BBC Archives - Richard M. Langworth

The Problem with Recorded Churchill Speeches

27 May 2022

Many who heard his original speeches said the subsequent broadcasts (and postwar recordings) lack the fire of the originals. Churchill did not particularly enjoy broadcasting, Harold Nicolson believed. Of his classic 18 June 1940 "Finest Hour" oration, Nicolson said: "He just sulked and read his House of Commons speech over again."

Assault on Winston Churchill, 2018: A Reader’s Guide

22 March 2018

Assault count: Since I am losing track, I thought it would be convenient to create an index to smears of Winston Churchill following the film Darkest Hour. Note the similarity of topics. Many writers feed off each other, repeating the same disproven arguments. Never do they check Churchill quotes or The Churchill Documents —which prove them irretrievably wrong. The order is most recent first. . Update for 2019 Assault of 29 March: The Ezine Scroll-in reported that Churchill’s policies caused the drought that caused the Bengal Famine. (Not enough to be Prime Minister, he must also be a farmer, since he needed to know Irrigation.)…

Churchill on the Broadcast

17 November 2016

The question arises, has anything been written on Churchill’s radio technique? Did he treat radio differently from other kinds of public speaking? How quickly did he take to the broadcast?

“The Art of the Microphone”

An excellent piece on this subject was by Richard Dimbleby (1913-1965), the BBC’s first war correspondent and later its leading TV news commentator. His “Churchill the Broadcaster” is in Charles Eade, ed., Churchill by his Contemporaries (London: Hutchinson, 1953). Old as it is, the book remains a comprehensive set of essays of the many specialized attributes of WSC.

Dimbleby offers four areas of discussion: the technical background, the drama of World War II, the factual material, and Churchill’s methods of delivery.…