In an exclusive UK broadcast interview ahead of the release of his memoirs, former President of the United States Barack Obama will be interviewed by historian and broadcaster David Olusoga in a special programme - Barack Obama Talks To David Olusoga - commissioned by BBC Arts and to be broadcast on Wednesday 18 November at 7.30pm on BBC One.

In the 30-minute special from BBC Studios Production, Barack Obama will discuss the first volume of his presidential memoirs, A Promised Land, and his motivations for writing the book and the challenges he faced confronting political, cultural and racial divisions in America, as the first African American to hold the nation’s highest office.

Following the BBC One broadcast, Barack Obama Talks To David Olusoga will be available on BBC Radio 4 in a special audio recording introduced by David Olusoga on Thursday 19 November at 9am. Audiences will also be able to listen to a longer version of the interview on-demand on BBC Sounds.

The programme will be broadcast internationally by BBC World Service Radio on Thursday 19 November and BBC World News and BBC News Channel on Saturday 21 November and Sunday 22 November.

Historian and broadcaster David Olusoga says: “Meeting Barack Obama to discuss his memoirs is a great honour. To be interviewing him now - at the end of a year in which race and racism and the histories that lie behind them have been at the centre of global events - seems fitting. My interview with the former President will highlight the obstacles he faced as President and ask whether his optimism in what he calls the 'possibility of America' has been challenged in recent years.”

Jonty Claypole, Director of BBC Arts, says: “We’re thrilled to have commissioned an exclusive UK broadcast interview with Barack Obama for BBC Arts. Ever since the publication of Dreams from My Father 25 years ago, Obama’s books are masterpieces of political memoir and autobiography.

“Having the opportunity to bring him face to face with David Olusoga, one of our foremost social historians and broadcasters, at the end of a year that has been defined by Covid-19, Black Lives Matter, and one of the most fiercely-fought American elections in history, promises to be deeply illuminating. The programme will be broadcast on BBC One and will then be available on BBC platforms in the UK and internationally.”

Amy Flanagan, Head of The Documentary Unit, BBC Studios Production, says: “It's a huge privilege to be bringing together Barack Obama and David Olusoga in what has been an extraordinary year of social change.”

From Monday 14 December (9.45am-10am), BBC Radio 4 will broadcast an abridged reading of Barack Obama’s A Promised Land, read by Barack Obama himself, serialised over two weeks as Radio 4’s Book Of The Week. The memoir is a journey from Barack Obama’s earliest political aspirations through to the watershed night of 8th November 2008, when he was elected 44th president of the United States and his first term in the presidency, encompassing a global financial crisis, the Affordable Care Act and events abroad, including Operation Neptune’s Spear, which led to the death of Osama bin Laden. All ten parts will be available on BBC Sounds immediately after the first part has aired.

Barack Obama Talks To David Olusoga is a BBC Studios’ The Documentary Unit production. It was commissioned by BBC Arts and BBC One by Jonty Claypole. The Executive Producer is Tanya Hudson. Producer Director is David Shulman.