In the Beginning

In February 1946, Hans Keller made his first approach to the BBC, offering a talk on Freud. Freud's ninetieth birthday would have fallen on 6 May that year and, taking advantage of the perennial interest in anniversaries, Keller suggested that the occasion might be marked by a talk 'on, say, Freud's position in the development of our culture'. ¹ Although this idea came to nothing and it was to be another ten years before he actually began broadcasting, the story of Keller's association with the BBC does nevertheless begin in 1946, and their later relationship is much illuminated by the events of the decade before they came together.