BBC Four airs one of its most provocative historical broadcasts this Monday, June 30, at 9:15 PM, with Albert Speer: The Unseen Interrogation—a full-length 1971 interview never before shown in full.
Speer, Hitler’s close adviser and chief architect, is confronted on camera by Michael Charlton, Hugh Trevor-Roper, and George Ball, the American diplomat who had already faced him across the table after the war. The questions are sharp, the tone direct. Speer tries to control the narrative, but the format doesn’t let him off the hook.
Ahead of the main broadcast, BBC Four airs a 15-minute framing piece, Hitler’s Architect of Lies – Albert Speer, led by historian Heike Görtemaker. Her message is clear. Speer’s image as “the good Nazi” was manufactured, not earned. The introduction lays the groundwork for what follows, stripping away decades of soft-focus biography.
The interview pulls from a time when Speer was still managing his own myth. He speaks at length about his role in the Nazi regime, claiming ignorance, offering partial apologies, and doubling down on selective truths. The presence of his interrogators forces a level of confrontation that few historical interviews achieve.
Albert Speer: The Unseen Interrogation airs Monday, June 30, at 9:15 PM on BBC Four.
