Alex Dempster: the journalist whose scoop led to the abdication

Alex Dempster is the journalist credited with breaking the news ofKing Edward VIII's affair with Wallis Simpson in 1936. The news led on to one of the British royal family's biggest constitutional crises.

Dempster scooped the story following a tip-off from the station manager at Aberdeen railway station advising of a 'VIP visit'. The 'VIP' was King Edward VIII, accompanied by Wallis Simpson.

In an interview for Radio 4 first broadcast in 1983, now made available on the BBC Archive website, Dempster - then 83 years old - revealed surprising details about how agreement amongst Fleet Street editors threatened to prevent the story from being made public.

The real gems in this piece are to do with practice. "A cracking reporter seldom takes out his notebook at the most sensitive time," says BBC interviewer Ninian Reid; something which, given the present-day importance of copious note-taking, only increased the pressure on the reporter to record the conversation accurately later.

But the overwhelming gem in the package - which must have made the BBC archivists jump up and down excitedly when they heard it for the first time - is to be found right at the end.

Dempster's advice for new reporters in 1983? "You've got to size up the person you're going to interview. People are different. Some people are keen on publicity. Some are not. It's easier to get news [nowadays] than it was in my time. Many people were against the press."

Makes you wonder what Dempster would have made of Wikileaks.