And now at 13 minutes to 8, a time for thought for the day. And with us this morning is Rabbi Lord Sacks, or to give him his real name, because he's an old friend of this program. And welcome to you, Jonathan.

Thank you, John. Good morning. Among the contributions of Judaism to the world were the prophets of ancient Israel, Elijah, Isaiah,

Jeremiah, people who had the courage to speak truth to power and hold power accountable to

truth. It didn't make them popular. As King Ahab said to Elijah, who accused him of abusing his office,

is that you, you troublemaker of Israel? Well, we don't have profits nowadays,

but if we did, one place you'd probably find them would be the Today program, because today's

tough interviewers are recognizably in that tradition of holding power accountable to truth.

And among them, for me and for very many others, John Humphreys has been

one of the best of our time. What's made John distinctive has been his fearless moral

passion and his refusal to be fobbed off with evasions and equivocations. He's been called

Radio's Rottweiler and the BBC's scrappy, scruffy mongrel terrier,

chasing every rabbit, catching every ball, leaping on the grandest sofa with mud on his paws

and a bark of amused defiance.

I'm sure some contemporary King Ahab's have looked at John and thought,

Is that you, you troublemaker of Britain?

But he's been called the listeners champion because he's asked the questions we'd like to ask,

but don't get the chance to. To do that for 32 years without loss of energy or integrity is quite

something.

The last thing John would ever compare himself to would be one of the prophets of the Bible.

After all, he coined the phrase, in God, we doubt.

But there is something sacred in holding power accountable to truth.

And in an age of viral videos, fake news, manipulated media,

...