This is a podcast from the archives of the BBC Reith Lectures.

This lecture in the series The End of Age, given by Tom Kirkwood, was originally broadcast in 2001.

Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. For the fifth and final Reith Lecture 2001, we've come to Newcastle, where our

wreath lecturer, Professor Tom Kirkwood, both lives and works. His subject is age, and appropriately,

we're in the International Centre for Life, a new development in the heart of the city, where the

public can journey through the story of evolution in one building, while

scientists research at the cutting edge of human genetics in the next. In our audience are both

experts and members of the public. We look forward to taking questions and comments from them

later. Over the past four weeks, Tom Kirkwood has argued that we are not programmed to die but to survive, that the

process of aging is not inevitable nor necessary. Tonight, as he draws the themes of his argument

together, he'll be issuing a challenge to us to society at every level to make radical

alterations in our attitudes and our approach to older people.

So will you welcome the Professor of Medicine and Head of Gerontology at Newcastle University

and our Reith Lecturer 2001, Professor Tom Kirkwood?

Thank you. Good evening.

Every revolution has a turning point, a time when the original impetus for change has

run its course.

History shows that this is often a vulnerable time.

Opinion on where to go next is sharply divided.

Indecision prevails at precisely the moment when decisive action is most essential.

The longevity revolution is no exception. We know where we've come from

and why, but we don't have a clear plan of where to go now. As has been a revolution from, from the terrible waste of life caused by premature death, not a revolution too.

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