Isa Benzie

Isa Donald Benzie (4 December 1902 – 25 June 1988) was a British radio broadcaster. She played a key role in the launch of Today on BBC Radio 4, and served as its first senior producer. of the 5th Cameronians (Scottish Rifles), the former 1st Lanarkshire Rifle Volunteers of 19 Sutherland Avenue, in Pollokshields. Her mother was Anne Lamberton.

Her father was awarded the OBE in the 1919 Birthday Honours (OBE). He was a Freemason, and died on Wednesday 8 October 1941.

She took the equivalent of a degree in German at Lady Margaret Hall in Oxford. She was not given a degree because she was a woman.

Career Benzie became a secretary at the BBC in 1927, just two years after it first had de facto national coverage in Britain. During the World War I, her father, Lt. Colonel Robert Marr Benzie, served in the same army division as John Reith who would become the managing director of the BBC, and had written to Reith asking for a position for his daughter. Isa Benzie was paid £150 per year as assistant to the head of the Foreign Liaison department, Major CF Atkinson. Benzie gathered material for talks given by Vernon Bartlett on his programme The Way of the World.

In 1932, Atkinson resigned and Benzie was given his role. Her salary increased to £500 a year but this was much less than her former boss had been paid. Benzie's career continued and her salary was increased by £100 every year with a ceiling set at £1,250 per year.

In the early 1930s, she adapted German plays into radio plays, with Barbara Burnham, by plays by Felix Gasbarra. In early October 1933 she represented the BBC at a meeting of the International Broadcasting Union in the Netherlands.

By 1933, Benzie was head of the foreign affairs department. She oversaw relationships with broadcasters worldwide, including for significant events such as the 1936 Summer Olympics and for the Coronation of George VI and Elizabeth.

In 1937 she married a BBC producer, Royston Morley. They had one child, a daughter. Benzie and Janet Quigley "worked with Winnicott to improve his broadcasting style" and shaped the content of the programmes.