Robert Birley's 1949 Reith Lectures series, "Britain in Europe", remain urgently topical today. Sarah Montague discusses the lectures with Professor Anand Menon.

The Reith Lectures began in 1948 on the Home Service, subsequently moving to Radio 4 and becoming a major national occasion for intellectual debate. As part of the celebrations of Radio 4's 50th anniversary, the network looks back at the first 10 years of the Reith Lectures to explore how they reflect the times in which they were delivered and how well they stand up now.

Robert Birley was headmaster of Eton who had worked in postwar Germany. In his lectures, he looked forward to what he described as a European Union and discussed how far Britain would become integrated in it. Sarah assesses his lectures with the help of Anand Menon, who heads The UK In A Changing Europe thinktank.

Producer: Neil Koenig
Researcher: Josephine Casserley