Who's Who

Christopher Lee

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CHRIS'S PROFILE

Christopher Lee was the first Quatercentary Fellow in Contemporary History at Emmanuel College Cambridge, where he looked at the British Defence and Foreign Policy decision processes since WWII. At the same time he became the editor of Winston S Churchill’s A History of the English-speaking Peoples and edited the first abridged edition. He is now researching the History of Ideas in the Department of History, Classics & Archaeology at Birkbeck, London University as well as being a visiting lecturer at American universities on defence and strategic studies.

Christopher, who has written more than 20 books including his award winning Nelson & Napoleon, is also the triple award winning historian and writer of BBC Radio 4’s 265-part history of Britain, This Sceptred Isle. He.

He was the BBC’s Defence & Foreign Affairs Correspondent and pulled together the coverage of the 1982 Falklands War. After the Falklands, Christopher (by then a Commander RNR) was tasked by the Commander-in-Chief Fleet, Admiral Sir William Staveley, to design and set up a specialist Public Affairs Branch for the RN.

In the 1991 Iraq War he was the analyst tasked by BBC Radio with balancing presentation with the facts that were known and making sure nothing that was broadcast live would have helped the enemy or its sympathizers. Christopher then became the BBC’s first Arms Control Correspondent and later served as a correspondent in Moscow, Washington and the Middle East.

On return to the UK, Christopher presented the BBC2 regional television political programme, The East at Westminster, for three years.

He is also the writer of more than 120 plays including the parody BBC series Our Brave Boys for Martin Jarvis, Fiona Shaw and Peter Capaldi about life in the MOD. In 2009, his play A Pattern in Shrouds about the assassination of fourteen paras at Warren Point and Lord Mountbatten in County Sligo on the same day won much acclaim. It is die for revival in 2011.

Christopher is a well known history consultant in the theatre and was the historical adviser at the National Theatre for George Bernard Shaw’s, St Joan; this followed his own platform appearances at the NT as a prelude to Alan Bennett’s The History Boys. Christopher’s next stage play is also due for London and is based on St Francis and Innocent III.

His book, The Making of the British appears in 2011 and he is the official biographer of the former Foreign and Defence Secretary, Lord Carrington as well as the Carrington Archivist for Churchill College, Cambridge. He is the defence analyst for the Limehouse Group and a member of RUSI.

Christopher Writes:

"During my professional life in academe, broadcasting or with the Royal Navy, my job has been to explain that which is not always obvious. It is the same role that I see for Sitrep.

Over the years, Sitrep has established an enviable reputation as the only single programme that explains major defence issues and puts them in their international political context. In that way, Service people and those connected with the subject have been able to understand not only the military aspects of a deployment, but the political situation at home and overseas that necessarily influenced the military role and operation.

The modern Service woman and man are very intelligent and better informed than their predecessors. The British forces were until 1991 geared mainly to the possibility of state-to-state conflict. This was the Cold War. However, the UK’s colonial history meant that the counter insurgency and anti-terrorism tasks have been a continuing feature of the British military since the Nineteenth Century – Britain’s first Afghan War started in 1838! No other nation has the experiences that are so necessary today.

No other programme, anywhere in broadcasting, has covered this need to understand as Sitrep has.

During my 20 years with Sitrep, I tweaked its format to suit the needs of the audience including the fringe listener who has to understand why the Services are where they are and what they’re doing. But, change must not mean that the basic role is forgotten. Someone once told an old fogey that his standards were old-fashioned. “Yes madam,” he replied, “that’s why they’re standards.”

Sitrep is not a fogey, but it understands standards. Standards are why British forces are deployed as they are. I believe Sitrep’s role is to continually explain this."

You can email Christopher: forcesnews@bfbs.com

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