A. J. P. Taylor , broadcaster, controversialist, political activist, and the doyen of English historians, is 75 this week.
The wit, sharpness and clarity of his writings, and his popular presentation of history on television, have made him one of the nation's favourite intellectuals. His teaching has become legendary. Many of his books, such as English History 1914-45 and The Origins of the Second World War, are classics.
Yet his career has had some strange and unpredictable turns. A true radical, he has rarely been far from the centre of controversy. Tonight Ludovic Kennedy is joined by two leading historians, Asa Briggs , Provost of Worcester College, Oxford, and Professor Robert Skidelsky of Warwick University, in talking to A. J. P. TAYLOR about his life, work and beliefs.
Executive producer EDWARD mirzoeff Producer TRISTAN ALLSOP