After 58 years and around 3,000 programmes, Alistair Cooke has finally read his last Letter From America, bringing to an end the world's longest running speech radio show.

Not bad considering LFA was originally intended to last only 13 weeks.

One can only assume that 95-year old Cooke is not long for this world. He's weathered decades of speculation about the future of the programme -- why else would he choose to bow out now if not because of increasingly poor health.