Letter to Alistair

As Alistair Cooke's Letter from America series draws to a close, his last producer, Tony Grant, presents a selection of his favourite "Alistair moments" in a special programme for Radio 4. Here Tony looks back over the times when they worked together until shortly before Alistair's death in March 2004.

Alistair Cooke had dozens of so-called "producers" over the years both here in London and in New York, where he lived.

But this was an unusual kind of production. There was no discussion over what the topic should be for his Letter from America on any particular week.

The producer simply wasn't consulted. In fact, few of them had any creative input at all into his talks. Alistair wrote it, recorded it and only then offered the producer a sight of the script. Fait accompli, you could say.

During the decade that I was his producer I met him only a few times, mainly in London, during the days when he was still fit enough to make the annual trip.

Nervous anticipation

He used to come over for Wimbledon. He preferred the women's game. The men - all power serves and no rallies - he found artless.

I have to admit to a certain nervousness as I paced the reception area of Broadcasting House waiting for the great man to arrive.

Then, in he'd sweep, complete with big smile and rather worn hat, complaining about the inability of London cabbies to find the way from his flat in Mayfair, all of one mile away.

There was the ritual joke: I'd say, "OK, Alistair, I'll have a look at the script now."

And he'd say," No, you won't."

And then off we'd go to record the "Letter".

Professionalism

We'd prepare the studio in advance; rooting the old-fashioned lectern out of the office cupboard where it spent 51 weeks of the year.

He'd run through the talk with amazing professionalism, reeling off the 2,000 words with hardly a fluff.

I've been squirreling away great Alistair moments for years for just such an opportunity as this. The programme, Letter to Alistair, contains many of these audio clips, some broadcast on Letter from America, some extricated from the BBC Sound Archives, others never before broadcast.

There are many laughs as he has a go at the militant anti-smoking lobby and airs his views on the scruffy standard of dress today.

Heroes

There's advice to youngsters planning a career in the media as well as to those who want to know the secret of longevity.

We're told of some of his heroes, his affection for golf and for the evening tipple he liked to call "the twilight wine of Scotland".

There's some description of his apartment in New York. I visited him there just after "9/11", an event which shocked him deeply.

Visitors were usually primed to bring him a bottle of his favourite "Scottish wine".

Often they would join the Cookes in front of the box for their favourite evening television programmes.

Alistair and I also chatted in his study, a red-walled and book-lined room in which he crafted the "Letter" at a desk from where he could see the wind playing in the tree tops in Central Park.

Reputation

In the old days he'd complete the talk in an hour or two, but in the final years the task took him most of the week.

And what of this reputation he seems to have had for being hard to work with?

Well, I couldn't possibly comment except to point out that Letter to Alistair contains a recording of the man trying to send his Letter from America down a line from San Francisco to London.

It was early in the morning, he was in an unfamiliar studio and with a technician he'd never met before.

Suffice it to say that said engineer might well have been glad when that day's business was finally done and the veteran commentator donned his rather worn hat and left the studio.

Tony Grant's Letter to Alistair was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 at 20:30 BST on Sunday, 4 July, 2004.