Asa Briggs was the first official historian of the BBC. CAMRI’s Jean Seaton was his successor. Briggs is a former Vice Chancellor of the University of Sussex, the founder of the Oral History movement, and one of the people who invented social history. As a young man he worked as a code-breaker at Bletchley Park, during the Second World War. Briggs is probably the only person alive who has met every Director General of the BBC there has ever been.
Briggs, together with Jean Seaton from CAMRI, has marked every single Director General for integrity, efficiency and creativity. The results of this assessment however will remain secret till Briggs agrees that they can be published.
Tony Hall is going to discuss with Briggs the role of history in the BBC – and possibly offer himself for Briggs’s judgement!
