Michael Dobbs’ Today Programme
Best of Today
BBC
4.0 • 837 Ratings
🗓️ 27 December 2021
⏱️ 35 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Lord Dobbs, Michael Dobbs, is a Conservative Peer and author. He has written more than 20 books, but is best known for his political thriller House of Cards. He used his Today Programme guest edit to look at prostate cancer, after his diagnosis earlier this year. It’s a disease which killed his father and brother. His programme also featured a conversation with the Duchess of Cornwall about the importance of reading and a special retelling of the Christmas story from Joseph’s perspective, written and read by Marcus Brigstocke. Featuring Nick Robinson and Justin Webb.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, music, radio, podcasts. |
| 0:04.7 | Good morning, you're listening to The Best of Today on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:07.3 | I'm Nick Robinson. |
| 0:08.2 | Our first guest editor for the year is the Conservative peer, Michael, Lord Dobbs, |
| 0:13.0 | who wrote the political thriller, which became a TV hit in this country some decades ago |
| 0:17.5 | and in the United States and round the world. |
| 0:20.5 | More recently, The House of Cards. |
| 0:23.1 | He's been treated for prostate cancer earlier this year, a disease that killed his father |
| 0:27.5 | and one of his brothers. And knowing that family history increased his own risk, he was being |
| 0:32.8 | tested for the disease regularly. Many men don't get tested, don't seek help, despite the outcomes from |
| 0:39.5 | treatment being good when it's found early. Lord Dobbs is on a campaign to raise awareness of prostate |
| 0:45.4 | cancer and wanted to report on it for us this morning. |
| 0:52.6 | The sound you can hear is the thick door closing in the radiotherapy department at London's Royal Marsden Hospital. |
| 1:01.2 | Radiation's not the only option, but it's one of the major tools in treating prostate cancer and saving lives. |
| 1:08.5 | I'm here to talk with Professor Nick Van Arz, who's the hospital's medical |
| 1:12.8 | director. It is common. It is a common cancer. So in the UK, we have approximately 50,000 new |
| 1:18.6 | cases a year, and about 11,000 men will die of prostate cancer. So it's still a disease that causes |
| 1:24.9 | significant mortality, but most men who get prostate cancer |
| 1:28.9 | will either not die of it at all or will live for many years alongside their prostate cancer. |
| 1:34.4 | And probably now, even with more advanced disease, it's not unrealistic for men to live |
| 1:39.3 | eight to ten years. |
| 1:41.0 | And actually, as you've experienced, you can be diagnosed with prostate cancer and be living a |
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