Clive James - A Point of View... and others.

[jumpy]

I've always enjoyed listening to and watching programs with Clive over the years. He has a subtle and insightful sense of humour which I enjoy immensely.
Most recently: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/...point_of_view/
and listen: http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode...ew_27_03_2009/

http://www.clivejames.com/

One of my signature quotes was one of clive's, regarding private enterprise

"Private enterprises like giant aircraft went badly enough, however, and almost always there came a time when the government had to support them with public funds, pending the day they could go into service and start losing money on a commercial basis."

He always makes me smile, along with the likes of the late Alistair Cooke and his 'Letter from America' and Alan Whicker
I cannot think of many current journalists that match the calibre of these three gentlemen today; perhaps Jeremy Paxman - but apart from destroying politicians live on air, he has yet to leave any long lasting mark on contemporary media and journalism.

There are others of note, I'm sure, but these three have been a continuing feature of interest for me for as long as I can remember.

When Alistair Cook died, I emailed my condolences to the website his family had set up. About 2 months later I received a reply, albeit a generic response, thanking me for my kind words and thoughts. I was gratified that an effort to reply to the many people who had contacted the site, had been made; it is all too easy to become snowed under with the number of letters and emails concerned with such an individual as Alistair. I believe he would have wanted it no other way:

Originally Posted by from the family of Alistair Cooke

Alistair Cooke's family wishes to thank you for your kind expressions of
appreciation and condolence. Your cards and letters have been a great support to
them.

When ending a phone call with a friend, Mr. Cooke rarely said, "Good Bye."
Instead, he extended a hopeful salutation, as does his family now, "God Bless."

A few months later still, I got an email detailing the BBC archive for the Letter from America program:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programme..._from_america/
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programme...03/default.stm

It is such a shame his family had to endure the scandal of the illegal organ and bone harvesting of his remains, which only came to light some time afterwards.

Anyways, I started with clive and ended with cooke... but I thought some of you might be interested in some of the links.