Missing Letter from America radio episodes found

Alistair Cooke presented more than 2,800 shows

A professor has found three missing episodes of the long-running BBC radio programme Letter from America, including two of the earliest recorded.

The University of Warwick's Prof Tim Lockley discovered them and two partial copies from Alistair Cooke's series, dating from the late 1940s and the early 1950s.

Prof Lockley was visiting a friend, who had discs that were recorded in BBC studios in New York and one had the broadcaster's name on it.

The university paid for an engineer to check hundreds of discs and after the missing episodes had been found, they were deposited in the corporation's archives.

Cooke died, aged 95, at his home in New York in 2004.

He did Letter from America for 58 years, presenting more than 2,800 shows before retiring on health grounds shortly before his death.

The BBC's then acting director general, Mark Byford, said Cooke was one of the greatest broadcasters in the corporation's history.

This image shows a label from a disc found in New York

The two complete episodes from 1949 were the earliest episodes now known to exist, the university said.

Prof Lockley, its head of history, stated he was doing research on 1940s US radio and visiting the friend in the US, who was an opera collector and had discs that were recorded in BBC studios in New York.

He added: "I knew the BBC holdings of [the series]... were incomplete so I was intrigued to see what was on these discs."

The university said that at the time discs were used to record BBC programmes, but only one side was used.

It added a BBC engineer could flip the side of the discs to record things they wanted to keep personally, in this instance Metropolitan opera broadcasts.

The University of Warwick agreed to fund an engineer to check hundreds of discs

The professor said the discs had survived because of the music recordings on the other side.

He added the university's Faculty of Arts agreed to fund an engineer in New York to check several hundred discs to see what was on the back and "in the process we discovered the missing episodes".

Cooke joined the BBC as a film critic in 1934 and started writing his US current affairs and historical Letter in 1946.

His 15-minute reflections were on BBC Radio 4, its predecessor, the BBC Home Service, and on the BBC's World Service.

Cooke said: "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."