From Our Own Correspondent at 70 – BBC Radio 4 (December 6, 2025)

Episode Overview

To mark the 70th anniversary of the iconic BBC programme "From Our Own Correspondent" (FouC), Anna Foster hosts a special edition from the BBC Radio Theatre in London. With a distinguished panel—presenter Kate Adie, veteran correspondents Jeremy Bowen, Lyse Doucet, Steve Rosenberg (Moscow), and contributions from Yogita Limaye, David Willey, and Fergal Keane—the episode explores the evolution of foreign reporting, the role of context and personal detail, the dangers journalists face, and the impact of storytelling over seven decades.

Key Themes & Discussion Points

1. The Enduring Purpose of the Foreign Correspondent

[04:18] Steve Rosenberg: Despite technological and political changes, the core mission remains “to say what you see and give a flavor of what’s going on around you.” However, this has grown harder, especially in places like Russia where access and willingness of sources to talk has dramatically diminished.
[05:15] Kate Adie: The world has certainly changed—now the public can see footage from anywhere, but the value in being on the ground persists. Serendipitous moments and deep human connections (like an encounter with Zoroastrians in Armenia) still set correspondents’ reports apart.

2. How Technology Has Transformed Reporting

[07:45] Lyse Doucet: “Everything has changed and nothing has changed.” She nostalgically recalls filing from West Africa via teletype, the struggle for precious phone lines from Kabul, and those personal relationships with operators who grasped the urgency of a line “more important than a marriage.”
[20:35] Jeremy Bowen: Earlier, correspondents had to physically book circuits from grand, old studios and relied on chance travelers to deliver tapes. Now, dispatches are recorded on phones and sent in minutes—“a different world.”

Notable Anecdotes:

Teletype Stories – [07:45 – 09:50]: Lyse Doucet’s tales of technology and camaraderie with the Glasgow telephone exchange: “They started calling me every day at 4 o’clock.” (Lyse Doucet)
Old China – [16:12]: David Willey’s 1965 fuch from Beijing vividly reconstructed a lost world, including meeting Puyi, the last emperor, now a gardener under communism.

3. The Small Detail That Tells the Big Story

[02:21 – 03:05]: Montage of classic dispatches displaying how correspondents use specifics—the abandoned cars in Congo, the fire ants in Africa, the bombed apartment block in Ukraine—to illuminate the larger picture.
[12:05] Anna Foster: “You start to take notes, you file things away... oh, that'll be good for the fuch.”

4. Relationship Building & Original Sources

[15:33] David Willey: Emphasizes importance of building bonds with sources, from global leaders to ordinary people—a theme echoed throughout.

5. The Growth of Hostility & Restrictions

[27:00] Yogita Limaye: Details a harrowing covert trip to earthquake-stricken Myanmar, dodging authorities and informers in an environment “where you could get caught at any time.”
[36:54] Steve Rosenberg: In today’s Russia, “every day that I go on air, it is like walking a tightrope over a minefield,” amid relentless official hostility—even being publicly insulted in state media.

[39:02] Positive Public Encounters:

Despite the official hostility, Steve is regularly approached by ordinary Russians expressing support, giving “hope that ... a relationship between Russia and the West can be salvaged.”

6. Reporting as a Woman in Hostile Societies

[31:11 – 32:51] Yogita Limaye: Facing discrimination as a woman in Afghanistan, with exceptionally strict limitations on how and whether she could interact with Taliban officials.
[39:30] Lyse Doucet: Recounts how, in 1980s/90s Afghanistan, she operated in a liminal gender category as a Western woman, sometimes granted unprecedented access (e.g., sitting with mujahideen commanders by dressing as a man).

7. Dangers of War Reporting—Risk and Reward

[33:21] Jeremy Bowen: “Is a story worth your life? Not in a million trillion years.” Yet good reporting from the front lines still requires hard-won judgment about risk.
[36:01] Kate Adie: “Your absolute reason for being there is to get the story back ... not to say I’m here, but what I’ve seen.”

8. The Emotional and Professional Impact of Correspondence Work

[42:31] Fergal Keane: Reflects on the trauma and worldview shift caused by covering the Rwandan genocide: “I saw the very worst that human beings could do. And how the world turned its back... all the promises about never again ... very hard to sustain after Rwanda.”
[43:42] – Vividly recalls aftermath of apartheid violence in South Africa, haunted by images of hatred, and how focusing on small, individual stories yields the wider, resonant truth.
[46:40] – Recites “Letter to Daniel”—a love letter to his newborn son during the Hong Kong handover, expressing personal transformation through fatherhood and war reporting.

9. The Personal in Foreign Reporting

[47:40] Fergal Keane: Initially, some questioned personal storytelling, but “be your own person, tell things in your own way. The one thing you’ve got to have absolute respect for is the facts. That’s absolutely key.”
[48:37] Sees “From Our Own Correspondent” as a rare, cherished space for reflective, non-agenda-driven journalism: “There is nothing like it in contemporary journalism anywhere. And long may it reign.”

10. Moments That Changed Our Lives

[49:34] Kate Adie: Remembers Tiananmen Square and the responsibility to bear witness. “The world is not bland ... it matters. China is still and in fact become ever more authoritarian.”
[52:46] Jeremy Bowen: Recounts the newsroom tragedy of his friend Abed Tarkush, driver in Lebanon, killed by an Israeli tank—a story of personal devastation and moral reckoning.

11. Finding Hope and Humanity Amid Darkness

[55:10] Steve Rosenberg: Shares the story of Valentina, the Moscow kiosk owner, an “ordinary” person whose resilience and warmth became a symbol for hope amid gloom. Listeners around the world responded, and their friendship was immortalized in a song performed by the BBC Singers—an example of how small, human stories can transcend borders, even for a “BBC propagandist” labeled by the state.

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments (with Timestamps)

On modern reporting's mission
“The job is ... to say what you see and give a flavor of what’s going on.” – Steve Rosenberg [04:18]
On technology & serendipity
“Everything has changed and nothing has changed.” – Lyse Doucet [07:45]
On risk in war reporting
“Is a story worth your life? Not in a million trillion years.” – Jeremy Bowen [33:21]
On small details
“It's just that sort of serendipity that the world is not bland.” – Kate Adie [05:15]
On impact of genocide coverage
“I saw the very worst that human beings could do. And also saw how the world turned its back...” – Fergal Keane [42:31]
Extraordinary access as a woman
“We used to describe ... white Western women as a different gender, we weren’t treated like the men ... nor like the women.” – Lyse Doucet [39:30]
On positive moments in adversity
“The ordinary people often turn out to be the most extraordinary people, and that was the case with Valentina...” – Steve Rosenberg [55:10]
On the magic of personal storytelling
“Be your own person, to tell things in your own way. The one thing that you've got to have absolute respect for, of course, is the facts. That's absolutely key.” – Fergal Keane [47:40]
On hope in difficult times
“It’s the hope which I think is at the heart of so many of the stories we tell.” – Anna Foster [39:02]

Timestamps for Key Segments

| Timestamp | Segment | |--------------|-----------------------------------------------------------------------| | 00:51 | Anna Foster introduces the panel, programme legacy & global scope | | 04:18 | The role of the correspondent in the modern world | | 07:45 | How technology changed the job – Lyse Doucet’s anecdotes | | 14:08 | David Willey recalls early days, challenges of reporting from Africa | | 16:12 | China’s National Day 1965 and meeting Puyi, the last emperor | | 20:35 | How filing dispatches evolved: from studios to mobile phones | | 27:00 | Yogita Limaye’s undercover reporting in Myanmar | | 30:13 | Technology on the battlefield (Ukraine) | | 31:11 | Gender restrictions and challenges in Afghanistan | | 33:21 | Risks in frontline journalism – Jeremy Bowen | | 36:54 | Reporting in hostile Russia – Steve Rosenberg | | 39:30 | Lyse Doucet on being a woman in Afghanistan | | 42:31 | Fergal Keane on Rwanda’s impact | | 46:40 | "Letter to Daniel" – personal reporting | | 49:34 | Kate Adie on Tiananmen Square | | 52:46 | Lebanon: personal cost of reporting – Jeremy Bowen | | 55:10 | Finding hope: Valentina the kiosk owner in Moscow | | 59:40 | Steve Rosenberg plays "Valentina’s Song" |

Conclusion

The 70th anniversary edition of “From Our Own Correspondent” was a moving, richly-nuanced conversation among the BBC’s most storied journalists. It celebrated the wisdom, courage, and soul of foreign reporting: the quest for the vivid, personal detail that brings global events home; the tenacity to tell the truth under threat; the evolving challenges in a hostile or surveilled environment; and, above all, the enduring hope and humanity illuminated by stories from “our own” correspondents across the world.

Panel

Host: Anna Foster
Contributors: Kate Adie, Jeremy Bowen, Lyse Doucet, Steve Rosenberg, Yogita Limaye, David Willey, Fergal Keane

From Our Own Correspondent at 70 – BBC Radio 4 (December 6, 2025)

Episode Overview

Key Themes & Discussion Points

1. The Enduring Purpose of the Foreign Correspondent

[04:18] Steve Rosenberg: Despite technological and political changes, the core mission remains “to say what you see and give a flavor of what’s going on around you.” However, this has grown harder, especially in places like Russia where access and willingness of sources to talk has dramatically diminished.
[05:15] Kate Adie: The world has certainly changed—now the public can see footage from anywhere, but the value in being on the ground persists. Serendipitous moments and deep human connections (like an encounter with Zoroastrians in Armenia) still set correspondents’ reports apart.

2. How Technology Has Transformed Reporting

[07:45] Lyse Doucet: “Everything has changed and nothing has changed.” She nostalgically recalls filing from West Africa via teletype, the struggle for precious phone lines from Kabul, and those personal relationships with operators who grasped the urgency of a line “more important than a marriage.”
[20:35] Jeremy Bowen: Earlier, correspondents had to physically book circuits from grand, old studios and relied on chance travelers to deliver tapes. Now, dispatches are recorded on phones and sent in minutes—“a different world.”

Notable Anecdotes:

Teletype Stories – [07:45 – 09:50]: Lyse Doucet’s tales of technology and camaraderie with the Glasgow telephone exchange: “They started calling me every day at 4 o’clock.” (Lyse Doucet)
Old China – [16:12]: David Willey’s 1965 fuch from Beijing vividly reconstructed a lost world, including meeting Puyi, the last emperor, now a gardener under communism.

3. The Small Detail That Tells the Big Story

[02:21 – 03:05]: Montage of classic dispatches displaying how correspondents use specifics—the abandoned cars in Congo, the fire ants in Africa, the bombed apartment block in Ukraine—to illuminate the larger picture.
[12:05] Anna Foster: “You start to take notes, you file things away... oh, that'll be good for the fuch.”

4. Relationship Building & Original Sources

[15:33] David Willey: Emphasizes importance of building bonds with sources, from global leaders to ordinary people—a theme echoed throughout.

5. The Growth of Hostility & Restrictions

[27:00] Yogita Limaye: Details a harrowing covert trip to earthquake-stricken Myanmar, dodging authorities and informers in an environment “where you could get caught at any time.”
[36:54] Steve Rosenberg: In today’s Russia, “every day that I go on air, it is like walking a tightrope over a minefield,” amid relentless official hostility—even being publicly insulted in state media.

[39:02] Positive Public Encounters:

Despite the official hostility, Steve is regularly approached by ordinary Russians expressing support, giving “hope that ... a relationship between Russia and the West can be salvaged.”

6. Reporting as a Woman in Hostile Societies

[31:11 – 32:51] Yogita Limaye: Facing discrimination as a woman in Afghanistan, with exceptionally strict limitations on how and whether she could interact with Taliban officials.
[39:30] Lyse Doucet: Recounts how, in 1980s/90s Afghanistan, she operated in a liminal gender category as a Western woman, sometimes granted unprecedented access (e.g., sitting with mujahideen commanders by dressing as a man).

7. Dangers of War Reporting—Risk and Reward

[33:21] Jeremy Bowen: “Is a story worth your life? Not in a million trillion years.” Yet good reporting from the front lines still requires hard-won judgment about risk.
[36:01] Kate Adie: “Your absolute reason for being there is to get the story back ... not to say I’m here, but what I’ve seen.”

8. The Emotional and Professional Impact of Correspondence Work

[42:31] Fergal Keane: Reflects on the trauma and worldview shift caused by covering the Rwandan genocide: “I saw the very worst that human beings could do. And how the world turned its back... all the promises about never again ... very hard to sustain after Rwanda.”
[43:42] – Vividly recalls aftermath of apartheid violence in South Africa, haunted by images of hatred, and how focusing on small, individual stories yields the wider, resonant truth.
[46:40] – Recites “Letter to Daniel”—a love letter to his newborn son during the Hong Kong handover, expressing personal transformation through fatherhood and war reporting.

9. The Personal in Foreign Reporting

[47:40] Fergal Keane: Initially, some questioned personal storytelling, but “be your own person, tell things in your own way. The one thing you’ve got to have absolute respect for is the facts. That’s absolutely key.”
[48:37] Sees “From Our Own Correspondent” as a rare, cherished space for reflective, non-agenda-driven journalism: “There is nothing like it in contemporary journalism anywhere. And long may it reign.”

10. Moments That Changed Our Lives

[49:34] Kate Adie: Remembers Tiananmen Square and the responsibility to bear witness. “The world is not bland ... it matters. China is still and in fact become ever more authoritarian.”
[52:46] Jeremy Bowen: Recounts the newsroom tragedy of his friend Abed Tarkush, driver in Lebanon, killed by an Israeli tank—a story of personal devastation and moral reckoning.

11. Finding Hope and Humanity Amid Darkness

[55:10] Steve Rosenberg: Shares the story of Valentina, the Moscow kiosk owner, an “ordinary” person whose resilience and warmth became a symbol for hope amid gloom. Listeners around the world responded, and their friendship was immortalized in a song performed by the BBC Singers—an example of how small, human stories can transcend borders, even for a “BBC propagandist” labeled by the state.

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments (with Timestamps)

On modern reporting's mission
“The job is ... to say what you see and give a flavor of what’s going on.” – Steve Rosenberg [04:18]
On technology & serendipity
“Everything has changed and nothing has changed.” – Lyse Doucet [07:45]
On risk in war reporting
“Is a story worth your life? Not in a million trillion years.” – Jeremy Bowen [33:21]
On small details
“It's just that sort of serendipity that the world is not bland.” – Kate Adie [05:15]
On impact of genocide coverage
“I saw the very worst that human beings could do. And also saw how the world turned its back...” – Fergal Keane [42:31]
Extraordinary access as a woman
“We used to describe ... white Western women as a different gender, we weren’t treated like the men ... nor like the women.” – Lyse Doucet [39:30]
On positive moments in adversity
“The ordinary people often turn out to be the most extraordinary people, and that was the case with Valentina...” – Steve Rosenberg [55:10]
On the magic of personal storytelling
“Be your own person, to tell things in your own way. The one thing that you've got to have absolute respect for, of course, is the facts. That's absolutely key.” – Fergal Keane [47:40]
On hope in difficult times
“It’s the hope which I think is at the heart of so many of the stories we tell.” – Anna Foster [39:02]

Timestamps for Key Segments

Conclusion

Panel

Host: Anna Foster
Contributors: Kate Adie, Jeremy Bowen, Lyse Doucet, Steve Rosenberg, Yogita Limaye, David Willey, Fergal Keane

From Our Own Correspondent at 70

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Summary

From Our Own Correspondent at 70 – BBC Radio 4 (December 6, 2025)

Episode Overview

Key Themes & Discussion Points

1. The Enduring Purpose of the Foreign Correspondent

2. How Technology Has Transformed Reporting

Notable Anecdotes:

3. The Small Detail That Tells the Big Story

4. Relationship Building & Original Sources

5. The Growth of Hostility & Restrictions

[39:02] Positive Public Encounters:

6. Reporting as a Woman in Hostile Societies

7. Dangers of War Reporting—Risk and Reward

8. The Emotional and Professional Impact of Correspondence Work

9. The Personal in Foreign Reporting

10. Moments That Changed Our Lives

11. Finding Hope and Humanity Amid Darkness

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments (with Timestamps)

Timestamps for Key Segments

Conclusion

Panel

Summary

From Our Own Correspondent at 70 – BBC Radio 4 (December 6, 2025)

Episode Overview

Key Themes & Discussion Points

1. The Enduring Purpose of the Foreign Correspondent

2. How Technology Has Transformed Reporting

Notable Anecdotes:

3. The Small Detail That Tells the Big Story

4. Relationship Building & Original Sources

5. The Growth of Hostility & Restrictions

[39:02] Positive Public Encounters:

6. Reporting as a Woman in Hostile Societies

7. Dangers of War Reporting—Risk and Reward

8. The Emotional and Professional Impact of Correspondence Work

9. The Personal in Foreign Reporting

10. Moments That Changed Our Lives

11. Finding Hope and Humanity Amid Darkness

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments (with Timestamps)

Timestamps for Key Segments

Conclusion

Panel