Yahoo! News - Legendary Broadcaster Alistair Cooke Dies
LONDON - Alistair Cooke, the broadcaster who epitomized highbrow television as host of "Masterpiece Theatre" and whose "Letter from America" was a radio fixture in Britain for 58 years, has died, the British Broadcasting Corp. said Tuesday. He was 95.
I grew up watching Alistair Cooke introduce Masterpiece Theatre, the one program on television that my parents invariably watched. His polish and assurance set the tone for the television program, lending a patina of English refinement and sophistication to the BBC retreads that followed. (Don't get me wrong, I love BBC retreads.) It has been years since I actually saw Alistair Cooke on television, but reading of his death marks the passing of another of the institutions of my childhood.