Archie P Lee

ARCHIE P Lee became a radio producer of legendary proportions, the best-known name at BBC Scotland in the middle part of the century. To say that he brought us everything from The McFlannels to Sportsreel, that he met Albert Einstein - and provided the lyrical idea for The Northern Lights of Old Aberdeen - is merely to scratch the surface of a fascinating career in broadcasting and journalism.

Archie P Lee (his name was never complete without the ''P'') was one of those ample characters who inspired utter devotion in those around him.

The son of a professional gardener who worked for the Duke of Buccleuch, Archie went from Glasgow University to become a reporter with the Scottish Daily Express in Albion Street, Glasgow.

In 1938 he took up the new appointment of press officer

at the BBC in Glasgow and tried to persuade newspapers to print the radio programmes. Such an outrageous idea was met with the response that, if they

wanted their programmes printed, they could pay for it as

an advertisement.

During the Second World War he was involved in ''clearing'' stories for broadcasting. One of the first was the sinking of the Glasgow liner Athenia which was torpedoed in the Atlantic on the day war broke out. Called into his office, he found the controller of BBC Scotland, Melville Dinwoodie, sitting ashen-faced. His daughter was a passenger on board the ship.

Archie went south to work in London and Bristol, reaching the latter in time for it to be bombed, and in London he met a BBC colleague, Mel Webb, who asked if he knew anything about those Northern Lights which were supposed to appear in the Scottish sky. Yes, said Archie. His mother came from Orkney and, ''when I was a lad, a tiny wee lad, my mother said to me: come see the Northern Lights my boy...''.

Unwittingly, he had provided the inspiration for The Northern Lights of Old Aberdeen.

Mel married Mary Webb, who composed the tune, and he more or less reproduced Archie's words for the verse.

But it was after the war, back in Scotland, that Archie P Lee became a distinguished figure in broadcasting.

He produced The McFlannels, the great radio soap of

its day, and went on to become the power behind so many

programmes from Sportsreel

to The Shetland Bus. He sparked off the idea of broadcasting commentaries from Ayr Racecourse - and engaged

novelist George Blake to be his race commentator!

In his student days, he went to Glasgow Central Station to welcome the great Albert Einstein, who was coming to deliver a lecture at Glasgow University. He was surprised to find large crowds at the station. But they were there for the arrival of some Hollywood star.

Archie introduced himself to Einstein and the two men passed the excited crowds, who had no idea that they were setting eyes on one of the greatest figures in history. At the BBC, his contemporaries were familiar names like Jameson Clark, Duncan Macrae, and George Davidson.

He used to recall travelling in a car through London one day with Joe Collins, the theatrical agent, and realising later that

the two little girls sitting beside him in the back seat were none other than the children, Joan and Jackie Collins!

Archie was full of tales,

mercifully some of them preserved in BBC archives, some perhaps not.

He was known to be the

journalist closest to the real

story of the Stone of Destiny, removed from Westminster Abbey in 1950. Whether he left any evidence of that story remains to be seen.

Even in retirement he kept his hand in at the BBC, sometimes setting the questions for the popular quiz programme SuperScot.

Archie P Lee was still active until a recent illness. He is survived by his son Jim, who manages the Nevis Bank Hotel in Fort William. After divorce he had married Joan Fitzpatrick, the radio actress, but that too ended in divorce before Joan was killed in a car crash.

Archie was delighted that his enthusiasm for broadcasting

had been taken up by his

granddaughter, Gina Lee, who works in freelance film production for both the BBC and Scottish Television.

Jack Webster