The BBC and the University of Westminster's Communication and Media Research Institute (CAMRI) are planning a one-day seminar, possibly followed by a series ofone-day seminars, on the History of the BBC. The first seminar will be on 10th September 2003, at the University of Westminster in Regents Street, London, and will be announced shortly. Speakers include Lord Asa Briggs, Professor Jean Seaton and Professor Paddy Scannell. The Seminar will also feature programme-makers and archivists from the BBC, and workshop sessions on current research into aspects of BBC history. We hope the seminar might initiate a series of similar one-day events on BBC history over the next 18-months, looking at matters such as 'Charter Renewal', 'The BBC and Culture', 'Entertainment and Creativity', 'The BBC and Political Journalism', and other topics. The aim of the seminars would be two-fold: first, toinform contemporary debates with an historical perspective, and second to open up a stronger dialogue between academic historians working on the BBC and broadcasters themselves. Each seminar would be designed to have a broad mix of representatives from the BBC as well as from universities, and presentations which address this broader audience will be encouraged.

We hope you will be interested enough to come to the one-day seminar on 10th September, and perhaps to subsequent events. Details of how to register and attend will be posted in the next few weeks. But weare also interested, at this stage, in knowing your thoughts on this event: contributions and suggestions for themes you think should be addressed, offers of presentations, information about research being initiated, and so on. We want the seminars to help build a network of researchers with an interest in BBC history, and your involvement is therefore an essential part of the idea. Do please get in touch with us with any comments or suggestions - in the next 10 days or so, if possible.

One final point: the event is likely to be free, but numbers will be limited.