Episodes

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010120091020Valedictories in which retiring ambassadors poked fun at the nations where they had served

Matthew Parris marks the passing of the valedictory despatch from British ambassadors

010220091027

Matthew Parris marks the passing of the valedictory despatch, the traditional final telegram home in which British ambassadors could let their hair down and settle a few scores. The series features newly declassified Foreign Office files alongside interviews with the diplomats who wrote them.

How successful diplomacy requires an ambassador to both see beyond the shortcomings of their foreign hosts and persuade them to look kindly on our own.

How diplomacy requires an ambassador to see beyond the shortcomings of foreign hosts.

Matthew Parris marks the passing of the valedictory despatch from British ambassadors

010320091103

Matthew Parris marks the passing of the valedictory despatch, the traditional final telegram home in which British ambassadors could let their hair down and settle a few scores. The series features newly declassified Foreign Office files alongside interviews with the diplomats who wrote them.

The privations of embassy life. In their valedictories, diplomats recount the hardships of foreign service - rat infested rooms, defunct plumbing and death threats.

In their valedictories, diplomats recount the hardships of foreign service.

Matthew Parris marks the passing of the valedictory despatch from British ambassadors

010420091110

Matthew Parris marks the passing of the valedictory despatch, the traditional final telegram home in which British ambassadors could let their hair down and settle a few scores. The series features newly declassified Foreign Office files alongside interviews with the diplomats who wrote them.

Despatches which changed the course of history, including Nicholas Henderson's 1979 valedictory lament to a Britain 'poor and unproud', in economic decline and losing ground to her European rivals.

Despatches which changed the course of history.

Matthew Parris marks the passing of the valedictory despatch from British ambassadors

010520091117Matthew Parris on valedictories which embarrassed ministers.

Matthew Parris marks the passing of the valedictory despatch from British ambassadors

0201Poking fun at foreigners, and thanks to the long-suffering spouse20100929

Matthew Parris returns with more revealing despatches from Foreign Office archives in a new series celebrating diplomacy's least diplomatic tradition.

Until 2006, a British ambassador departing a foreign capital would write a valedictory despatch, a candid and often very funny report summing up their time at the post. Ambassadors heading into retirement would reflect back on their whole career; an elegant formal equivalent of the unguarded speeches one sometimes hears at office leaving-dos.

During a stint as a desk officer in the diplomatic service in the 1970s, one of Matthew Parris' duties was to copy the most celebrated despatches and - to those with the appropriate security clearance - circulate them across Whitehall.

As classified documents these reports were never intended for prying eyes, but by returning to the Freedom of Information process and to the National Archives the programme team have unearthed a fresh treasure trove of this glorious tradition of indiscretion.

In this programme, foreigners are once more the butt of the jokes, as ambassadors cast an unsparing eye over the national characteristics of their unwitting overseas hosts.

Also in this episode, we look at how diplomats in years gone by paid tribute in their valedictories to their wives - the famous 'trailing spouse' who sacrifices her own career to act as unpaid cook, cleaner and hotel manager in embassy residences from Cairo to Kathmandu.

Producer: Andrew Bryson.

Matthew Parris returns with more undiplomatic reports from departing British ambassadors.

Matthew Parris marks the passing of the valedictory despatch from British ambassadors

0202Cold Warriors And The Perils Of Forecasting20101006Matthew Parris opens classified Foreign Office files to discover valedictory despatches from behind the Iron Curtain. British diplomats used the traditional last telegram home from a foreign post to recount the strains of life under Communism - and its occasional upsides.

The programme reveals landmark despatches from Britain's last ambassadors to the Soviet Union, released for the first time under Freedom of Information, as well as a wealth of earlier material from the depths of the Cold War.

This episode also looks at the perils of forecasting; the valedictory was a place where ambassadors would chance their arm with predictions about the direction of future events abroad.

Producer: Andrew Bryson.

Matthew Parris reveals the final despatches from British diplomats behind the Iron Curtain

Matthew Parris marks the passing of the valedictory despatch from British ambassadors

0203The sun sets on Empire20101013

Despatches from diplomats in the last outposts of Empire capture the dying days of British rule. With Matthew Parris.

The valedictory despatch - an open letter to the Foreign Secretary which for decades British diplomats would send before leaving an overseas post - was often a platform for bittersweet reflection about the past.

During the period of decolonisation, many Ambassadors and High Commissioners expressed misgivings about the manner in which Britain was shedding its imperial role. In this programme, diplomats from the old school argue the case for the Empire as a force for good, and bemoan the unseemly haste with which Britain hauled down the flag in colonies across Africa, Asia and the Middle East.

Producer: Andrew Bryson.

Valedictory despatches from the last outposts of the British Empire. With Matthew Parris.

Matthew Parris marks the passing of the valedictory despatch from British ambassadors