Isaiah Berlin’s long-time BBC Third Programme Producer, Anna Kallin

Broadcasts

Despite its title, this list includes, for convenience, a small number of recordings that were not broadcast.

All the recordings are listed in a single chronological sequence by date of first transmission (or date of recording, where there was no transmission or transmission date is not known).

Broadcasts included (primarily) because they are about IB rather than because they are by him (or contain contributions by him) are asterisked.

Not so far included are several recordings of IB dictating drafts of his work, and a number of unpublished interviews: details of this material are available at the BLSA, where copies of the compiler᾿s edited transcripts of the recordings are also held.

Recordings (where they survive) of these broadcasts are gradually being added to Oxford University’s library of podcasts as copyright (which lasts for 50 years from the date of broadcast) expires. Recordings so far included are marked with a § preceding their title. Other recordings (mainly of unpublished lectures) are also to be found in the same repository. A number of broadcasts are also available on the present website: see links below.

1946

1Lassalle

Review of David Footman, The Primrose Path
First transmission: 8.55 pm 17/12/46 BBC Third Programme
Duration: 20 minutes [5 minutes Radio Times]
Transcript: BBC Written Archives

1947

2Belinsky (1810–1848)

Talk
First transmission: 7.05 pm 25/6/47 BBC Third Programme
Duration: 20 minutes
Transcript: BBC Written Archives
Publication: ‘The Man Who Became a Myth’, Listener 38 (1947), 23–5 = Bibliography 27

1949

3The Anglo-American Predicament

Talk
First transmission: 8.45 pm 21/9/49 BBC Third Programme
Duration: 20 minutes
Producer: Anna Kallin
Transcript: BBC Written Archives
Publication: ‘The Anglo-American Predicament’, Listener 42 (1949), 518–19 and 538 = Bibliography 31

4England in a Two-Power World

Discussion with two other speakers, commissioned by the Lowell Institute Cooperative Broadcasting Council
Recording date: 21/3/49
First transmission: 9.30 pm 22/3/49
Series: Crossroads of the Future

1950

5Don Giovanni in Aix-en-Provence

Talk
Recording dates: 30/8/49, 26/1/50 (the original tape was accidentally destroyed, so IB had to re-record the talk in a mobile van in Oxford, on the day it was broadcast)
First transmission: 9.25 pm 26/1/50 BBC Third Programme
Duration: 30 minutes [20 minutes Radio Times]
Producer: Anna Kallin
Transcript: BBC Written Archives

1952

6Freedom and its Betrayal

Lectures

1 Claude Adrien Helvétius
2 § Jean-Jacques Rousseau
3 Johann Gottlieb Fichte (1762–1814)
4 Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770–1831)
5 [Comte de] St Simon (1760–1825)
6 De Maistre (1754–1821)

Recording dates: ?, 16/9, ?, ?, ?, ?/52
First transmission: 9.30 pm 29/10, 9.40 pm 5/11, 9.15 pm 12/11, 9.30 pm 19/11, 9.40 pm 26/11, 9.30 pm 3/12/52 BBC Third Programme
Duration: each c.55 minutes (No 2 51 minutes 11 seconds, Nos 4 and 5 perhaps c.60 minutes)
Repeat(s): 3/11, 10/11, 18/11, 25/11, 1/12, 8/12/52 BBC Third Programme (all at 6.00 pm); 9.50 pm 2/5, 9.55 pm 9/5, 9.45 pm 16/5, 9.35 pm 23/5, 9.35 pm 30/5, 9.55 pm 13/6/53 BBC Third Programme
Producer: Anna Kallin
Transcript: BBC Written Archives
Recording: No 2 onlyBBC Sound Archives LP23384–6; BLSA Tape T10145W; podcast; on this website
Publication

1953

7History as an Excuse

Shortened and revised version of ‘History as an Alibi’, first Auguste Comte Memorial Lecture
Recording date: 4.15 p.m. 8/7/53 (SLO 31667)
First transmission: 9.05 pm 15/7/53 BBC Third Programme (one talk)
Duration: 60 minutes
Repeat(s): 6 pm 20/7/53 BBC Third Programme (one talk); 6, 13, 20/10/53 (three talks, in Hebrew)
Series: Treasury of the Mind
Producer: Anna Kallin
Transcript: BBC Written Archives
Recording: no
Publication: full lecture, Historical Inevitability, Auguste Comte Memorial Trust Lecture No 1 (London, 1954: Oxford University Press) = Bibliography 54

1955

8A Marvellous Decade 1838–1848

Northcliffe Lectures for 1954 (1 and 4 re-recorded for BBC)

1 The Young Intellectuals
2 Belinsky: The Impact of Western Ideas
3 Belinsky: The Original Contribution of the Russian Intelligentsia
4 § Alexander Herzen: His Opinions and Character

Recording dates: ?, ?, ?, 16/12/54
First transmission: 9.00 pm 26/1, 9.00 pm 2/2, 8.50 pm 9/2, 9.05 pm 16/2/55 BBC Third Programme
Duration: each 60 minutes
Repeat(s): 6.00 pm 28/1, 6.20 pm 7/2, 6.20 pm 15/2, 6.00 pm 22/2/55 BBC Third Programme
Producer: Anna Kallin
Transcript: BBC Written Archives (except 2)
Recording: No 4 onlyBBC Sound Archives LP23384–6; BLSA Tape T10145R; podcast (cut from 1 hour 15 mins to 41 mins); cut version and full version on this website
Publication: ‘A Marvellous Decade’ = Bibliography 57:

1 ‘1838–48: The Birth of the Russian Intelligentsia’, Encounter 4 No 6 (June 1955), 27–39
2 ‘1838–48: German Romanticism in Petersburg and Moscow’, Encounter 5 No 11 (November 1955), 21–9
3 ‘Belinsky: Moralist and Prophet’, Encounter 5 No 12 (December 1955), 22–43
4 ‘Herzen and the Grand Inquisitors’, Encounter 6 No 5 (May 1956), 20–34
(whole series reissued in RT)

9President Franklin Delano Roosevelt

Talk (10th anniversary of FDR’s death)
First transmission: 8.25 pm 12/4/55 BBC Third Programme
Duration: 25 minutes
Repeat(s): 10.30 pm 20/4/55 BBC Third Programme
Producer: Anna Kallin
Transcript: BBC Written Archives
Publication: ‘Roosevelt through European Eyes’, Atlantic Monthly 196 No 1 (July 1955), 67–71; as ‘President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’, Political Quarterly 26 (1955), 336–44 = Bibliography 60

1956

10[Historical Inevitability:] The Role of Great Men in History

Unscripted discussion with Lords Hailsham and Russell
Recording date: 22/5/56
First transmission: 4.15 pm 23/10/56 BBC General Overseas Service
Repeat: 2.15 pm 29/10/56 BBC General Overseas Service
Duration: 28 minutes 13 seconds
Series: London Forum
Presenter: Edgar Lustgarten
Transcript (including the words in [ ] above): BBC Written Archives
Publication: ‘London Forum’, London Calling, 31 January 1957, 3–4, 10 = Bibliography 68a

11The Father of Russian Marxism: G. V. Plekhanov (1856–1918)

Talk (centenary of Plekhanov’s birth)
First transmission: 9.10 pm 11/12/56 BBC Third Programme
Duration : 15 minutes
Producer: Anna Kallin
Transcript: BBC Written Archives
Recording: BLSA Tape T10780W and on this website
Publication: ‘The Father of Russian Marxism’, Listener 56 (1956), 1063–4, 1077 = Bibliography 65

1957

12Political Judgement

Talk
First transmission: 9.05 pm 19/6/57 BBC Third Programme
Duration: 30 minutes
Repeat(s): 6.30 pm 16/8/57
Series: Thinking about Politics (No 6 of 7)
Producer: T S Gregory
Transcript: BBC Written Archives
Recording: BLSA Tape T10780W, and on this website

13§ A Fire at Sea

Introduction to and translation of a short story by Turgenev
First transmission: 10.00 pm 23/7/57 BBC Third Programme
Duration: 30 minutes
Repeat(s): 10.00 pm 26/12/57 BBC Third Programme, 9.50 pm 16/1/59 BBC Third Programme, 19/10/59 BBC Home Service (‘Today “Today’s Voices”’); 10.05 pm 6/6/89 BBC Radio 3 in An Evening with Sir Isaiah Berlin
Producer: Anna Kallin
Transcript: BBC Written Archives
Recording: BLSA Tape T10780W and on this website; OU podcast
Publication: ‘An Episode in the Life of Ivan Turgenev’, London Magazine 4 No 7 (July 1957), 14–24; reissued in First Love [and] A Fire at Sea (London, 1982: Hogarth Press; New York, 1983: Viking) = Bibliography 66

14§ From Communism to Zionism: The Life and Opinions of Moses Hess

Lucien Wolf Memorial Lecture, Friends House
Recording date: 1957
First transmission: not broadcast
Duration: 1 hour 5 minutes
Recording: BLSA Tape T10898W and on this website; OU podcast
Publication: The Life and Opinions of Moses Hess (Cambridge, 1959: Heffer) = Bibliography 75

1958

15National Superiority and Inferiority

Discussion (also referred to as ‘The Social Inequality of Nations’ and ‘Stereotypes’)
Recording date: 18/3/58
First transmission: 9.15 pm 26/3/58 BBC Home Service (North Region)
Duration: 45 minutes
Series: The Fifty-One Society
Presenter: Niel Pearson
Producer: Kenneth Brown
Transcript: not found at BBC Written Archives under series (where several other transcripts appear) or under any of the above titles (the first of which is used in programme index); not found in programme file at BBC Written Archives; made from recording by Henry Hardy
Recording: BLSA Tape T11067WR and on this website

16The Brains Trust

Member of team
Recording date: live?
First transmission: 4.20 pm 8/6/58 BBC Television (first television appearance)
Duration: 40 minutes
Repeat(s): 1.10 pm 13/6/58 BBC Home Service
Transcript: BBC Written Archives

1959

17Fighting Words

Panel game/discussion (identification/discussion of quotations) with Bernard Levin, Doris Lessing, Fleur Cowles
Recording date: 18/3/59, London
First transmission: 31/3/59, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation Radio, Dominion Network
Duration: 29 minutes
Presenter: Nathan Cohen
Recording: BLSA Tape H3759
Transcript: made by Henry Hardy

18Two Concepts of Liberty

4 European Service General News Talks

1 The Notion of Negative Freedom
2 The Notion of Positive Freedom
3 The One and the Many
4 The Search for Status

First transmission: 29/6, 6/7, 13/7, 20/7/59 European Service
Repeat(s): Hebrew 22/7/59 and at weekly intervals thereafter (read by announcer); Russian Service (read by IB); German Service?
Series: London Calling Europe: As I See It
Producer: [set up by Maurice Latey]
Transcript: not at BBC Written Archives unless among unsorted material; No IV [labelled III] in Berlin Papers
Recording: no
Publication: the talks are based on Two Concepts of Liberty, Inaugural Lecture as Chichele Professor of Social and Political Theory (Oxford, 1958: Clarendon Press) = Bibliography 71; No IV published separately as Bibliography 247

1960

19This is the BBC: An Impression of Twenty-Four Hours in the Life of the British Broadcasting Corporation

BBC Television documentary
The original version shows, at 54:20, these 11 seconds of IB pretending to give a radio talk (and a further 6 seconds at 55:31):
First transmission: 29/6/60 (the opening of the Television Centre, London) BBC Television (John Lehmann substituted for IB: see E 728–9)
Director: Dick Cawston (1959)
Transcript: made by Henry Hardy (of IB’s few seconds; made at National Film Archive)
Recording: BBC film library (16mm footage); BFI National Archive (viewing copy on videocassette); YouTube (John Lehmann substituted for IB: see E 728–9)

1961

20Tolstoy and Enlightenment

Hermon Ould Memorial Lecture for 1960 (sponsored by P.E.N.)
Recording date: 23/11/60, Friends’ House, London
First transmission: 9.15 pm 7/1/61 BBC Third Programme
Duration: 37 minutes
Repeat(s): 6.50 pm 19/3/61 BBC Third Programme
Producer: Anna Kallin
Transcript: BBC Written Archives
Recording: BLSA Tape T10780R and on this website
Publication: ‘Tolstoy and Enlightenment’, Encounter 16 No 2 (February 1961), 29–40 = Bibliography 82

21Tagore

Insert for Rabindranath Tagore Centenary [7/5/61] Programmes
For India
Recording date: 16/11/60
First transmission: 7/5/61?
Transcript: not at BBC Written Archives under Tagore [a preparatory typescript, and the lecture used as a source (= Bibliography 234), are in the Berlin Papers]

22Equality 1: In Search of a Definition

Discussion with Stuart Hampshire (chair), Herbert Hart, Enoch Powell, Bernard Williams, Raymond Williams
Recording date: 6/6/61
First transmission: 9.10 pm 25/11/61 BBC Third Programme
Duration: 59 minutes 31 seconds
Repeat(s): 9.00 pm 14/12/61 BBC Third Programme
Series: Equality (No 1 of 6)
Presenter: Stuart Hampshire
Producer: Helen Arbuthnot
Transcript: BBC Written Archives; 2 early (i.e. not finally edited) drafts in Berlin papers
Recording: (first 32 minutes only) BLSA Tape T11066R

23The Philosophy of History

Talk
First transmission: 29/11/61, BBC All India Radio
Duration: 18 minutes 2 seconds
Transcript: Berlin Papers
Recording: All India Radio, BLSA Tape C530/3, and on this website

1962

24Equality 3: Equality, Education and Culture

Discussion with Lord Gladwyn, Stuart Hampshire (chair), Richard Hoggart, Richard Wollheim, George Woodcock
Recording date: 10/7/61
First transmission: 29/1/62 BBC Third Programme
Duration: 45 minutes 36 seconds
Repeat(s): 8.00 pm 23/2/62 BBC Third Programme
Series: Equality (No 3 of 6)
Presenter: Stuart Hampshire
Producer: Helen Arbuthnot
Transcript: BBC Written Archives; drafts of Hampshire’s opening and of whole discussion in Berlin Papers
Recording: BBC Sound Archives LP27468–9; BLSA Tape T10146W

25Freedom of Speech

Interview with Bamber Gascoigne
Recording date: 10/1/62
First transmission: 2.45–3.45 pm 11/2/62 ATV (Associated Television)
Duration: 45 minutes (IB 2 minutes)
Series: The Four Freedoms (No 2 of 5)
Presenter: Bamber Gascoigne
Producer: Christopher Morahan
Transcript: unedited version in Berlin Papers (9 minutes 24 seconds); IB’s draft of replies in Berlin Papers
Recording: Granada International; BLSA has copy of soundtrack – BLSA Tape H6439 (also on this website)
Publication: ‘What Is Freedom?’ = Bibliography 269; revised version of IB’s draft of replies in Ted Honderich (ed.), The Oxford Companion to Philosophy (Oxford, 1995: Oxford University Press), s.v. ‘Liberty’; reprinted in POI

26[Equality] 5: Equality between People and Nations

Discussion with John Foster, Stuart Hall, Stuart Hampshire (chair), Joan Robinson
Recording date: [before 23/3/62]
First transmission: 8.00 pm 30/3/62 BBC Third Programme
Duration: 49 minutes
Repeat(s): 5.00 pm 15/4/62 BBC Third Programme
Series: Equality (No 5 of 6)
Presenter: Stuart Hampshire
Producer: Archie Gordon
Transcript: BBC Written Archives; Berlin Papers [draft and final]
Recording: BLSA: Tape T11066W

27Literature and Life

Talk on All India Radio
Recording date: ?/?/60?
First transmission: 28/3/62
Duration: 3 minutes 30 seconds
Transcript: made by Henry Hardy
Recording: All India Radio (copy at BLSA, Tape C350/36, and on this website)

1964

28The Oxford Way

Conversation with Alexander Kendrick
First transmission: 1/2/64 CBS television (USA)
Series: One of a Kind
Producer: Ted Holmes

29In Conversation with J. B. Priestley and A. J. Ayer

‘After-dinner talk’ with J. B. Priestley and A. J. Ayer
Recording date: 26/3/64
First transmission: 10.30 pm 25/4/64 BBC Television
Duration: c.35 minutes
Series: Conversations for Tomorrow
Presenter: J. B. Priestley
Transcript: BBC film library; copy at BLSA
Recording: BBC film library; copy at BLSA, Tape V600
Publication: on this website

1964

28aThe Impact of Marx on the Nineteenth Century

Lecture to the One Hundred Years of Revolutionary Internationals Conference, Stanford University, 1964
Date of delivery: 5/10/64
Recording: Hoover Institution Archives and on this site
Transcript: on this site

29In Conversation with J. B. Priestley and A. J. Ayer

‘After-dinner talk’ with J. B. Priestley and A. J. Ayer
Recording date: 26/3/64
First transmission: 10.30 pm 25/4/64 BBC Television
Duration: c.35 minutes
Series: Conversations for Tomorrow
Presenter: J. B. Priestley
Transcript: BBC film library; copy at BLSA
Recording: BBC film library; copy at BLSA, Tape V600
Publication: on this website

1965

30Royal Academy of Arts

Royal Academy annual dinner at Burlington House: reply to proposal of toast to the guests by Sir Charles Wheeler, and proposal of toast to the Academy
First transmission: 9.00 pm 28/4/65 BBC Home Service
Duration (whole programme): 60 minutes
Presenter: Robert Hudson
Transcript: not found at BBC Written Archives under Royal Academy of Art (title used in programme index)

31The Concert Interval

Interview
First transmission: 3.35 pm 4/7/65 BBC Third Programme
Duration (whole programme): 15 minutes
Presenter: Julian Budden
Transcript: not found at BBC Written Archives under Concert Interval (title used in programme index)

32Oral History Interview for the John F. Kennedy Library

Interview with Arthur Schlesinger, Jr, for the John F. Kennedy Oral History Project
Recording date: 12 April 1965
Duration: 1 hour 9 minutes 17 seconds
Transcript: Berlin Papers; John F. Kennedy Library, Columbia Point, Dorchester, Massachusetts 02125, USA (see MS 78-356 in National Union Catalog of Manuscript Collections, Catalog 1978) – to whom version edited by Henry Hardy has been sent
Recording: John F. Kennedy Library (copy at BLSA, Tape H3760, and on this website)
Publication

1966

33New Oxford College

Interview with Derek Cooper on appointment as ‘Master’ [i.e. President] of new Wolfson College, Oxford
Recording date: 29/6/66
First transmission: 7.15/8.15 am 30/6/66 BBC Home Service
Series: Today
Presenter: Jack de Manio
Transcript: BBC Written Archives (presenter’s contributions only); IB’s contributions transcribed by Henry Hardy
Recording: BBC Sound Archives LP30291 and on this website

34Some Sources of Romanticism

The A. W. Mellon Lectures (sponsored by the Bollingen Foundation), delivered at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, March–April 1965

Recording dates: 14/3, 21/3, 28/3, 4/4, 11/4, 18/4/65
First transmission: 7.55 pm 10/8, 8.00 pm 16/8, 7.55 pm 23/8, 7.30 pm 29/8, 7.30 pm 5/9, 7.30 pm 12/9/66 BBC Third Programme
Durations: 51 minutes 26 seconds, 57 minutes 45 seconds, 53 minutes 20 seconds, 58 minutes 7 seconds, 58 minutes 20 seconds, 69 minutes 32 seconds
Repeat(s): 5/10, 9/10, 17/10, 24/10, 30/10, 6/11/67 BBC Third Programme (all at 7.30 pm); 1975 in Australia (without IB’s approval); 8.15 pm 6/6, 10.00 pm 12/6/89 etc. BBC Radio 3 in An Evening with Sir Isaiah Berlin
Producer: Helen Rapp
Transcript: BBC Written Archives; Berlin Papers
Recording: BBC Sound Archives T31558–63; BLSA Tapes T132R, T274W, T272W, T10191W, T256W, T275W; listen on this website using links in numbered list above
Publication

35J G Hamann (part 2)

Woodbridge Lecture, Columbia University, New York
Recording date: (26?) October 1965
Duration: 58 minutes 30 seconds
Series: ‘Two Enemies of the Enlightenment’ (four lectures by IB, of which this was the 2nd; no recording of the 1st or 4th has been found)
Transcript: made by Henry Hardy (edited)
Recording: BLSA Tape T11065W and on this website; OU podcast
Publication on this website: cf. The Magus of the North: J. G. Hamann and the Origins of Modern Irrationalism (London, 1993: John Murray) = Bibliography 212

36Joseph de Maistre

Woodbridge Lecture, Columbia University, New York
Recording date: (27?) October 1965
Duration: 61 minutes
Series: ‘Two Enemies of the Enlightenment’ (four lectures by IB, of which this was the 3rd – cf. previous item)
Transcript: made by Henry Hardy (edited)
Recording: BLSA Tape T11064WR and on this website; OU podcast
Publication : cf. ‘Joseph de Maistre and the Origins of Fascism’, in The Crooked Timber of Humanity: Chapters in the History of Ideas (London, 1990: John Murray; New York, 1991: Knopf; London, 1991: Fontana Press; New York, 1992: Vintage Books) = Bibliography 200

1967

37The Romantic Movement in Europe

Talk
First transmission: 3/2/67 BBC Home Service
Duration: 19 minutes
Series: Talks for Sixth Forms: Four Distinguished Men
Producer: Tom Butcher
Transcript: BBC Written Archives (School Scripts Talks for VIth Forms)

37aThe Russian Preoccupation with Historicism

Lecture at the University of Sussex
Recording date: 1967
Duration: 1 hour 3 minutes
Transcript on this website
Recording: University of Sussex Library; copy on this website

1968

38The Role of the Intelligentsia

Talk to the Annual Conference of the University Teachers’ Group
Recording date: 14/3/68
First transmission: 7.30 pm 23/4/68 BBC Third Programme
Duration: 35 minutes
Repeat(s): 5.30 pm 11/8/68 BBC Third Programme
Transcript: BBC Written Archives
Recording: BBC Sound Archives MT32704 and on this website; BLSA Tape 1145W
Publication: ‘The Role of the Intelligentsia’, Listener 79 (1968), 563–5 = Bibliography 111

1969

39Verdi and Schiller

Talk
Recording date: 23/10/68? (unidentified date on transcript)
First transmission: 6.40 pm 11/1/69 BBC Third Programme
Duration: 35 minutes 45 seconds
Repeat(s): 7.30 pm 21/2/69 BBC Third Programme
Transcript: BBC Written Archives
Recording: BLSA Tape 1314R and on this website
Publication

40Turgenev

Cambridge Union Lecture, ?Dec. 1969
BBC transcript; not broadcast
Producer: Jack Amos
Transcript: Berlin Papers

1970

41Turgenev and the Dilemma of the Liberal Intellectual

Romanes Lecture for 1970, Sheldonian Theatre, Oxford
Recording date: 12/11/70
First transmission: 9.00 pm 14/2/71 BBC Radio 3
Duration: 56 minutes
Repeat(s): 4.30 pm 5/9/71 BBC Radio 3
Producer: Adrian Johnson
Transcript: BBC Written Archives
Recording: BBC Sound Archives T33582; BLSA Tape T297R (another recording Tape T11065R)
Publication: Fathers and Children: Turgenev and the Liberal Predicament (Oxford, 1972: Clarendon Press) = Bibliography 125

42Weizmann as Exilarch

Israel Goldstein Lecture, Jerusalem
Recording date: 1970
Duration: 35 minutes
Recording: BLSA: Tape T10898R
Publication: ‘Weizmann as Exilarch’, in Chaim Weizmann as Leader (Jerusalem, 1970: Hebrew University of Jerusalem) = Bibliography 119

1971

42aThe Russian Obsession with History and Historicism

The second Dal Grauer Memorial Lecture, delivered at Totem Park, University of British Columbia
Recording date: 2/3/71
Duration: 1 hour 11 minutes
Transcript: on this website
Recording: University of British Columbia Archives phonotape no. 143; copy on this website

43Stravinsky Died a Year Ago

Interviews
Recording date: 25/11/71
First transmission: 9.30 pm 6/4/72 BBC Radio 3
Duration (IB’s contribution): 5 minutes 33 seconds
Presenter: John Amis
Producer: Denys Gueroult
Transcript: IB’s contributions transcribed by Henry Hardy
Recording: IB’s contribution on BBC Sound Archives LP34715, 25/11/71[–28/2/72]; whole programme on BBC Sound Archives T34558, 28/3/72, and on BLSA Tape T458W (off-air)

1972

44British Foreign Policy since 1945

Introduction to lecture by Roy Jenkins
Recording date: 28/3/72
First transmission: 8.55 pm 28/4/72 BBC Radio 3
Duration (whole programme): 40 minutes
Transcript: BBC Written Archives
Recording: BBC Sound Archives T34443; BLSA Tape P815R

45Giambattista Vico: Man of Genius

Talk ‘on the neglected Italian thinker’
Recording date: 19/4/72
First transmission: 10.35 pm 25/9/72 BBC Radio 3
Duration: 49 minutes 9 seconds
Repeat(s): 10.10 pm 29/11/72 BBC Radio 3
Producer: Adrian Johnson
Transcript: BBC Written Archives; Berlin Papers
Recording: BBC Sound Archives T34962; BLSA Tape T10334W (C530/1) (copy of a BBC Transcription Services tape, ‘Giambattista Vico’, BBC Transcription Services Talks Catalogue Number 1786.00)
Publication: ‘Giambattista Vico’, Listener 88 (1972), 391–8 = Bibliography 130

46Roots of Romanticism

Interview for Open University with Graham Martin, Reader in Literature, Open University
A202/34 Arts Level II The Age of Revolutions (1972–79)
Recording date: 25/1/72
First transmission: 16/10/72 BBC Radio 4 (Open University)
Duration: 18 minutes 50 seconds
Repeat(s): 21/10/72 BBC Radio 4 (Open University), and in subsequent years of the course, at about the same time of year
Producer: Helen Rapp
Transcript: Berlin Papers
Recording: BLSA Tape H3761

47‘I’m going to tamper with your beliefs a little’

A dialogue with Stuart Hampshire on ‘Oxford philosophy’, especially J L Austin; the second of a series of six films on philosophy in Oxford, collectively entitled Logic Lane (also the title of the first film)
Year of production: 1972
Duration: 56 minutes 30 seconds
Director: Michael Chanan
Producer: Noel Chanan
Transcript: made by Henry Hardy
Recording: the films are available online to universities with access to Edinburgh University’s Film & Sound Online holdings. They are also available on YouTube (the IB film begins here). There is an excerpt from the IB film in the first, introductory, film of the series. Another extract is available here. Access to 16 mm film through British Universities Film and Video Council (ref. 6HE 136); copy at BLSA, Tape V531 (the film includes an extract from a recording of J L Austin lecturing: a recording of the whole of this lecture is also available, BLSA Tape T10707).
Publication: on this website

48The Problem of Nationalism

A dialogue with Stuart Hampshire, chaired by Bryan Magee
Recording date: 6/11/72
First transmission: 30/11/72 ITV (Thames Television)
Duration: 51 minutes 21 seconds
Series: Something to Say (No 25)
Presenter: Bryan Magee
Director: George Sawford
Producer: Udi Eichler
Transcript: Thames Television
Publication: on this website

1973

49Tolstoy’s View of Art and Morality

Talk for Open University
Used in/as programme 13 of course A302, ‘The Nineteenth-Century Novel and Its Legacy’
Reused in revised course, A312, beginning in 1982 (programme 13 again)
First transmission: 10/8/73 BBC Radio 4 (Open University)
Duration: 28 minutes 53 seconds
Repeat(s): 11/8/73 BBC Radio 4 (Open University), and in subsequent years of the course, at about the same time of year; 8.30 pm 17/8/73 BBC Radio 3
Producer: Miriam Rapp
Transcript: BBC Written Archives; Berlin Papers (initial version)
Recording: BLSA Tape T10334R (C530/2) (copy of a BBC Transcription Services tape, BBC Transcription Services Talks Catalogue Number 1902.00); BLSA Tape 2319W (off-air); cassette in Berlin Papers

50§ The Origins of Cultural History

Christian Gauss Seminars in Criticism, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ: Room 127, 185 Nassau Street (Creative Writing Lounge)

1 Two Notions of the History of Culture: the German Versus the French Tradition
2 Geisteswissenschaft and the Natural Sciences: Vico versus Descartes
3 The Origins of the Conflict: Political Lawyers, Classical Scholars, Narrative Historians

Recording date: 19, 20, 22/2/73
First transmission: not broadcast
Duration: c.60 minutes each (the last longer)
Transcript: made by Henry Hardy
Recording: BLSA Tapes F4797–9; OU podcasts 1 | 2 | 3

1974

51Byron: Poet or Myth?

Discussion with others (Byron died 19 April 1824)
Recording date: 24/4/74
First transmission: 9.40 pm 5/5/74 BBC Radio 3
Duration (whole programme): 60 minutes
Presenters: Christopher Ricks and Hallam Tennyson
Producer: Hallam Tennyson
Transcript: IB’s broadcast contribution transcribed by Henry Hardy
Recording: BBC Sound Archives T37966; copy on BLSA Tape T10144W
Publication: ‘From Missolonghi to Apsley House – A Reappraisal of Byron’, Listener 91 (1974), 623–6

52Equality, Liberty and Variety

Dialogue with John Vaizey, Professor of Economics, Brunel University
Recording date: 9/5/74
First transmission: 19/6/74 BBC Radio 3
Duration: 35 minutes 30 seconds
Repeat(s): 10.30 pm 23/12/74 BBC Radio 3
Series: Whatever Happened to Equality? (No 8 – last)
Presenter: John Vaizey
Producer: Daniel Snowman
Transcript: BBC Written Archives; Berlin Papers
Recording: BBC Sound Archives T36709; BLSA Tape P1016W; repeat BLSA Tape T831R

53The Russian Preoccupation with History

Talk
Recording date: 14/12/73
First transmission: 9.30 pm 24/7/74 BBC Radio 3
Duration: 49 minutes 23 seconds
Repeat(s): 9.00 pm 17/3/75 BBC Radio 3, 29/10/75 Australian Broadcasting Corporation (presenter John Merson[?], Sydney), as ‘The Russian Obsession with History’
Producer: Adrian Johnson
Transcript: BBC Written Archives; Berlin Papers; Russian translation in Berlin Papers; edited transcript of recording on this website
Recording: BBC Sound Archives T37598; copy on BLSA Tape T10144R; Australian Broadcasting Corporation tape, call number 75/10/2379 (copy at BLSA); off-air recording on this website
Publication: very short extract only, as contribution to ‘Out of the Year’, Listener 92 (1974), 830

54Man of Action

Choice of records
Recording date: 1/10/74
First transmission: 2.05 pm 12/10/74 BBC Radio 3
Duration: 72 minutes 2 seconds
Repeat(s): 2.20 pm 11/9/76 BBC Radio 3
Producer: Derek Drescher (series producer in 1976 Patrick Lambert)
Transcript: BBC Written Archives [both broadcasts]
Recording: BBC Sound Archives T51313; copy on BLSA Tapes T10173W and 10352W
Publication: on this website

55The Lion’s Roar

IB reading extract from his book Mr Churchill in 1940
First transmission: 8.30 pm 26/11/74 BBC Radio 4
Duration (whole programme): 60 minutes
Repeat(s): 11.05 pm 29/11/74 BBC Radio 4 (shortened)
Producer: Denys Gueroult
Transcript: BBC Written Archives (presenter’s contributions only
Publication: [part of Mr Churchill in 1940 (London, [1964]; John Murray; Boston/Cambridge, n.d.: Houghton Mifflin/Riverside Press) = Bibliography 32]

56Romanticism and Liberation; Romanticism and Social Change

Discussion with Roy Pascal, Professor Emeritus, University of Birmingham; available on cassette (no public broadcast)
Transcript: made by Henry Hardy (summary and discussion by Anthony Polonsky issued with cassette)
Publication: cassette issued by Audio Learning Limited 1974, subsequently distributed by Audio-Visual Productions, School Hill Centre, CHEPSTOW, Gwent, NP6 5PH (tel. 01291-625439), but now unavailable for purchase; copy at BLSA (AUDIO-VISUAL PRODUCTIONS HUA 013)

1975

57Politics

The Jay Interview
First transmission: 31/8/75 London Weekend Television
Presenter: Peter Jay
Duration: 55 minutes
Series: The Jay Interview: In Quest of Our Civilisation, No 2
Producer: Julian Norridge
Transcript: made by Henry Hardy
Recording: ITN Source; copy at BLSA, Tape V601
Publication: on this website

58The End of the Ideal of the Perfect Society

Lecture given to an audience of teachers and students at the University of New South Wales
Recording date: 1975
First transmission: 5/11/75 Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Presenter: John Merson[?], Sydney
Duration: c.60 minutes
Transcript: made by Henry Hardy
Recording: Australian Broadcasting Corporation tape, call number 75/10/2379; copy at BLSA, Tape H2882

59Vico, Voltaire and the Beginnings of Cultural History

Lecture given at the University of Adelaide, 7/11/75
Recording date: 7/11/75
First transmission: 12/11/75 Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Presenter: John Merson[?], Sydney
Duration: c.60 minutes
Transcript: made by Henry Hardy
Recording: Australian Broadcasting Corporation tape, call number 75/10/2379; copy at BLSA, Tape H2883

1976

60Reconsidering John Stuart Mill: 2 Mill – The Manifold

Symposium
Recording date: 18/5/76
First transmission: 9.25 pm 6/10/76 BBC Radio 3
Duration (whole programme): 55 minutes
Repeat(s): 9.30 pm 22/4/78 BBC Radio 3
Series: 2nd of 2 programmes (1st 27/9/76)
Presenter: Alan Ryan
Producer: Leonie Cohn
Transcript: BBC Written Archives
Recording: BBC Sound Archives T37949; copy on BLSA Tape T10213W

1977

61Decline of Utopian Ideas in the West

Lecture given in Tokyo, 15/4/77
Duration: c.60 minutes?
Transcript: made by Henry Hardy
Recording: copy of recording at BLSA, Tape H3708, and on this website
Publication: Decline of Utopian Ideas in the West ([Tokyo], 1978: Japan Foundation) = Bibliography 159

62Review of V S Pritchett, The Gentle Barbarian (Turgenev)

First transmission: 9.30 pm 22/6/77 BBC Radio 4
Duration (whole programme): 30 minutes
Series: Kaleidoscope
Presenter: Paul Vaughan
Producer: Miriam Newman
Transcript: BBC Written Archives

1978

63Interview on Russian Thinkers

Insert for Books and Writers
First transmission: 7/1/78 BBC World Service
Repeat(s): 9/1, 10/1/78 BBC World Service
Series: Books and Writers
Producer: Anne Theroux
Transcript: not at BBC Written Archives unless among unsorted material

64An Introduction to Philosophy

Studio interview with Bryan Magee
Recording date: 23/5/76
First transmission: 9.35 pm 19/1/78 BBC2 Television
Duration: 55 minutes
Repeat(s): 4.40 pm 22/1/78 BBC2, 6.05 pm 13/1/79 BBC2, 4.20 pm 2/11/82 BBC2
Series: Men of Ideas (No 1 of 15)
Presenter: Bryan Magee
Director: Tony Tyley
Executive Producer: Janet Hoenig
Transcript: BBC Written Archives
Recording: SA T38569; BLSA Tape T10213R (sound only)
Publication: in Listener and Bryan Magee (ed.), Men of Ideas

1979

65Interview on Concepts and Categories and Russian Thinkers

First transmission: 7/2, 14/2, 21/2/79 Belgian Radio (Belgische Radio en Televisie)
Series: Symposium
Presenter/Producer: Frans Boenders
Transcript: made by Henry Hardy
Recording: BLSA Tape H3762

66Reinhold Niebuhr: A Timeless Prophet

Interviews
First transmission: 10.15 pm 18/3/79 BBC Radio 4
Duration (whole programme): 45 minutes
Presenter: Vernon Sproxton
Producer: Peter Firth
Transcript: BBC Written Archives (presenter’s contributions only); IB’s contribution transcribed by Henry Hardy
Recording: BLSA Tape T2222W

67Sir Isaiah Berlin at 70

Interview for External Services Central Talks and Features (Magazines)
Recording date: 29/5/79
First transmission: 6/6/79? (processed, i.e. provided with a presentation script, 5/6/79)
Producer: B J Waller
Transcript: not at BBC Written Archives unless among unsorted material

1980

68Personal Impressions

Interview on his book of that title (Hogarth Press, 1980)
First transmission: 9.30 4/11/80 BBC Radio 4
Duration (whole programme): 30 minutes; IB 5 minutes 53 seconds
Series: Kaleidoscope
Presenter: Edwin Mullins
Producer: Paul Campbell [Radio Times says Richard Dunn]
Transcript: BBC Written Archives
Recording: BLSA Tape T10780R

1981

69A Month in the Country

Translation of Turgenev’s play; National Theatre Production (opened 19/2/81)
Recording date: 26/6/81
First transmission: not broadcast
Duration: c.2 hours 15 minutes?
Recording: BLSA Tape T4244W&R
Publication: Translation, with Introduction, of Ivan Turgenev, A Month in the Country (London, 1981: Hogarth Press; New York, 1982: Viking; Harmondsworth, 1983: Penguin) = Bibliography 175

70Levin Interview

First transmission: 7.40 pm 23/5/81 BBC2 Television
Duration: 30 minutes
Repeat(s): 4.50 pm 2/12/82 BBC2
Series: The Levin Interviews
Presenter: Bernard Levin
Director: Christopher Lewis
Producer: John Shearer
Transcript: BBC Written Archives
Recording: BBC film library (NBS F105R); BLSA Tape V2660; soundtrack BLSA Tape 6408W

71Conversations with Boris Pasternak

Part of Maurice Bowra Memorial Lecture from Personal Impressions
Recording date: [to come]
First transmission: 10.15 pm 28/6/81 BBC Radio 4
Duration: 45 minutes
Producer: Leonie Cohn/Helen Fry (LC in Radio Times, HF on contract)
Transcript: BBC Written Archives
Recording: BBC Sound Archives MT41150; BLSA Tape T4197W (off-air)
Publication: part of ‘Meetings with Russian Writers in 1945 and 1956’, in Personal Impressions (London, 1980: Hogarth Press; New York, 1981: Viking; Oxford, 1982: Oxford University Press; New York, 1982: Penguin) = Bibliography 169

72Conversations with Anna Akhmatova

Part of Maurice Bowra Memorial Lecture from Personal Impressions
Recording date: 4/8/81
First transmission: 8.20 pm 27/8/81 BBC Radio 4
Duration: 20 minutes
Producer: Leonie Cohn
Transcript: BBC Written Archives
Recording: BBC Sound Archives MT41150; BLSA Tape 5916W (off-air)
Publication: part of ‘Meetings with Russian Writers in 1945 and 1956’, in Personal Impressions (London, 1980: Hogarth Press; New York, 1981: Viking; Oxford, 1982: Oxford University Press; New York, 1982: Penguin) = Bibliography 169

1982

73Not a Place for Happiness at All

A portrait of the historian Sir Lewis Namier, as recalled by friends and colleagues
Recording date: 3/2/82
First transmission: 7.00 pm 11/5/82 BBC Radio 3
Duration: 58 minutes 28 seconds
Presenter: John Cannon
Producers: Adrian Johnson and Anthony Moncrieff
Transcript: BBC Written Archives
Recording: BBC Sound Archives T42219; BLSA Tape T4929R

74Stravinsky: Man of Masks

Interviews
Recording date: 5/5/82
First transmission: 5.00 pm 6/6/82 BBC Radio 3
Duration (IB’s contributions): 6 minutes 36 seconds
Presenter: Michael Berkeley
Producer: Ann Stangar
Transcript: BBC Written Archives
Recording: complete programme on BBC Sound Archives TO82266 and BLSA tape T4986BW (off-air)

75In Memoriam Igor Stravinsky

Interviews (IB’s contribution, at any rate, being only extracts from item 43, Stravinsky Died a Year Ago
First transmission: 10.15 pm 17/6/82 BBC Radio 3
Duration (whole programme): 60 minutes; IB’s contribution: 3 minutes 55 seconds
Presenter: Natalie Wheen
Transcript: BBC Written Archives (presenter’s contributions only)
Recording: BLSA Tape T5089BW (off-air)

1983

76A Month in the Country

Translation of Turgenev’s play
Recording date: 4/7/83
First transmission: 5.45 pm 21/8/83 BBC Radio 3
Duration: 2 hours 15 minutes
Repeat(s): 7.00 pm 13/2/85 BBC Radio 3
Producer: David Spenser
Transcript: not at BBC Written Archives
Recording: BBC Sound Archives T81483 (no copy at BLSA, but see 1981 production)
Publication: see 1981 production

1986

77Recollections of Yitzhak Sadeh

First transmission: date unknown, English-language service of Israeli radio
Transcript: Berlin Papers
Publication (in Hebrew): Davar, 5 September 1986, p. 17 = Bibliography 192c; incorporated in ‘Yitzhak Sadeh’, Midstream 39 No 4 (May 1993), 20–24 = Bibliography 214

1989

78Lydia Pasternak Slater

Obituary programme
Participants include IB and Christopher Barnes
First transmission: ?/5/89 BBC Russian Service

79An Evening with Sir Isaiah Berlin

Chat, choice of music, and repeats of A Fire at Sea (read by Richard Pasco) and Some Sources of Romanticism, 1: In Search of a Definition
First transmission: 7.05 pm 6/6/89 BBC Radio 3
Duration (whole programme): 3 hours 55 minutes
Repeat(s): 11/6/89 BBC Radio 3 (first part only)
Series: Third Ear
Presenter: John Drummond
Transcript: made by Henry Hardy
Recording: BLSA CD 1CDR0024911

80Twenty Hours in the Life of Anna Akhmatova

Contains excerpts from Russian video footage (cameraman: Vyacheslav Stepanov) of interview by Vsevolod Georgievich Shishkovsky (London correspondent of Russian State TV and Radio) with IB about Akhmatova etc. at Headington House
Recording date: ?/4/89
First transmission: 8.10 pm, 25/6//89, Russian TV, Moscow, Channel 4
Series: Pod znakom π (Under the Sign of π)
Presenter: Lev Alekseevich Shilov
Transcript (of unedited interview): made by Robin Hessman, translated by Helen Rappaport
Recording: copy of partial private off-air recording with Henry Hardy; copy of unedited interview footage at BLSA, Tape V2661

80aIncredible but True

Programme including excerpts from Russian video footage (cameraman: Vyacheslav Stepanov) of interview by Vsevolod Shishkovsky (London correspondent of Russian State TV and Radio) with IB about Akhmatova etc. at Headington House; the existence of this item has not yet been verified by direct inspection, but has been deduced from an announcement in item 80
Recording date: ?/4/89
First transmission: autumn 1989?, Russian TV, Moscow
Series: Incredible but True
Presenter: Lev Alekseevich Shilov
Transcript: See previous item
Recording: copy of unedited interview footage at BLSA, Tape V2661

1991

81Sir Isaiah Berlin

In conversation with John Drummond
First transmission: 9.00 pm 23/12/91 BBC Radio 3
Duration: 45 minutes
Presenter: John Drummond
Transcript: made by Henry Hardy
Recording: BLSA Tape B8931

1992

82The Late Show

Interview by Michael Ignatieff
Recording date: 30/1/92
First transmission: 11.15 pm 5/2/92 BBC2 Television
Duration: 40 minutes
Series: The Late Show
Presenter: Michael Ignatieff
Producer: David Herman
Transcript: made by Henry Hardy
Recording: BLSA Tape V985 (off-air)

83Nationalism: The Melting-Pot Myth

Interviews by Bryan Magee
Recording date: 10/2/92
First transmission: 19/2/92 BBC Radio 3
Duration (whole programme): 48 minutes
Series: What’s the Big Idea? (last of 12)
Presenter: Bryan Magee
Producer: Matt Thompson
Transcript: made by Henry Hardy
Recording: BLSA Tape B9090 (off-air)
Publication: on this website

84Desert Island Discs

Recording date: 25/2/92
First transmission: 12.15 pm 19/4/92 BBC Radio 4
Duration: 40 minutes
Repeat: 9.05 am 24/4/92 BBC Radio 4; 12.15 pm 28/3/93 BBC Radio 4
Series: Desert Island Discs
Presenter: Sue Lawley
Producer: Janet Lee
Transcript: made by Henry Hardy (including 7,956 words of out-takes [5,155 words broadcast])
Recording: BLSA Tape B9197 (off-air), and BBC Sounds

1993

85Classic FM interview

First transmission: 12.00 pm 4/3/93 Classic FM
Duration (IB’s portion): 25 minutes
Series: Susannah Simons: Music and Conversation
Presenter: Susannah Simons
Transcript: made by Henry Hardy
Recording: BLSA Tape H1247

86*Isaiah Berlin: Ein Porträt

A portrait in German by Andreas Isenschmid, with contributions by IB, Isenschmid and Axel Honneth; readings spoken by Peter Kner
Recording dates: London 9–10/2/93, Frankfurt 17/9/93
First transmission: 9.00 pm 24/9/93 Swiss Radio DRS, Studio Zürich, channel DRS2
Duration: 55 minutes 48 seconds
Repeat: 4.30 pm 3/10/93 ibid.
Series: Passage (No 2)
Presenter: Andreas Isenschmid
Transcript: made by Henry Hardy
Recording: BLSA Tape H3754

1996

87The Kreutzer Sonata

Interview with Humphrey Carpenter about Tolstoy’s story (a small fraction of a longer, unbroadcast interview about the BBC Third Programme, of which HC was writing a history)
Recording date: 9/1/96, Oxford
First transmission: 5.15 pm 18/1/96 BBC Radio 3 (this item c.7.05 pm)
Duration: 6 minutes 25 seconds [whole interview 50 min?]
Series: In Tune
Producer: Jeremy Hayes
Presenter: Humphrey Carpenter
Transcript: made by Henry Hardy (whole interview)
Recording: BLSA Tape H6408 (this section only)

88Private Passions

Interview/Choice of recordings
First transmission: 12.00 pm 3/2/96 BBC Radio 3
Duration: 60 minutes
Repeat: 12.00 pm 11/1/97 BBC Radio 3
Series: Private Passions
Producer: Ladbroke Radio
Presenter: Michael Berkeley
Transcript: made by Henry Hardy
Recording: BLSA Tape H6476; BBC Sounds UK-only download
Publication: Romulus [the magazine of Wolfson College, Oxford], [June] 2006, 5–8, and on this website

89Joseph Brodsky

Documentary
Recording date: 2/96
First transmission: 7.30 pm 27/2/96 BBC World Service
Duration: 30 minutes
Series: Meridian Feature
Producer: Jenny Hargreaves
Presenter: Elizabeth Robson
Transcript: made by Henry Hardy (IB’s small contribution only)
Recording: BLSA Tape H8723

90*Reputations: Isaiah Berlin

Documentary with excerpts from IB’s broadcasts and contributions from John Drummond, Peter Laslett, Bryan Magee and Helen Rapp
Recording date: 23/9/96
First transmission: 9.35 pm 30/9/96 BBC Radio 3
Duration: 25 minutes
Series: Reputations (The Third at 50)
Producer: Neil Trevithick
Presenter: Michael Ignatieff
Recording: BLSA Tape H7830

90aMenuhin at Eighty: A Celebration with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra

Concert for Menuhin’s Eightieth Birthday, Royal Albert Hall, London, April 1996; includes short prerecorded contribution by IB
Recording date (concert): 20/4/96
First audio transmission: 7.30 pm 12/10/96 BBC Radio 2
First video transmission: 2.05 pm 24/12/96 BBC2 Television
Duration: 2 hours 7 minutes 35 seconds (concert); 25 seconds (IB: starts at 39:54)
Producer: Richard Masters
Presenter: David Attenborough
Transcript: ‘He’s very sensitive to the sufferings of mankind. He hates armies. He hates nationalist conflict. And I’m sure he thinks that by going about from country to country, and by meeting musicians, and by making friends with them, and having a kind of international dimension to everything which he does, he does good.’
Recording: BBC; BFI

1997

91Interview and discussion of The Proper Study of Mankind

First item in composite programme: interview of IB by Anthony Denselow; discussion of book by John Gray, Jonathan Ree and Marilyn Butler
First transmission: ? pm 25/2/97 BBC Radio 3
Series: Night Waves
Producer: Anthony Denselow
Presenter: Richard Coles
Transcript: made by Henry Hardy (IB’s small contribution only)
Recording: BLSA Tape H8581/3

92*Meridian Feature (BBC World Service) on IB

Four interviews by Nick Rankin: Michael Ignatieff, Alan Montefiore, Robert Silvers and George Soros
Recording date: 12–13/11/97
First transmission: 6.30 am 16/11/97 BBC World Service
Duration: ?30 mins
Repeat(s): [several]
Series: Meridian (arts programme)
Producer: Jenny Bowen
Presenter: Nick Rankin
Recording: BLSA Tape H9423/2

93*Night Waves item on IB

Recording date: 6/11/97?
First transmission: ? pm 6/11/97 BBC Radio 3
Series: Night Waves
Producer: Rob Ketteridge
Presenter: Humphrey Carpenter
Recording: BLSA Tape [to come]
Publication: no

94Isaiah Berlin

1. The Making of a Hedgehog
2. Freedom and Its Enemies

Two 50-minute programmes about the life and times of Isaiah Berlin, consisting in large part of interviews with Berlin by Michael Ignatieff; also six hours of unedited interview tapes used in compiling the programmes
Recording date: 15–17/5/95
First transmission: 14/11/97 and 15/11/97, 11.15 pm BBC2 Television
Producer: David Herman
Presenter: Michael Ignatieff
Transcript: David Herman; part 1 revised by Henry Hardy and trans. Latvian
Recording: BBC Television Archives; BLSA Tapes C530/4 (first programme), C530/5 (second programme), C530/6 to C530/35 (rushes); YouTube (first programme)

94a*Letter from America

‘The continuing search for Saddam’s deadly toxic secrets and the loss of a friend, the brilliant, witty and wise Sir Isaiah Berlin’
Transmission: 21/11/97, 9.00 p.m., BBC Radio 4
Presenter: Alistair Cooke
Transcript: made by Henry Hardy
Recording: BBC Sounds
Publication: in The Book of Isaiah

95Celebrating Salzburg 1: 1920–37

The story of the Salzburg Festival, including reminiscences of the Festival’s early years from IB
Recording date:
First transmission: 13/12/97 2.00 pm BBC Radio 3
Duration: 2 hours (whole programme)
Series: Vintage Years: Celebrating Salzburg (6 programmes)
Producer: David Gallagher
Presenter: Richard Osborne
Transcript: Henry Hardy (IB’s contribution only)
Recording: BLSA Tape H9068/2

96Isaiah Berlin

An evening devoted to the life and work of IB
Recording date:
First transmission: 8/12/97 7.30 pm BBC Radio 3
Duration: 2 hours 30 minutes
Producer: Neil Trevithick
Presenter: Humphrey Carpenter
Recording: BLSA Tape H9507/1

1998

97Interview with Göran Rosenberg

An interview with Göran Rosenberg of the Swedish monthly periodical Moderna Tider (the last filmed interview with IB)
Recording date: 3/2/97
First transmission: 10.10 pm 21/5/98 Swedish Television
Duration: 48 minutes
Series: Thinkers of Our Time
Producer: Göran Rosenberg
Presenter: Göran Rosenberg
Transcript: Göran Rosenberg
Recording: Swedish TV; BLSA Tape [to come]

97a*Den sista av sitt slag [The Last of His Kind]

‘Programme [in two parts] about Isaiah Berlin, philosopher, historian and conversationalist. Isaiah Berlin, who died in 1997, was a speaker and thinker who questioned many of the foundations of philosophy. Conversation with two biographers and several friends of Berlin.’ The presenter and one participant speak in Swedish, the English interviewees in English.
First transmission: 6.15 p.m. 16/7/98 and 23/7/98, Kulturradion, Sverigesradio P1
Duration: part 1, 43 minutes, 20 seconds; part 2, 43 minutes 33 seconds
Presenter, Editor and Producer: Per Runesson
Translation of Swedish: Niklas Magee Mateluna, Henry Hardy (who also transcribed the English), Per Runesson
English-speaking participants: Roger Hausheer, Michael Ignatieff, Aileen Kelly, Bryan Magee
Swedish-speaking participant: Svante Nordin
Recording: part 1 | part 2
Publication: on this site

97b*In Our Time

Michael Ignatieff, IB’s biographer, interviewed about IB by Melvyn Bragg in the first episode of In Our Time
First transmission: 9.02 am 15/10/98 BBC Radio 4
Repeat: 9.30 pm 15/10/98 BBC Radio 4
Duration: 30 minutes (whole programme; parts of the programme are devoted to an interview with the historian Michael Howard)
Series: In Our Time
Presenter: Melvyn Bragg
Recording: BBC Sounds

1999

98*Then We Take Berlin

Documentary on IB’s ideas, including interviews with John Gray, Michael Ignatieff, Steven Lukes, Bob Rae, Charles Taylor, Daniel Weinstock, and extract of IB from An Introduction to Philosophy
First transmission: 20/10/99 Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
Series: Ideas
Producer: Marilyn Powell
Presenter: Andy Lamey
Transcription: by Ian Godfrey, available from ideastran@toronto.cbc.ca

2000

99*Night Visit

Radio play by Jean Binnie dramatising IB’s November 1945 all-night visit to the poetess Anna Akhmatova in Leningrad; Sarah Badel plays Akhmatova, Robert Glenister IB
First transmission: 27/06/00 BBC Radio 4
Repeat: 2.15 pm 27/11/02 BBC Radio 4
Duration: 45 minutes
Series: Afternoon Play
Director: Martin Jenkins
Transcript: made by Esther Johnson for Henry Hardy

2002

100*The Art of the Radio Lecture

Item including reference to IB’s 1952 radio lectures Freedom and its Betrayal
First transmission: 7.15 pm 19/03/02 BBC Radio 4
Duration: 30 minutes (whole programme)
Series: Front Row
Presenter: John Wilson
Producer: Nicki Paxman
Transcript: made by Henry Hardy (of part on IB)
Publication: only the excerpt from the lecture on Rousseau, in the book Freedom and its Betrayal

101*The Age of Freedom

Item including reference to IB’s 1952 radio lectures Freedom and its Betrayal
First transmission: 9.30 pm 26/03/02 BBC Radio 3
Duration: 90 minutes (whole programme)
Presenter: Bridget Kendall
Producers: Martin Smith and Mohit Bakaya
Publication: only the excerpts from the lecture on Rousseau, in the book Freedom and its Betrayal

101aIsaiah Berlin

Discussion of IB’s views on liberty, with guests Francesca Klug, Anthony Grayling, Henry Hardy and Quentin Skinner
First transmission: ??/??/02 BBC Radio 3
Repeat: 9.15 pm 25/05/09 BBC Radio 3
Series: Night Waves, Landmarks
Presenter: Philip Dodd
Reccording: BBC Sounds

2003

102*[Enemies of Liberty]

A round-table discussion held on 1 July 2002 at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London to mark the 50th anniversary of IB’s BBC Radio lectures. Each of the four speakers was asked to nominate two enemies of freedom. The choices were: poverty and inhibition (Philip Collins); the USA and the future (Zia Sardar); political correctness and secularism (Anne Widdecombe); religion and ignorance (A. C. Grayling)
First transmission: 6/09/03 BBC4 TV
Duration: 40 minutes (edited)
Series: The Talk Show
Presenter: Jonathan Freedland
Producer: Jeremy Skeet
Publication: Freedom and its Betrayal

2004

103aThe Guest from the Future

Opera premiered by the Nine Circles Chamber Theatre at the Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts, Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, New York, 23 July 2004
Duration: 2 hours 15 minutes
Music: Mel Marvin
Libretto: Jonathan Levi
Artistic directors: Jonathan Levi, Gil Morgenstern
Music director: David Levi
Director: David Chambers
Isaiah Berlin: Jonathan Hays
Anna Akhmatova: Michaela Martens

2006

103b*Jonathan Sacks

‘The Chief Rabbi, Sir Jonathan Sacks, presents some of his favourite prose and poetry – including extracts from the Torah, the writings of Isaiah Berlin and Amos Oz, and poems from Ogden Nash and W. H. Auden.’
First transmission: ?/9/06
Repeat: 2.15 p.m. 6/5/18, BBC Radio 4 Extra
Duration: 30 minutes
Series: With Great Pleasure
Presenter: Jonathan Sacks
Speakers: Alice Arnold, Michael Fenton Stevens, John Moraitis, Andrew Sachs

2007

103‘We Will Force You To Be Free’

Centred on discussion of IB’s views on liberty
First transmission: 25/03/07 BBC2 Television
Duration: 60 minutes
Series: The Trap: What Happened to Our Dream of Freedom (third and final part)
Presenter and Director: Adam Curtis

2009

104*A Tribute to Isaiah Berlin

Interview on IB with John Gray; includes clip of IB from 105
First transmission: 6 June 2009 ABC Radio National, Australia
Duration: 25 minutes
Series: The Philosopher’s Zone
Presenter: Alan Saunders
Producer: Kyla Slaven
Transcript: ABC website
Recording: ABC website

105A Conversation with Isaiah Berlin

Interview with IB by John Merson, 1974
First transmission: 13 June 2009 ABC Radio National, Australia
Duration: 25 minutes
Series: The Philosopher’s Zone
Presenter: Alan Saunders
Producer: Kyla Slaven
Transcript: ABC website
Recording: ABC website; YouTube

105aThe Visitor from the Future: Isaiah Berlin

Russian documentary
First transmission: 9 September 2009, Russian TV, ‘Culture’ channel
Duration: 25 minutes 29 seconds
Series: Civilisation
Interviewees: Igor Mordvinov, Anatoly Naiman (consultant)
Producer: Elena Gryaznova
Translation of soundtrack made for IBVL by Natal′ya Sarana
Recording: YouTube

105bAkhmatova against Stalin

Russian TV documentary (channel 5, St Petersburg); includes (segment 1, 20:16, 20:49, 22:08, 22:32; segment 2, 0:11, 13:55, 17:09, 18:40, 21:40) excerpts from Russian video footage (cameraman: Vyacheslav Stepanov) of interview by Vsevolod Shishkovsky (London correspondent of Russian State TV and Radio) with IB about Akhmatova etc. at Headington House (cf. items 80, 80a); also includes dramatic reconstructions of parts of IB’s visit to AA
First transmission: 16 December 2009
Duration: 47 minutes; IB first mentioned 12:00
Series: Novaya Versiya
Presenter: Lev Lur'e
Interviewees: Mikhail Ardov, Anna Kaminskaya, Stanislav Lekarev, Leonid Mlechin, Nina Popova, Vitaly Shentalinsky, Roman Timenchik
Recording (divided into two segments, each of 23 minutes 30 seconds): segment 1; segment 2

2010

106Born in Riga

Documentary film on IB’s Latvian origins, intercut with interviews (with G. A. Cohen, Timothy Garton Ash, Peter Halban, Henry Hardy, Alan Montefiore, Anthony Quinton) and footage of IB
First transmission: 4.10 pm 31/7/10 Latvian TV, Channel 1
Duration: 32 minutes
Repeat: 10.25 pm 2/8/10 Latvian TV, Channel 1
Presenter: Björn Alexander Düben
Director: Gints Grūbe
Transcript: made by Esther Johnson and Henry Hardy

2011

107Great Thinkers in Their Own Words 2: The Grand Experiment

Documentary film based on the BBC archives, containing clips of IB from items 29 and 70 (IB section starts disc 2, 21:25:08)
First transmission: 9.00 pm 8/8/11 BBC4 TV
Duration: 60 minutes
Series: Great Thinkers in Their Own Words, Episode 2
Presenter: Rebecca Front
Producer: Suniti Somaiya
Transcript (IB’s contributions only): made by Henry Hardy

108*Head to Head

Discussion of item 52 above, chaired by Edward Stourton, with Quentin Skinner and Paul Kelly
First transmission: 9.30 am 15/8/11 BBC Radio 4
Duration: 15 minutes
Series: Head to Head, Series 3, Episode 1
Presenter: Edward Stourton
Producer: Dominic Byrne
Transcript: made by Esther Johnson and Henry Hardy

109Escaping Riga

Film about IB and Sergey Eisenstein
Premiere: Splendid Palace cinema, Riga, 1 April 2016
First TV transmission (in Slovenia): Radiotelevizija Slovenija, TV Slovenija 2, 8 February 2016
Duration: 70 minutes
Director: Dāvis Sīmanis
Film studio: Mistrus Media

2012

109aAnna Akhmatova: The Heart is Not Made of Stone

Multimedia show by Ensemble for the Romantic Century including a dramatisation of the meeting between Akhmatova and Berlin: ‘The drama of Russian music woven into a tale of passion, love, political repression, and redemption; featuring music by Rachmaninov, Prokofiev and Shostakovich’
Actors: Ellen McLaughlin as Anna, Jeremy Holm as Isaiah
First production: Symphony Space, New York, 2012
Revival: 27 April to 1 May 2016, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Fisher Space
Duration: 18 minutes 22 seconds
Author: Eve Wolf
Director: Donald T. Sanders

110Romance with the West: Anna Akhmatova, Amedeo Modigliani and Sir Isaiah Berlin

Russian TV documentary, TV Guberniya: a monologue by the presenter with accompanying stock archive film apparently of no direct relevance
First transmission: 2012
Duration: 18 minutes 22 seconds
Series: Poets and Muses of the Silver Age, Series 1: Anna Akhmatova
Author and presenter: Valery Bondarenko
Producer: Aleksandr Zinin
Recording: YouTube

2013

111Russian TV report on the 2013 IB Day in Riga, 9 October 2013

Channel: LTV7
First transmission: 9 October 2013
Duration: 1 minute 58 seconds
Reporter: Anatasiya D'yakonova
Recording: YouTube
Publication: for the proceedings of the whole event see official website

2014

112Anna Akhmatova and Isaiah Berlin: The Price of a Conversation

Russian radio report
Series: Above the Barriers: American Hour
First transmission: 2 June 2014
Duration: (whole programme) 28 minutes 18 seconds; (section on AA and IB) 5 minutes, from 13:22 to 18:22
Presenter: Aleksandr Genis
Recording: Podster

113Sir Isaiah

Russian TV report (First Latvian Channel) on the 2014 IB Day in Riga
Posted: 4 June 2014
Duration: 3 minutes 54 seconds
Reporters: Tatiana Kovalenko, Spartaka Lukashevicha
Recording: YouTube
Publication: for the proceedings of the whole event see official website

113aBowen and Betjeman

Radio play by John Banville; IB played by Nick Dunning
First transmission: 14/2/2014, BBC Radio4
Duration: 45 minutes
Repeat: 4.15 pm, 21/3/2016, BBC Radio 4
Author: John Banville
Producer Gemma McMullan

Award-winning novelist John Banville imagines an encounter between Elizabeth Bowen and John Betjeman as they meet for luncheon in a Dublin hotel during the Second World War. As their conversation ranges over their lives, their loves, their politics, we are given a portrait of wartime Dublin and London and of the place of the artist in a world at war.

2015

114Anna Akhmatova and Isaiah Berlin: Leningrad–Moscow–London

Item on BBC Russian Service TV
Posted: 7 February 2015
Duration: 9 minutes 34 seconds (section on AA and IB ends 5:12)
Speakers: Aleksandr Kan, Seva Novgorodtseva
Recording: YouTube

115‘That’s How It Was’: Anna Akhmatova and Isaiah Berlin at the End of 1945

Video of talk given in Boris Pasternak’s dacha, Peredelkino
Posted: 20 January 2015
Duration: 1 hour 12 minutes 27 seconds
Speaker: Tatiana Sergeevna Pozdnyakova
Recording: YouTube
Publication: see the author’s book on this topic

2017

116*Missing Isaiah Berlin

Examination of the role of the public intellectual, hung on the 20th anniversary of Berlin’s death in 1997
First transmission: 8.00 pm 4/11/17 BBC Radio 4
Duration: 58 minutes
Series: Archive on 4
Presenter: Jonathan Wolff
Speakers: Stefan Collini, Daniel Drezner, Claire Fox, Timothy Garton Ash, Henry Hardy, Mary Warnock
Recording: BBC Sounds
Producer: Dom Byrne, Blakeway Productions

2018

117*Positive and Negative Freedom

‘Philosopher Angie Hobbs talks about two kinds of freedom: negative and positive. The distinction was made by Isaiah Berlin but derives from the ideas of the Greek philosopher Plato.’
First transmission: 12.04 p.m. 14/8/18 BBC Radio 4
Duration: 11 minutes
Series: A History of Ideas
Presenter: Angie Hobbs
Speakers: Isaiah Berlin, Satish Kumar, Jesse Norman
Recording: BBC Sounds

118*Re-thinking the Human Condition

‘Public intellectuals across time plus memory lessons with Matthew Sweet and Berlin’s editor, Henry Hardy, theologist Dafydd Daniel, writer Hilde �stby and scientist Ylva �stby’
First transmission: 10.00 p.m. 1/11/18 BBC Radio 3
Duration: 46 minutes
Series: Free Thinking
Presenter: Matthew Sweet
Speakers: Henry Hardy, Dafydd Daniel, Hilde �stby, Ylva �stby
Recording: BBC Sounds

2020

119*Discovering Isaiah Berlin (short version of item 120)

‘This interview tells the story of how the writings of one of the most engaging and humane minds of the twentieth century were made available to the public by one most gifted and committed editors of contemporary times. In other words, it’s the tale of how Henry Hardy edited over twenty volumes of Isaiah Berlin’s works, including four volumes of letters’ (Johnny Lyons)
Premiere: 6.00 p.m. 17/1/2020, Corpus Christi College, Oxford; followed by a Q & A with Johnny Lyons, Henry Hardy, Robert Cottrell (convenor), Richard Lindley
Duration: 1 hour 5 minutes
Presenter: Johnny Lyons
Camera: Paul-Michel Ledoux
Transcript: see item 120
Recording: YouTube

120*Discovering Isaiah Berlin (long version of item 119)

‘This film tells the story of Isaiah Berlin’s life, times and legacy through the lens of his editor and friend Dr Henry Hardy’ (Johnny Lyons)
Duration: 2 hours 6 minutes 53 seconds
Presenter: Johnny Lyons
Camera: Paul-Michel Ledoux
Transcript: on this site
Recording: YouTube (film title as above; YouTube title ‘Isaiah Berlin’)

2021

121*Capturing Genius: Editing Isaiah Berlin

The Ideas Roadshow describes this podcast as ‘An in-depth conversation with Henry Hardy, Fellow of Wolfson College, University of Oxford, and the author of In Search of Isaiah Berlin: A Literary Adventure, about the many joys – and occasional frustrations – of being the principal editor of one of the twentieth century’s most captivating public intellectuals’
Release date: 15/9/21
Duration: 2 hours 36 seconds
Series: Ideas Roadshow
Presenter: Howard Burton
Recording: New Books Network