An Interview with Etienne Amyot, the Third's first planner

On 30 August 1989, Lord Montagu of Beaulieu conducted an interview in Munich with Mr Etienne Amyot. Born in South Africa, Amyot trained as a concert pianist, studying in Vienna. At the inception of the Third Programme, Amyot was brought in as a non-BBC outsider, to join the small team of people responsible for building the programme schedule. In this fascinating interview, Amyot ranges widely across the subject of culture in the immediate post-war years, the difficult circumstances of the Third Programme's birth (the government minister Emmanuel Shinwell tried to have the launch postponed 'indefinitely'), and the initial programming policies.

He reminisces about the many artists with whom he came into contact, including Sir Thomas Beecham, Sir Adrian Boult, Wilhelm Furtwangler, Herbert von Karajan, Bruno Walter, Kathleen Ferrier, Clara Haskil and Dylan Thomas.

Note: the sound in this interview is of archive quality only.
 
Listen to the Interview