From Our Own Correspondent
From Vietnam to Vatileaks: A Tribute to David Willey
22 July 2026
Available for over a year
In this special edition of From Our Own Correspondent, we remember BBC Correspondent David Willey, who reported from around the world for more than half a century, and who died recently.
David was a prolific contributor to this programme throughout his life and was still writing for the programme into his 93rd year.
In an interview recorded last year for the ‘From Our Own Correspondent at 70’ programme, David tells Today presenter Anna Foster about his early travels reporting from around the world from Libya to China, as well as his long-time role as BBC Vatican Correspondent.
This podcast also features some of his most memorable dispatches, including a report on troop morale in Vietnam in the 1970s, a lavish party thrown by Colonel Gadaffi in Libya in 2009 to mark his 40th year in power; insights from inside the Vatican amid the ‘Vatileaks’ scandal of 2012; and recollections from 2023 about when he first met Italian PM Silvio Berlusconi at his estate near Milan, where he got a private tour of the billionaire businessman’s private mausoleum.
