Reith Lectures

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]

  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.