In this year's Annual Dockrill Memorial Lecture, Professor Miles Taylor discusses Berlin and the BBC: A Century of Sound and Vision, a volume he co-edited with Patrick Major that explores the BBC's long and complex relationship with Germany through the lens of its engagement with Berlin.

Event Schedule:

17.30: Doors open - Guest arrival and registration

18.00: Lecture begins

19.00: Audience Q&A

19.30: Reception & networking

20.30: Event close

Berlin and the BBC: A Century of Sound and Vision

Founded in 1922, the BBC developed strong connections with Germany from the outset, with Berlin at the heart of its engagement. In this lecture, Professor Taylor traces that relationship from the early broadcasts of Berlin orchestras championed by the BBC’s first Director-General, John Reith, through wartime German-language programming, Cold War reporting from a divided city and coverage of the fall of the Berlin Wall and German reunification. Throughout these transformations, the BBC served as an important channel through which British audiences encountered German culture, politics and society.

Drawing on the essays collected in Berlin and the BBC: A Century of Sound and Vision, Professor Taylor examines how the BBC’s presence in Berlin across the Weimar Republic, the Third Reich, the Cold War and reunified Germany offers a unique lens through which to understand changing Anglo-German relations. The lecture explores how Germany was presented to English-speaking audiences and how British identities, memories and perceptions of Germany were shaped through a century of broadcasting.

About the speaker

Professor Miles Taylor joined the Centre for British Studies at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin in 2021 as Professor of British History and Society. He was previously Professor of Modern History at the University of York in the UK, and between 2008 and 2014 Director of the Institute of Historical Research in London.

He studied at Queen Mary College University of London, Harvard University (where he was a Kennedy Scholar) and the University of Cambridge where he was awarded his PhD in 1989. He has taught at Cambridge, King’s College London, and Southampton (where he was Professor of Modern British History, 2001-4).

Professor Taylor is a 19th century specialist with a particular interest in Britain and its empire. His recent books include Empress: Queen Victoria and India (Yale 2018) and (as co-editor) The Utopian Universities: A Global History of the New Campuses of the 1960s (Bloomsbury, 2020).

He is currently leading an international research project on the 150th anniversary of the 1878 Berlin congress. He co-convenes a research seminar on the History of Universities (History of Universities Seminar) and is General Editor of the New Cambridge History of Britain to be published in five volumes in 2027 by Cambridge University Press.

Professor Taylor is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and a Fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society.

This event is open to the public and free to attend both in-person and online. In-person spaces are limited, so register now to secure your spot!

King's Alumni

Alumni details will be passed onto the Alumni Relations team, who will hold your details to personalise your alumni supporter experience. If you would prefer not to hear from us, you can unsubscribe from all further communications at any time by emailing forever@kcl.ac.uk

For information on how we use your details, please see our privacy statement: Privacy policy | King’s alumni | King’s College London (kcl.ac.uk). Please note that by attending this event you agree to follow the Code of Conduct for Visitors.