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´óÏó´«Ã½ Radio 4 has released hundreds of hours of The Reith Lectures from its archives to coincide with the broadcast of this year's first lecture.

The archive includes 240 recordings and provides a fascinating insight into the work of some of the world's great thinkers of the last 60 years. The Reith Lectures are available to download and keep as podcasts or to listen to on demand on the Radio 4 website. The site will also carry every Reith Lecture transcript from 1948 to the present day.

This year's lecturers are Burmese pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and former Director-General of MI5 Dame Eliza Manningham-Buller, speaking on the topic of Securing Freedom.

Andrew Caspari, the ´óÏó´«Ã½'s Head of Speech Radio and Classical Music Interactive, said: "This is a unique collection of stunning intellectual significance. Making our great programmes of the past available permanently is a vital role for Radio 4's digital offer."

The Reith Lectures were created as a "stimulus to thought and contribution to knowledge" and named in honour of the first Director-General of the ´óÏó´«Ã½, Lord Reith. Lord Reith was not impressed by the first lectures, given by philosopher Bertrand Russell, and wrote in his diary that Russell "went far too quickly and has a bad voice... however I wrote him a civil note".

While compiling hundreds of hours of archive, the ´óÏó´«Ã½ discovered that some audio from lectures given in the first 30 years is missing and is appealing to the public to contact the Reith Lectures team if they own any missing recordings.

The lectures have included many eminent speakers and the subject matter has often been remarkably prescient.

The historian Professor Arnold Toynbee presented the Reith Lectures in 1952. He examined the history of hostility between east and west, and considered how non-westerners of the time viewed the western world. His second lecture explored the potential impact of westernisation in Muslim countries.

Dame Margery Perham, fellow of Nuffield College, Oxford, was the first female Reith Lecturer in 1961, discussing the end of colonial rule in Africa.

Robert Gardiner, executive secretary of the United Nation's European Commission for Africa, was the first black Reith Lecturer in 1965. His lecture series, World of Peoples, explored how issues of colonial authority and economic inequality affected race relations.

The 1969 lecturer was Sir Frank Fraser Darling and his fourth lecture warned of the rising volumes of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere; the parallel destruction of forests and the effect of the warming of the oceans and the recession of the polar caps.

In 1976, 30-year-old Professor Colin Blackmore was the youngest ever lecturer. He put neuroscience firmly on the map, helped by his ability to explain science through stories such as that of Phineas P Gage, an American railroad foreman, who surprised everyone when he survived an accident in which dynamite blew an iron rod straight through his brain.

In 1989, the French poet and historian, Jaques Darras, presented his lectures without a script – pulling the lectures off with aplomb. This script-less feat would be repeated in 2006 by the Argentinean-Israeli pianist and conductor, Daniel Barenboim, who also played the piano to illustrate his series, In the Beginning was Sound.

There were no lectures in 1992, but there is no real mystery – the ´óÏó´«Ã½ simply couldn't find anyone to do them.

Notes to Editors

Please note: if any of the information below is used, please ensure a credit for The Reith Lectures, ´óÏó´«Ã½ Radio 4, Tuesday 28 June at 9am

Aung San Suu Kyi's lectures will be broadcast on Radio 4 at 9am on June 28 and July 5. Eliza Manningham-Buller's Reith Lectures will be broadcast at 9am on September 6, 13, and 20.

Members of the public who think they have missing audio of Reith Lectures can contact the team via the .

The website currently offers transcripts from 1948-75 and 1990-2010. Transcripts for remaining years will be added to the site shortly.

The Reith Lectures will broadcast on ´óÏó´«Ã½ World Service on Tuesday 28 June at 11am GMT and 5 July at 11am GMT.

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