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Past Present Future

Now & Then with Robert Saunders: The Twists and Turns of the Special Relationship

Past Present Future

D&HR Media Ltd

History, Politics, News, Society & Culture, Philosophy

4.7747 Ratings

🗓️ 15 March 2026

⏱️ 62 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Today’s episode looks backwards and forwards from 1946 to explore the different ways the UK has imagined the US over time, as friend and as foe, as inspiration and as warning, as threat and as salvation. David and Robert examine how America has both illuminated and confused Britain’s view of itself for more than two hundred years, from Andrew Jackson to Donald Trump. Is there a common thread? Is there a version to be relied on? Or are we still making it up as we go along? You can find out everything you need to know about this podcast – who we are, what we do, plus merch, events and full lists of all episodes and PPF+ bonus episodes on our website https://www.ppfideas.com Next Time: Live Special – Is This How Democracy Ends? with Lyse Doucet, Chris Clark and Thant Myint-U Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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1:08.2

Hello, my name's David Rundsenman and this is past-present future, the History of Ideas podcast.

1:15.0

Today it's the second part of my conversation with Robert Saunders.

1:19.4

Last time, we talked about Winston Churchill's 1946 speech, the Iron Curtain speech,

1:25.9

and his understanding of Britain, America and the wider world.

1:30.1

Today, we're looking backwards and forwards from that date across 200 years of the Anglo-American

1:37.1

relationship, the so-called special relationship. What has America been to Britain? An inspiration,

1:53.9

an ally, a rival, A threat? Are they us? Are we them? Or are we and they something completely different?

2:02.6

Robert, in our last episode, we talked about a speech given by Winston Churchill in 1946 that for many people is a sort of embodiment almost of the UK-US relationship, sometimes

2:09.5

in the cliche, called the special relationship. It clearly was a very significant moment in that

2:15.6

relationship and it's come to shape some people's

2:18.0

imagination of what came next. And as we discussed, Churchill had a very particular vision of just how

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