It began last Friday morning as a dream, but by Sunday night it was a reality: Harold Evans, the brave marital keeper of Tina Brown, debuted his weekly "fireside chat" on BBC Radio 4. Designed as a replacement to Alistair Cooke's long-running Letter from America segment, Evans took 8 minutes of Henry the Intern's time to tell of life as an ex-pat. After the jump, Henry returns to fine form with a recap of Evans' opinions on political life suppot, delivered with a funny accent and multisyllabic finesse.

BBC Radio 4 premiered a new weekly segment this weekend narrated by Sir Harold Evans. In the first of (at least) thirteen installments, Evans guided listeners through political and personal histories in his own modern-day fireside chat. With soft, grandfatherly tones, Evans reassured listeners with his optimistic feelings about the future of America, Britain, and the space between them. This segment is for those of us who miss the spirit of Alistair Cooke and are not lulled to sleep by the speed of "The Newshour" on PBS. In addition, Evans' proximity — through marriage — to Tina Brown should be enough to spark interest in the words of this 77-year-old.

"It is, I realize with a shock, fifty years ago, since I [boarded a ship] bound for New York exactly as Alistair Cooke had done in 1932," Evans began his eight-minute broadcast. "[Cooke] disembarked in the gloom of the Great Depression, I set foot in the syncopating city in the middle of the Eisenhower boom years, but I had a similar cultural shock." That would be the shock of being called a "wise guy" for being too courteous.

The segment shows Tina's knack for phrasing comes from her Sir Harry. Or, better yet, vice versa. For instance, Evans explained, "The special relationship between Britain and America is on life support," and "much of the international animosity for America arises from the resentment of a president whose original idea of diplomacy is to shake hands with himself."

Who knew Evans "lived on derelict Indian reservations in the west" or "spent time with destitute black families in humble-down shacks" in the south? Imagine the stories told to the Brown-Evans children!

Mostly, Evans provided the perfect combination of humble wit and reality-based hope. He concluded:

"I'd contend that there's a clear historical pattern: the country can go off the rails in an alarming manner but then gradually get back on track and more spendidly than before... The American political system, with its checks and balances, always seems to require melodrama for movement. It's like trying to spot the movement of a glacier, but it does move... And I think it will find its way again, through all the travails of terrorism. My guess is that America and Britain will come to speak a common language again."

A common language may well reappear, but if we really listen to Evans, the accents will always separate us.