That Was the Week That Was: BBC Tribute to John F. Kennedy - November 23, 1963

DECCA Records' vinyl transcription of the special 11/23/63 airing of THAT WAS THE WEEK THAT WAS - The British Broadcasting Corporation's Tribute to JOHN FITZGERALD KENNEDY (DL 9116) is a program a full half-hour shorter than that show's normal running time of 50 minutes. SIDE ONE opens with each cast member's thoughts on JFK's murder. A description of worldwide reaction follows. Scripted comments continue, with no individual speaker on for even one minute. The side ends with the debut of a tribute song, "In the Summer of His Years," sung by Millicent Martin. SIDE TWO starts with David Frost's editorial on the immediate repercussions of this tragedy. At around 3:30, Dame Sybil Thorndike reads a Caryl Brahms poem, "To Jackie." Little more than two hours before airtime, Bernard Levin wrote the show's longest segment, an oration about new president Lyndon Johnson. In reading this piece, he concludes with well-wishes to LBJ and a quote from Longfellow's Ship of State ("...sail on, O Ship of State! Sail on, O Union, strong and great! Humanity with all its fears; With all the hopes of future years; Is hanging breathless on thy fate!"). For the closer, David Frost attempts to give meaning to the unthinkable event that made this memorial program necessary. TOTAL TIME: 19:38