Isa Benzie

Isa Donald Benzie (4 December 1902 – 25 June 1988) was a British radio broadcaster. She played a key role in the launch of Today on BBC Radio 4, and served as its first senior producer.[1]

Isa Benzie
Born(1902-12-04)4 December 1902
Glasgow, Scotland, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
Died25 June 1988(1988-06-25) (aged 85)
Hastings, England, United Kingdom
NationalityBritish
EmployerBBC Radio

Benzie was born in 1902 in Glasgow and took the equivalent of a degree in German at Lady Margaret Hall in Oxford. She then became a secretary at the BBC in 1927. This was just two years after it first had de facto national coverage in Britain. She was working for £150 a year as assistant to the head of the Foreign Liaison department, Major CF Atkinson. She was also gathering material for talks given by Vernon Bartlett on his programme The Way of the World. In 1932 Atkinson resigned and Benzie was given his role. Her salary increased to £500 a year but this was much less that her former boss had been paid. Benzie's career continued and her salary was increased by £100 every year with a ceiling being set at £1,250 per year.[2] In 1933 she was head of that department and in 1937 she married a BBC producer, Royston Morley. They had one child, a daughter.[1] She had not been given a degree because she was a woman so she had to leave the BBC now that she was married to another of their employees.[1] Another source says that she opted to leave and her resignation meal was attended by Lord Reith.[2] The marital rule was relaxed during the war and she returned to organise talks on aspects of health.

She and Janet Quigley played a key role in October 1957 in the launch of Today on BBC Radio 4 which she had named. She edited the programme and was its first senior producer. She took it from a programme for "people on the move" to the important step of having its own named presenter. Quigley and Benzie complemented each other's careers. They worked in the same BBC departments, had the same alma mater and witnessed each other's marriage.[1]

Benzie retired in 1964 and died in St Leonards in 1988.[1]

References
  1. "Benzie, Isa Donald". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/65410. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  2. Kate Murphy (28 April 2016). Behind the Wireless: A History of Early Women at the BBC. Springer. pp. 175–. ISBN 978-1-137-49173-2.
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