - The Reith Lectures - Downloads - BBC Radio 4". BBC.
  7. ↑ "BBC - Radio 4 - The Reith Lectures Transcripts 2011".
  8. ↑ "In Pictures: The Reith Lectures". BBC News. 2 December 2014.
  9. ↑ BBC (2011) “Radio 4 opens The Reith Lectures archive to public”, 26 June. https://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pressreleases/stories/2011/06_june/26/reith.shtml
  10. ↑ "Harvard University Professor Michael Sandel to give Radio 4's Reith Lectures 2009". BBC. 5 February 2009. Retrieved 25 February 2009.
  11. ↑ "Martin Rees: Scientific Horizons: 2010, The Reith Lectures - BBC Radio 4". BBC.
  12. ↑ "Securing Freedom: 2011, The Reith Lectures - BBC Radio 4". BBC.
  13. ↑ "Niall Ferguson: The Rule of Law and Its Enemies: 2012, The Reith Lectures - BBC Radio 4". BBC.
  14. ↑ "Democracy Has Bad Taste, Grayson Perry: Playing to the Gallery: 2013, The Reith Lectures - BBC Radio 4". BBC.
  15. ↑ "Dr Atul Gawande: The Future of Medicine, The Reith Lectures - BBC Radio 4". BBC.
  16. ↑ "Dr Atul Gawande: The Future of Medicine, The Reith Lectures - Dr Atul Gawande - 2014 Reith Lectures - BBC Radio 4". BBC.
  17. ↑ "Stephen Hawking's BBC Reith Lectures postponed through illness". TheGuardian.com. 10 November 2015.
  18. ↑ "Stephen Hawking: Do Black Holes Have No Hair?, The Reith Lectures - BBC World Service". BBC.
  19. ↑ "Creed, Kwame Anthony Appiah: Mistaken Identities, The Reith Lectures - BBC Radio 4". BBC.
  20. ↑ "Hilary Mantel: Resurrection: The Art And Craft, The Reith Lectures - BBC Radio 4". BBC.
  21. ↑ "Margaret MacMillan: The Mark of Cain, The Reith Lectures - BBC Radio 4". BBC.
  22. ↑ "BBC - Law and the Decline of Politics - locations announced for the 2019 Reith Lectures - Media Centre". www.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 1 May 2019.
  23. ↑ "2020: Mark Carney - How We Get What We Value - From Moral to Market Sentiments - BBC Radio 4". BBC.
  24. ↑ "2021: Stuart Russell on living with Artificial Intelligence - BBC Radio 4". BBC.
  25. ↑ "BBC Reith Lectures 2022 – The Four Freedoms". BBC. Retrieved 28 December 2022.
  26. ↑ "BBC Reith Lectures 2023 – Our Democratic Future". British Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 27 November 2023.
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