When a master is at work, it always looks easy. What we don't see, most of the time, is the effort that goes into something that seems effortless. Another confirmation of this comes in an article broadcaster and writer John Humphrys wrote for The Times (June 24, 2006) about the great essayist and broadcaster, Alistair Cooke. For many years I enjoyed Cooke's Letter from America as well of his hosting of several series on PBS in America. Here is part of what Humphrys wrote:
"When I watched him, for the first time, record Letter from America, I was shocked. I'd expected the master to saunter into the studio, settle back in a comfortable chair, chat quietly into the microphone for 15 minutes, probably only with a few notes scribbled on the back of a White House invitation, and saunter out again... Instead, Cooke spent an age trying to deliver his words from a script: coughing and spluttering and fluffing his lines, starting and re-starting until I wondered if he'd ever finish. Then his faithful producer--an elderly lady called Lillian...took away the fat reel of tape and stitched it all together. And it was, of course, a masterly piece of radio--one of thousands he delivered during the 60 years the programme lasted."
