This week the BBC World Service celebrated its 80th birthday, having started out life as the British Empire Service way back in 1932. A lot has happened in those 80 years, not least the fact that there is, of course, no longer an empire for it to serve!

During the Second World War the BBC Overseas Service, as it was then known, provided a vital service both in supplying news of the outside world and moral support to those struggling in Nazi-occupied Europe. Those years were probably the finest in the history of the BBC World Service (its name was changed in 1965) though in the long years since the end of the war its broadcasts have been heard and relished by many people around the world lacking the freedoms that we, in the free world, take for granted.

There is a natural tendency, now that the UK is no longer a major player on the world stage, to regard the BBC World Service as something of an anachronism and to an extent that may well be true. However, according to figures released this week, some 7 million Iranians regularly tune into the BBC World Service. That would seem to indicate that the Service is alive and kicking and if it can provide information and hope to those suffering under that cruel regime then clearly, it still has a vital role to play.