(And very well deserved, I really miss Letter from America - Mike)

Friends and family of the late BBC broadcaster Alistair Cooke said a final
farewell to the Radio 4 presenter at a memorial service at Westminster
Abbey.

A recording of Cooke, who presented the programme Letter From America for 58
years before he died aged 95 in March, was broadcast in the London church.
More than 2,000 attended the service, including BBC chairman Michael Grade
and Sir David Frost.

The Abbey choir sang one of Cooke's favourite pieces from Handel's Messiah.

BBC director general Mark Thompson paid tribute to Cooke.

"It is often said that institutions have their own DNA," he said.

"I think if you look deep into the genetic code of the BBC, not just today
but for as long as the BBC exists, one of the things you would find at its
heart would be the rich, calm, beguiling, wise voice of Alistair Cooke," he
said.

Susan Cooke Kittredge led the prayers and Cooke's son John gave readings,
while his granddaughter, violinist Jane Byrne Kittredge, played the second
movement from Bach's Concerto in A Minor.

Jazz singer Jacqui Dankworth performed Gershwin's Someone To Watch Over Me.

A recording of Cooke which was made several years ago when he was unable to
attend an engagement was played at the memorial service.

"I'm sure you expect me to say, 'I'm sorry I'm not with you'. Well, I'm not
sorry," he said.

"I am of the opinion that a radio broadcaster should be heard and not seen."

US journalist Peter Jennings, senior editor and presenter of ABC News, read
a tribute.

"Alistair had a passion and a hunger to know and understand and enjoy his
adopted country," he said.

"He really captured America and the essence of its being. Alistair helped us
to understand ourselves."

Cooke was known in America for his television career, which included the
series Masterpiece Theatre.

The Stars and Stripes flew above the Abbey in his honour.

Cooke was born in Salford, but moved to the US in 1937 and was granted
citizenship in 1941.

Letter From America was the world's longest-running speech radio programme.

Cooke joined the BBC as a film critic in 1934 and started writing his US
current affairs and historical Letter in 1946.

The show was listened to by people across Europe, Asia, New Zealand, Africa,
the Americas and the Middle East via the BBC's World Service. It was heard
in the UK on BBC Radio 4.

Over almost 60 years, his 15-minute reflections touched on everything from
the assassinations of the Kennedys to the terrorist attacks of 11 September.

Cooke had presented 2,869 Letter From America programmes, missing just three
weekly broadcasts during Letter from America's run.

In 1973, he received an honorary knighthood for his contribution to
Anglo-American understanding, and a year later addressed the United States
Congress on its 200th anniversary.

He also received an award from Bafta for his contribution to Anglo-American
relations and a Sony radio award for his services to broadcasting.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertain...io/3745596.stm