Great Lives
Encyclopedia
Great Lives is a BBC Radio 4
biography series, produced in Bristol
. It is presented by Matthew Parris
. A distinguished guest is asked to nominate the person they feel is truly deserving of the title "Great Life". Matthew and a recognised expert (a biographer, family member or fellow practitioner) are on hand to discuss the life. The programmes are 30 minutes long, broadcast at 16:30 on Tuesday and repeated at 23:00 on Friday. There are eight or nine episodes in each series, the 25th series being broadcast in August and September 2011. The final episode of the most recent series at the time of typing (i.e. August to September 2011) was broadcast on Tuesday September 27, 2011.
A E Housman
The murder mystery writer Colin Dexter
suggested the English poet A E Housman as his "great life" in May 2008. Dexter and Housman were both classicists who found a popular audience for another genre of writing. Parris said he had never much cared for Housman, but admitted that this changed his mind.
Nina Simone
The legendary chanteuse, pianist, composer and civil rights
activist Nina Simone is the choice of another female musician who’s made a career of defying convention, Joanna MacGregor
.
Julia Ward Howe
The American academic, Elaine Showalter
, joins presenter Matthew Parris to discuss the life of the 19th century American writer, Julia Ward Howe. Best known as the author of the Battle Hymn of the Republic, Ward Howe was a feminist, a pacifist and - according to Showalter - a great lost poet. With Professor Gary Williams.
W. H. Auden
Broadcaster Jeremy Vine
loves the poetry of W.H. Auden but isn't much interested in his life. Presenter Matthew Parris doesn't think a lot of the poetry but is fascinated by Auden's life. Biographer Richard Davenport-Hines
thinks you need to understand the life to appreciate the work. Jeremy Vine reads one of his own poems and wonders whether Auden would have liked it. Matthew thinks it's "estimable". Richard thinks it's "sincere". They both wonder whether Auden would have fancied Jeremy. And all three examine Auden's life.
Eleanor Roosevelt
Eleanor Roosevelt, wife of US president Franklin Delano Roosevelt, was born into a wealthy American family but transcended her origins to become a formidable campaigner for human rights and economic justice - both in the United States and on the world stage. Civil liberties lawyer Helena Kennedy argues that she's one of the great women of the last century, and, with the help of Roosevelt biographer, Blanche Wiesen Cook
, examines her extraordinary life. Presented by Matthew Parris.
Max Miller
Max Miller was one of the highest-paid and most popular comedians of the 20th century. But his risqué humour got him banned from the BBC. TV critic Garry Bushell
thinks he represented the true voice of working-class humour, and with the help of Roy Hudd
, who worked with Miller, examines the career of the "cheeky chappie". Matthew Parris presents.
Leon Trotsky
A fiery return for the biographical series in which Matthew Parris chooses the living, and the living choose the dead. Christopher Hitchens
proposes Leon Trotsky, hero of the Russian Revolution later assassinated with an ice pick in the skull. He sees him as the perfect combination of the man of ideas and man of action, and says Trotsky's writings still make the hairs on his neck stand up. Matthew Parris is joined by Professor Robert Service
in resisting him all the way.
Robin Day
News presenter Krishnan Guru-Murthy
nominates his illustrious predecessor Robin Day. During the height of his career, he was regarded as Britain's finest political interviewer - the "great inquisitor" - on television and radio. Some salute him for breaking the mould of deferential interviewing but others think he bullied his subjects and stole the limelight himself with his mannered performances. Krishnan Guru-Murthy explains why for him Day remains a hero, we hear archive evidence, and Matthew Parris chairs the programme.
W. G. Grace
Piers Morgan
, former editor of the Daily Mirror and life-long cricket
enthusiast, nominates W.G. Grace as the greatest English cricketer and, some would say, the greatest English sportsman of all time. He seeks to persuade presenter Matthew Parris, who is himself not a fan of cricket, of the achievements of the man who elevated cricket to its unique place in English life. Grace's biographer Simon Rae acts as umpire.
Tamara Karsavina
Writer and broadcaster Anna Raeburn
nominates the ballerina Tamara Karsavina. Born in Russia in 1885 she was caught up in the October revolution and fled to England, where she lived until her death in 1978. She was the leading female dancer in Diaghilev's Ballet Russes from its beginning in 1909 until 1922, and her partnership with Nijinsky created many of the greatest ballet roles that we know. In England she coached Margot Fonteyn and created roles for Frederick Ashton. Anna Raeburn explains why Karsavina still lives for her and Matthew Parris chairs the programme, with expert contribution from Judith Mackrell.
Ignaz Semmelweis
Writer and broadcaster Frances Cairncross
nominates a forgotten hero of medicine: Ignaz Semmelweis. Semmelweis was a doctor ahead of his time: in the mid-nineteenth century he discovered why women were dying in droves after childbirth: doctors were spreading disease on their hands around hospitals. The solution he came up with was regular hand-washing. But his message was ignored. Women carried on dying, Semmelweis went mad, and he died in obscurity. Matthew Parris chairs the programme, and Semmelweis biographer Sherwin B. Nuland
offers expert advice.
Johnny Weissmuller
Olympic gold medallist Duncan Goodhew
tells Matthew Parris why athlete-turned-actor Johnny Weissmuller deserves the mantle of greatness. Weissmuller's only son Johnny Jr joins them to explore his heroic father's disturbing childhood, his astonishing swimming talent, and his Hollywood adventures with bad-tempered chimps and ticklish tigers.
Ella Fitzgerald
The singer Ella Fitzgerald is the choice of the entrepreneur Ivan Massow
on this week's edition of Great Lives. He joins presenter Matthew Parris and Dame Cleo Laine
to explore the contradictions in the life of the woman they called "the First Lady of Song".
Sigmund Freud
Craig Brown
reveals great dreams on Great Lives as he proposes Sigmund Freud. Almost seventy years after his death, the father of psychoanalysis remains a powerful and compelling character, though critics have denounced his work as "the greatest intellectual confidence trick of the last century". Matthew Parris chairs the programme, and Adam Phillips
offers expert advice.
Noel Coward
Julian Clary
proves the perfect guest for the series in which one of the living proposes one of the dead. His hero is Sir Noel Coward, nominated here for his elegance, for his plays, and for being gay in an age when it was still illegal. Sheridan Morley
reveals many of the secrets of his life, including the extent of his role in allied intelligence during the Second World War, while presenter Matthew Parris wonders how long his literary achievements will last.
Andrew Carnegie
In 1901, when Andrew Carnegie sold his steel making empire to the banker J.P Morgan for 480 million dollars, the financier congratulated him on becoming “the richest man in the World”. But it’s not just Carnegie’s wealth that inspired this week’s guest, Daily Telegraph’s Editor-at-Large Jeff Randall
, to nominate him for ‘Great Lives’. By the time he died, Carnegie had given most of his vast fortune away. Presenter Matthew Parris invites Randall to explore the life of an extraordinary businessman and philanthropist, with the help of Eric Homberger, Professor of American Studies at UEA.
Morecambe and Wise
Matthew Parris admits that he finds Morecambe and Wise "chummy and unchallenging" and their scripts to be "rather lame". But fear not; on hand to defend the talents of the comedy duo is Penelope Keith
, who has not only selected them as her "great lives" for the consistently brilliant biography series, but was also their guest star in the 1977 Christmas edition of the show, which notched up over 28 million viewers.
BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4 is a British domestic radio station, operated and owned by the BBC, that broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history. It replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. The station controller is currently Gwyneth Williams, and the...
biography series, produced in Bristol
Bristol
Bristol is a city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, with an estimated population of 433,100 for the unitary authority in 2009, and a surrounding Larger Urban Zone with an estimated 1,070,000 residents in 2007...
. It is presented by Matthew Parris
Matthew Parris
Matthew Francis Parris is a UK-based journalist and former Conservative politician.-Early life and family:...
. A distinguished guest is asked to nominate the person they feel is truly deserving of the title "Great Life". Matthew and a recognised expert (a biographer, family member or fellow practitioner) are on hand to discuss the life. The programmes are 30 minutes long, broadcast at 16:30 on Tuesday and repeated at 23:00 on Friday. There are eight or nine episodes in each series, the 25th series being broadcast in August and September 2011. The final episode of the most recent series at the time of typing (i.e. August to September 2011) was broadcast on Tuesday September 27, 2011.
Series 12, April - May 2007
- Phill JupitusPhill JupitusPhillip Christopher Jupitus is an English stand-up and improvised comedian, actor, performance poet, musician and podcaster....
, comedian, nominated Joe StrummerJoe StrummerJohn Graham Mellor , best remembered by his stage name Joe Strummer, was the co-founder, lyricist, rhythm guitarist and lead vocalist of the British punk rock band The Clash. His musical experience included his membership in The 101ers, Latino Rockabilly War, The Mescaleros and The Pogues, in...
, frontman of The ClashThe ClashThe Clash were an English punk rock band that formed in 1976 as part of the original wave of British punk. Along with punk, their music incorporated elements of reggae, ska, dub, funk, rap, dance, and rockabilly... - Nick Danziger, photographer, nominated TintinTintinTintin, Tin-Tin or Tin Tin may refer to:* The Adventures of Tintin , the series of classic comic books created by Belgian artist Hergé...
, fictional Belgian reporter - William BoydWilliam BoydWilliam Boyd may refer to:*William Boyd, 3rd Earl of Kilmarnock , Scottish nobleman*William Boyd, 4th Earl of Kilmarnock , Scottish nobleman*William Boyd William Boyd may refer to:*William Boyd, 3rd Earl of Kilmarnock (died 1717), Scottish nobleman*William Boyd, 4th Earl of Kilmarnock (1704–1746),...
, author, nominated Anton ChekhovAnton ChekhovAnton Pavlovich Chekhov was a Russian physician, dramatist and author who is considered to be among the greatest writers of short stories in history. His career as a dramatist produced four classics and his best short stories are held in high esteem by writers and critics...
, playwright - Pallab GhoshPallab GhoshPallab Ghosh is a science correspondent for BBC News. Born in India, he came to the United Kingdom in 1963, he read physics at Imperial College, London between 1980 and 1983 and has been a science journalist since 1984...
, BBCBBCThe British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
science correspondent, nominated Marie CurieMarie CurieMarie Skłodowska-Curie was a physicist and chemist famous for her pioneering research on radioactivity. She was the first person honored with two Nobel Prizes—in physics and chemistry...
, chemist & physicist - Pauline BlackPauline BlackPauline Black in Romford is a British singer, actress and author most notable as the lead singer of The Selecter. Black was born to an Anglo-Jewish mother and Nigerian father. She was adopted by a white middle-aged couple and given the name Pauline Vickers...
, singer & actor, nominated Billie HolidayBillie HolidayBillie Holiday was an American jazz singer and songwriter. Nicknamed "Lady Day" by her friend and musical partner Lester Young, Holiday had a seminal influence on jazz and pop singing...
, jazz singer - Fiona BruceFiona BruceFiona Elizabeth Bruce is a British journalist, newsreader and television presenter. Since joining the BBC in 1989, she has gone on to present many flagship programmes for the corporation including the BBC News at Six, BBC News at Ten, Crimewatch, Call My Bluff and, most recently, Antiques Roadshow...
, television presenter & newsreader, nominated Mata HariMata HariMata Hari was the stage name of Margaretha Geertruida "M'greet" Zelle , a Dutch exotic dancer, courtesan, and accused spy who was executed by firing squad in France under charges of espionage for Germany during World War I.-Early life:Margaretha Geertruida Zelle was born in Leeuwarden, Friesland,...
, accused spy - Yvonne BrewsterYvonne BrewsterYvonne Brewster, O.B.E. is a stage director, teacher and writer.Born in Jamaica, Yvonne Brewster went to the UK to study drama in the mid-fifties at the Rose Bruford College and the Royal Academy of Music...
, theatre director, actress and writer, nominated Claude McKayClaude McKayClaude McKay was a Jamaican-American writer and poet. He was a seminal figure in the Harlem Renaissance and wrote three novels: Home to Harlem , a best-seller which won the Harmon Gold Award for Literature, Banjo , and Banana Bottom...
, poet - Barry CunliffeBarry CunliffeSir Barrington Windsor Cunliffe, CBE, known professionally as Barry Cunliffe is a former Professor of European Archaeology at the University of Oxford, a position held from 1972 to 2007...
, archaeologist, nominated Julius CaesarJulius CaesarGaius Julius Caesar was a Roman general and statesman and a distinguished writer of Latin prose. He played a critical role in the gradual transformation of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire....
, Roman leader - Phil HammondPhil HammondPhil Hammond may refer to:* Philip Hammond , Member of Parliament* Phil Hammond , British comedian, broadcaster, and general practitioner...
, comedian & broadcaster, nominated George Bernard ShawGeorge Bernard ShawGeorge Bernard Shaw was an Irish playwright and a co-founder of the London School of Economics. Although his first profitable writing was music and literary criticism, in which capacity he wrote many highly articulate pieces of journalism, his main talent was for drama, and he wrote more than 60...
, writer & activist
Series 16, August - September 2008
- Jon SnowJon SnowJon Snow is an English journalist and presenter, currently employed by ITN. He is best known for presenting Channel 4 News.He was Chancellor of Oxford Brookes University from 2001 to 2008.-Early life:...
, journalist and broadcaster, nominated Lord LongfordFrank Pakenham, 7th Earl of LongfordFrancis Aungier Pakenham, 7th Earl of Longford KG, PC , known as the Lord Pakenham from 1945 to 1961, was a British politician, author, and social reformer...
, politician and social reformer - David LammyDavid LammyDavid Lindon Lammy is a British Labour Party politician, who has been the Member of Parliament for Tottenham since 2000.Lammy has commented on Britain's history of slavery.-Early life and Education:...
, politician, nominated Richard PryorRichard PryorRichard Franklin Lennox Thomas Pryor was an American stand-up comedian, actor, social critic, writer and MC. Pryor was known for uncompromising examinations of racism and topical contemporary issues, which employed colorful vulgarities, and profanity, as well as racial epithets...
, comedian - David AttenboroughDavid AttenboroughSir David Frederick Attenborough OM, CH, CVO, CBE, FRS, FZS, FSA is a British broadcaster and naturalist. His career as the face and voice of natural history programmes has endured for more than 50 years...
, naturalist and broadcaster, nominated Robert HookeRobert HookeRobert Hooke FRS was an English natural philosopher, architect and polymath.His adult life comprised three distinct periods: as a scientific inquirer lacking money; achieving great wealth and standing through his reputation for hard work and scrupulous honesty following the great fire of 1666, but...
, 17th century scientist - Bob HarrisBob Harris (radio)Robert Brinley Joseph "Bob" Harris, OBE , known as "Whispering" Bob Harris, is British radio host who currently works for BBC Radio 2, presenting music two nights a week...
, radio presenter, nominated Alan FreedAlan FreedAlbert James "Alan" Freed , also known as Moondog, was an American disc-jockey. He became internationally known for promoting the mix of blues, country and rhythm and blues music on the radio in the United States and Europe under the name of rock and roll...
, disc jockey - George OsborneGeorge OsborneGeorge Gideon Oliver Osborne, MP is a British Conservative politician. He is the Chancellor of the Exchequer of the United Kingdom, a role to which he was appointed in May 2010, and has been the Member of Parliament for Tatton since 2001.Osborne is part of the old Anglo-Irish aristocracy, known in...
, then shadow chancellor, nominated Henry VIIHenry VIIHenry VII may refer to:* Henry VII, Duke of Bavaria * Henry VII, Holy Roman Emperor * Henry VII of England * Henry II of Sicily sometimes described as Henry of Germany...
, king - Lesley RiddochLesley RiddochLesley Riddoch is a British radio broadcaster and journalist who lives in Perth.-Early career:Lesley Riddoch was born in England in 1963, spent her childhood in Belfast then moved to Glasgow in 1973 where she attended a local fee-paying private school...
, broadcaster, nominated David ErvineDavid ErvineDavid Ervine was a Northern Irish politician and the leader of the Progressive Unionist Party .-Biography:...
, Northern Ireland politician - Mike JacksonMike JacksonGeneral Sir Michael David "Mike" Jackson, is a retired British Army officer and one of its most high-profile generals since the Second World War. Originally commissioned into the Intelligence Corps in 1963, he transferred to the Parachute Regiment, with whom he served two of his three tours of...
, army general, nominated Bill SlimWilliam Slim, 1st Viscount SlimField Marshal William Joseph "Bill"'Slim, 1st Viscount Slim, KG, GCB, GCMG, GCVO, GBE, DSO, MC, KStJ was a British military commander and the 13th Governor-General of Australia....
, second world war Field Marshal - Deborah MeadenDeborah MeadenDeborah Meaden is a British business woman who ran a multi-million pound family holiday business, before completing a management buyout...
, businesswoman, nominated Lady Hester StanhopeLady Hester StanhopeLady Hester Lucy Stanhope , the eldest child of Charles Stanhope, 3rd Earl Stanhope by his first wife Lady Hester Pitt, is remembered by history as an intrepid traveller in an age when women were discouraged from being adventurous.-Early life and travels:Lady Hester was born and grew up at her...
, traveller, diplomat and spy - Ian HislopIan HislopIan David Hislop is a British journalist, satirist, comedian, writer, broadcaster and editor of the satirical magazine Private Eye...
, editor of Private Eye, nominated William HogarthWilliam HogarthWilliam Hogarth was an English painter, printmaker, pictorial satirist, social critic and editorial cartoonist who has been credited with pioneering western sequential art. His work ranged from realistic portraiture to comic strip-like series of pictures called "modern moral subjects"...
, painter and satirist
Series 17, December 2008 - February 2009
- Harvey GoldsmithHarvey GoldsmithHarvey Goldsmith CBE is a British performing arts promoter. He is best known as promoter of rock concerts, charity concerts, television broadcasts for the Prince's Trust and more recently the Teenage Cancer Trust shows at the Royal Albert Hall.During early 2007 he appeared on the Channel 4...
, performing arts promoter, nominated Luciano PavarottiLuciano Pavarottiright|thumb|Luciano Pavarotti performing at the opening of the Constantine Palace in [[Strelna]], 31 May 2003. The concert was part of the celebrations for the 300th anniversary of [[St...
, Italian operatic tenor - Michael GradeMichael GradeMichael Ian Grade, Baron Grade of Yarmouth CBE is a British broadcast executive and businessman. He was BBC chairman from 2004 to 2006 and executive chairman of ITV plc from 2007 to 2009.-Early life:...
, broadcasting executive, nominated Billy Marsh, theatrical agent - Raymond BriggsRaymond BriggsRaymond Redvers Briggs is an English illustrator, cartoonist, graphic novelist, and author who has achieved critical and popular success among adults and children...
, illustrator and writer, nominated BeachcomberBeachcomber (Pen name)Beachcomber was a nom de plume used by surrealist humorous columnists D. B. Wyndham-Lewis and, chiefly, J. B. Morton as authors of the Daily Express column "By the Way" in the period 1919-1975...
, columnist - David SoulDavid SoulDavid Soul is an American-British actor and singer, best known for his role as Detective Kenneth "Hutch" Hutchinson in the television programme Starsky and Hutch . He gained British citizenship in 2004.-Early life:...
, actor, nominated Dietrich BonhoefferDietrich BonhoefferDietrich Bonhoeffer was a German Lutheran pastor, theologian and martyr. He was a participant in the German resistance movement against Nazism and a founding member of the Confessing Church. He was involved in plans by members of the Abwehr to assassinate Adolf Hitler...
, German theologian and Resistance figure - Tracy-Ann ObermanTracy-Ann ObermanTracy-Ann Oberman is an English television, theatre and radio actress, known for her role as Chrissie Watts in the BBC soap opera Eastenders...
, actress, nominated Bette DavisBette DavisRuth Elizabeth "Bette" Davis was an American actress of film, television and theater. Noted for her willingness to play unsympathetic characters, she was highly regarded for her performances in a range of film genres, from contemporary crime melodramas to historical and period films and occasional...
, American film actress - Pam AyresPam AyresPam Ayres MBE is an English poet, songwriter and presenter of radio and television programmes. Her 1975 appearance on the television talent show Opportunity Knocks led to a variety of appearances on TV and radio shows, a one woman touring stage show and performing before the Queen.-Early life:Pam...
, poet, nominated Tony HancockTony HancockAnthony John "Tony" Hancock was an English actor and comedian.-Early life and career:Hancock was born in Southam Road, Hall Green, Birmingham, England, but from the age of three was brought up in Bournemouth, where his father, John Hancock, who ran the Railway Hotel in...
, comedian and actor - Redmond O'HanlonRedmond O'HanlonRedmond O'Hanlon, FRGS, FRSL is a British writer and scholar.-Life:O'Hanlon was born in 1947 in Dorset, England. He was educated at Marlborough College and then Oxford University. After taking his M.Phil. in nineteenth-century English studies in 1971 he was elected senior scholar, and in 1974...
, travel writer, nominated Alfred Russel WallaceAlfred Russel WallaceAlfred Russel Wallace, OM, FRS was a British naturalist, explorer, geographer, anthropologist and biologist...
, naturalist - Rachel De ThameRachel De ThameRachel De Thame is an English gardener and television presenter.-Biography:From age 10, De Thame studied ballet to a professional standard at the Royal Ballet School, White Lodge, Richmond Park. De Thame contracted glandular fever at age 15, and eventually chose to give up her dream of a dancing...
, horticulturalist, nominated Margot FonteynMargot FonteynDame Margot Fonteyn de Arias, DBE , was an English ballerina of the 20th century. She is widely regarded as one of the greatest classical ballet dancers of all time...
, ballerina - Ken LivingstoneKen LivingstoneKenneth Robert "Ken" Livingstone is an English politician who is currently a member of the centrist to centre-left Labour Party...
, former Mayor of London, nominated Robert Kennedy, American politician
Series 18, April - May 2009
- Stuart Hall, broadcaster, nominated Napoleon Bonaparte, French historical figure
- Polly ToynbeePolly ToynbeePolly Toynbee is a British journalist and writer, and has been a columnist for The Guardian newspaper since 1998. She is a social democrat and broadly supports the Labour Party, while urging it in many areas to be more left-wing...
, journalist, nominated Roy JenkinsRoy JenkinsRoy Harris Jenkins, Baron Jenkins of Hillhead OM, PC was a British politician.The son of a Welsh coal miner who later became a union official and Labour MP, Roy Jenkins served with distinction in World War II. Elected to Parliament as a Labour member in 1948, he served in several major posts in...
, politician - David MellorDavid MellorDavid John Mellor, QC is a British politician, non-practising barrister, broadcaster, journalist and football pundit. A member of the Conservative Party, he served in the Cabinet of Prime Minister John Major as Chief Secretary to the Treasury and Secretary of State for National Heritage , before...
, politician, nominated Thomas BeechamThomas BeechamSir Thomas Beecham, 2nd Baronet CH was an English conductor and impresario best known for his association with the London Philharmonic and the Royal Philharmonic orchestras. He was also closely associated with the Liverpool Philharmonic and Hallé orchestras...
, conductor - Ruby WaxRuby WaxRuby Wax is a BAFTA nominated American comedian who made a career in the United Kingdom as part of the alternative comedy scene in the 1980s.-Early life:...
, American comedian, nominated Carl JungCarl JungCarl Gustav Jung was a Swiss psychiatrist and the founder of Analytical Psychology. Jung is considered the first modern psychiatrist to view the human psyche as "by nature religious" and make it the focus of exploration. Jung is one of the best known researchers in the field of dream analysis and...
, Swiss founder of analytical psychology - Colin MurrayColin MurrayColin Murray is a Northern Irish sports and music radio and television presenter. He is the current host of the BBC Television show Match of the Day 2 on BBC Two, and the BBC Radio 5 Live shows 5 Live Sport and Fighting Talk, as well as a show on BBC Radio Ulster. He has previously hosted regular...
, broadcaster, nominated Frank SinatraFrank SinatraFrancis Albert "Frank" Sinatra was an American singer and actor.Beginning his musical career in the swing era with Harry James and Tommy Dorsey, Sinatra became an unprecedentedly successful solo artist in the early to mid-1940s, after being signed to Columbia Records in 1943. Being the idol of the...
, American singer - Andy SheppardAndy SheppardAndy Sheppard is a British jazz saxophonist and composer. He has been awarded several prizes at the British Jazz Awards, and has worked with some notable figures in contemporary jazz, including Gil Evans, Carla Bley, George Russell and Steve Swallow.-Biography:Sheppard was born in Warminster,...
, saxophonist, nominated John ColtraneJohn ColtraneJohn William Coltrane was an American jazz saxophonist and composer. Working in the bebop and hard bop idioms early in his career, Coltrane helped pioneer the use of modes in jazz and later was at the forefront of free jazz...
, saxophonist - Michael O'DonnellMichael O'DonnellMichael O'Donnell , is a British physician, journalist, author, and broadcaster.He became a full-time writer after working for 12 years as a doctor. On BBC Radio Four he was chairman of My Word! and wrote and presented Relative Values...
, doctor and broadcaster, nominated Fred AstaireFred AstaireFred Astaire was an American film and Broadway stage dancer, choreographer, singer and actor. His stage and subsequent film career spanned a total of 76 years, during which he made 31 musical films. He was named the fifth Greatest Male Star of All Time by the American Film Institute...
, dancer and actor - Misha GlennyMisha GlennyMisha Glenny is a British journalist who specializes in southeastern Europe and global organized crime.-Biography:Glenny is the son of the late Russian studies academic Michael Glenny...
, journalist, nominated Giovanni FalconeGiovanni FalconeGiovanni Falcone was an Sicilian/Italian prosecuting magistrate born in Palermo, Sicily. From his office in the Palace of Justice in Palermo, he spent most of his professional life trying to overthrow the power of the Mafia in Sicily...
, Italian magistrate and anti-Mafia campaigner
Series 19, August - September 2009
- Andrew MotionAndrew MotionSir Andrew Motion, FRSL is an English poet, novelist and biographer, who presided as Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom from 1999 to 2009.- Life and career :...
, Poet Laureate, nominated Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Poet Laureate - David MilibandDavid MilibandDavid Wright Miliband is a British Labour Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament for South Shields since 2001, and was the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs from 2007 to 2010. He is the elder son of the late Marxist theorist Ralph Miliband...
, Member of Parliament and Minister, nominated Joe SlovoJoe SlovoFor Joe Slovo Informal Settlement in Cape Town, see: Joe Slovo .Joe Slovo was a South African politician, long-time leader of the South African Communist Party , and leading member of the African National Congress.-Life:Slovo was born in Obeliai, Lithuania to a Jewish family who emigrated to South...
, South African ANC leader - George GallowayGeorge GallowayGeorge Galloway is a British politician, author, journalist and broadcaster who was a Member of Parliament from 1987 to 2010. He was formerly an MP for the Labour Party, first for Glasgow Hillhead and later for Glasgow Kelvin, before his expulsion from the party in October 2003, the same year...
, Member of Parliament, nominated John CornfordJohn CornfordRupert John Cornford was an English poet and communist. He was the son of F. M. Cornford and Frances Cornford.- Biography :...
, poet and activist - Dervla MurphyDervla MurphyDervla Murphy is an Irish touring cyclist and author of adventure travel books for over 40 years.Murphy is best known for her 1965 book Full Tilt: Ireland to India With a Bicycle, about an overland cycling trip through Europe, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India...
, travel writer, nominated Freya StarkFreya StarkDame Freya Madeline Stark, Mrs. Perowne, DBE was a British explorer and travel writer. She wrote more than two dozen books on her travels, which were mainly in Arabia, Iran and Afghanistan....
, travel writer - Rolf HarrisRolf HarrisRolf Harris, CBE, AM is an Australian musician, singer-songwriter, composer, painter and television personality.Born in Perth, Western Australia, Harris was a champion swimmer before studying art. He moved to England in 1952, where he started to appear on television programmes on which he drew the...
, Australian musician and artist, nominated Kyffin WilliamsKyffin WilliamsSir John "Kyffin" Williams, KBE, RA was a Welsh landscape painter who lived at Pwllfanogl, Llanfairpwll on the Island of Anglesey...
, Welsh artist - Boris JohnsonBoris JohnsonAlexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson is a British journalist and Conservative Party politician, who has been the elected Mayor of London since 2008...
, the Mayor of London, nominates Samuel JohnsonSamuel JohnsonSamuel Johnson , often referred to as Dr. Johnson, was an English author who made lasting contributions to English literature as a poet, essayist, moralist, literary critic, biographer, editor and lexicographer...
, writer of the great dictionary - Kate HumbleKate HumbleKatherine 'Kate' Humble is an English television presenter, mainly for the BBC, specialising in wildlife and science programmes...
, TV presenter, nominates Miriam MakebaMiriam MakebaMiriam Makeba , nicknamed Mama Africa, was a Grammy Award winning South African singer and civil rights activist....
, South African singer and anti-apartheid activist - Paul DanielsPaul DanielsPaul Daniels, born Newton Edward Daniels on 6 April 1938, is a British magician and television performer. He achieved international fame through his television series The Paul Daniels Magic Show, which ran on the BBC from 1979 to 1994.-Early life:...
, magician, nominates Harry HoudiniHarry HoudiniHarry Houdini was a Hungarian-born American magician and escapologist, stunt performer, actor and film producer noted for his sensational escape acts...
, escapologist - John MajorJohn MajorSir John Major, is a British Conservative politician, who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from 1990–1997...
, former British Prime Minister, nominates Rudyard KiplingRudyard KiplingJoseph Rudyard Kipling was an English poet, short-story writer, and novelist chiefly remembered for his celebration of British imperialism, tales and poems of British soldiers in India, and his tales for children. Kipling received the 1907 Nobel Prize for Literature...
, author and poet
Series 20, December 2009 - February 2010
- Sir Ranulph Fiennes, explorer, nominates Henry VHenry V of EnglandHenry V was King of England from 1413 until his death at the age of 35 in 1422. He was the second monarch belonging to the House of Lancaster....
, king of England - Rich HallRich HallRichard "Rich" Hall is an American comedian, writer and musician.-Early life and career:Hall was born in Alexandria, Virginia and grew up in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina. He is part Cherokee Indian...
, stand-up comedian, nominates Tennessee WilliamsTennessee WilliamsThomas Lanier "Tennessee" Williams III was an American writer who worked principally as a playwright in the American theater. He also wrote short stories, novels, poetry, essays, screenplays and a volume of memoirs...
, playwright - Neil InnesNeil InnesNeil James Innes is an English writer and performer of comic songs, best known for his collaborative work with Monty Python, and for playing in the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band and later The Rutles.-Personal life:...
, musician and performer, nominates Vivian StanshallVivian StanshallVivian Stanshall was an English singer-songwriter, painter, musician, author, poet and wit, best known for his work with the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band, for his surreal exploration of the British upper classes in Sir Henry at Rawlinson End, and for narrating Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells.-The great...
, musician and comic writer - Munira Mirza, London Mayoral advisor on arts and culture, nominates Hannah ArendtHannah ArendtHannah Arendt was a German American political theorist. She has often been described as a philosopher, although she refused that label on the grounds that philosophy is concerned with "man in the singular." She described herself instead as a political theorist because her work centers on the fact...
, political philosopher - Christopher BigginsChristopher BigginsChristopher Kenneth Biggins is an English actor and media personality.-Career:Biggins was born in Oldham, Lancashire, England and brought up in Salisbury, Wiltshire, where he took elocution lessons and participated in local drama groups...
, actor, nominates NeroNeroNero , was Roman Emperor from 54 to 68, and the last in the Julio-Claudian dynasty. Nero was adopted by his great-uncle Claudius to become his heir and successor, and succeeded to the throne in 54 following Claudius' death....
, Roman emperor - Jenny AgutterJenny AgutterJennifer Ann "Jenny" Agutter is an English film and television actress. She began her career as a child actress in the mid 1960s, starring in the BBC television series The Railway Children and the film adaptation of the same book, before moving on to adult roles and relocating to Hollywood.She...
, actress, nominates Lise MeitnerLise MeitnerLise Meitner FRS was an Austrian-born, later Swedish, physicist who worked on radioactivity and nuclear physics. Meitner was part of the team that discovered nuclear fission, an achievement for which her colleague Otto Hahn was awarded the Nobel Prize...
, Austrian physicist - David Bailey, photographer, nominates Pablo PicassoPablo PicassoPablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso known as Pablo Ruiz Picasso was a Spanish expatriate painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist, and stage designer, one of the greatest and most influential artists of the...
, artist - John WilliamsJohn WilliamsJohn Towner Williams is an American composer, conductor, and pianist. In a career spanning almost six decades, he has composed some of the most recognizable film scores in the history of motion pictures, including the Star Wars saga, Jaws, Superman, the Indiana Jones films, E.T...
, composer, nominates Agustin Barrios Mangore, Paraguayan guitarist - Richard DawkinsRichard DawkinsClinton Richard Dawkins, FRS, FRSL , known as Richard Dawkins, is a British ethologist, evolutionary biologist and author...
, ethologist and evolutionary biologist, nominates Bill HamiltonW. D. HamiltonWilliam Donald Hamilton FRS was a British evolutionary biologist, widely recognised as one of the greatest evolutionary theorists of the 20th century....
, evolutionary theorist
Series 21, April - May 2010
- John GodberJohn GodberJohn Harry Godber is an English dramatist, known mainly for his observational comedies. In the 'Plays and Players Yearbook' for 1993 he was calculated as the third most performed playwright in the UK behind William Shakespeare and Alan Ayckbourn. He has a wife and 2 children.-Biography:Godber was...
, playwright, nominated Bertolt BrechtBertolt BrechtBertolt Brecht was a German poet, playwright, and theatre director.An influential theatre practitioner of the 20th century, Brecht made equally significant contributions to dramaturgy and theatrical production, the latter particularly through the seismic impact of the tours undertaken by the...
, writer and theatre director - Clive Stafford SmithClive Stafford SmithClive Adrian Stafford Smith OBE is a British [see talk] lawyer who specialises in the areas of civil rights and the death penalty in the United States of America....
, human rights lawyer, nominated Robin HoodRobin HoodRobin Hood was a heroic outlaw in English folklore. A highly skilled archer and swordsman, he is known for "robbing from the rich and giving to the poor", assisted by a group of fellow outlaws known as his "Merry Men". Traditionally, Robin Hood and his men are depicted wearing Lincoln green clothes....
, folklore hero - Peter WhitePeter White (broadcaster)Peter White MBE is a British broadcast journalist and DJ.-Career:Blind since birth , he attended New College Worcester, which was then known as the Worcester College for the Blind...
, broadcaster, nominated Douglas JardineDouglas JardineDouglas Robert Jardine was an English cricketer and captain of the England cricket team from 1931 to 1933–34.When describing cricket seasons, the convention used is that a single year represents an English cricket season, while two years represent a southern hemisphere cricket season because it...
, England cricket captain - John LloydJohn Lloyd (writer)John Hardress Wilfred Lloyd CBE is a British comedy writer and television producer. He is the great nephew of John Hardress Lloyd.-Early life and career:...
, comedy writer and television producer, nominated Buckminster Fuller, poet - Stuart RoseStuart RoseSir Stuart Alan Ransom Rose is a British businessman, who was the executive chairman of the British retailer Marks & Spencer. For this role he was paid an annual salary of £1,130,000...
, chairman of Marks and Spencer, nominated Matthew FlindersMatthew FlindersCaptain Matthew Flinders RN was one of the most successful navigators and cartographers of his age. In a career that spanned just over twenty years, he sailed with Captain William Bligh, circumnavigated Australia and encouraged the use of that name for the continent, which had previously been...
, cartographer - Baroness Sarah Hogg, economist and journalist, nominated Charlotte Guest, polymath and businesswoman
- Brian CoxBrian Cox (physicist)Brian Edward Cox, OBE , is a British particle physicist, a Royal Society University Research Fellow and a professor at the University of Manchester. He is a member of the High Energy Physics group at the University of Manchester, and works on the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider at...
, physicist, nominated Carl SaganCarl SaganCarl Edward Sagan was an American astronomer, astrophysicist, cosmologist, author, science popularizer and science communicator in astronomy and natural sciences. He published more than 600 scientific papers and articles and was author, co-author or editor of more than 20 books...
, astronomer and astrophysicist - Viv AndersonViv AndersonVivian Alexander "Viv" Anderson MBE is an English football player and coach, who played for clubs including Nottingham Forest, Arsenal, Manchester United and Sheffield Wednesday in the 1970s and 1980s...
, England footballer, nominated Arthur WhartonArthur WhartonArthur Wharton is widely considered to be the first black professional association football player in the world...
, athlete and football player
Series 22, August - September 2010
- John HarrisJohn Harris-Politics and government:*John Harris , English MP for Grampound in 1555*John Harris English MP for Bere Alston in 1640*John Harris , English MP for Liskeard...
, journalist and author, nominated John LennonJohn LennonJohn Winston Lennon, MBE was an English musician and singer-songwriter who rose to worldwide fame as one of the founding members of The Beatles, one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music...
, musician - Bettany HughesBettany HughesBettany Hughes is an English academic historian, author and broadcaster.Hughes' father is the actor Peter Hughes and her brother is the cricketer and journalist Simon Hughes...
, historian, nominated SapphoSapphoSappho was an Ancient Greek poet, born on the island of Lesbos. Later Greeks included her in the list of nine lyric poets. Her birth was sometime between 630 and 612 BC, and it is said that she died around 570 BC, but little is known for certain about her life...
, poet - Dominic SandbrookDominic SandbrookDominic Sandbrook http://dominicsandbrook.com/wordpress/about/ is a British historian. Born in Bridgnorth, Shropshire, he was educated at Malvern College...
, historian, nominated Richard NixonRichard NixonRichard Milhous Nixon was the 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. The only president to resign the office, Nixon had previously served as a US representative and senator from California and as the 36th Vice President of the United States from 1953 to 1961 under...
, American president - Camila BatmanghelidjhCamila BatmanghelidjhCamila Batmanghelidjh is a British businesswoman, charity leader and author of Iranian and Belgian origin. She has been living in England since the age of 11 and founded two charities - the place2b and Kids Company where she and her team care for 14,000 vulnerable children and young people in London...
, founder of Kids CompanyKids CompanyKids Company is a charity organisation that works with young ex-offenders and disadvantaged children through inner-city schools in London, a drop-in centre in Camberwell, and the Urban Academy in Southwark...
, nominated Mary CarpenterMary CarpenterMary Carpenter was an English educational and social reformer. The daughter of a Unitarian minister, she founded a ragged school and reformatories, bringing previously unavailable educational opportunities to poor children and young offenders in Bristol.She published articles and books on her work...
, educational and social reformer - Eleanor BronEleanor BronEleanor Bron is an English stage, film and television actress and author.-Early life and family:Bron was born in 1938 in Stanmore, Middlesex, to a Jewish family of Eastern European origin...
, actress, nominated Simone WeilSimone WeilSimone Weil , was a French philosopher, Christian mystic, and social activist.-Biography:Weil was born in Paris to Alsatian agnostic Jewish parents who fled the annexation of Alsace-Lorraine to Germany. She grew up in comfortable circumstances, and her father was a doctor. Her only sibling was...
, French philosopher and mystic - Edwina CurrieEdwina CurrieEdwina Jonesnée Cohen is a former British Member of Parliament. First elected as a Conservative Party MP in 1983, she was a Junior Health Minister for two years, before resigning in 1988 over the controversy over salmonella in eggs...
, former MPMember of ParliamentA Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
, nominated Golda MeirGolda MeirGolda Meir ; May 3, 1898 – December 8, 1978) was a teacher, kibbutznik and politician who became the fourth Prime Minister of the State of Israel....
, former Prime Minister of IsraelPrime Minister of IsraelThe Prime Minister of Israel is the head of the Israeli government and the most powerful political figure in Israel . The prime minister is the country's chief executive. The official residence of the prime minister, Beit Rosh Hamemshala is in Jerusalem... - Digby JonesDigby JonesDigby Marritt Jones, Baron Jones of Birmingham, Kt is a British businessman and politician, who has served as Director General of the CBI and Minister of State for Trade and Investment...
, former director of the CBIConfederation of British IndustryThe Confederation of British Industry is a British not for profit organisation incorporated by Royal charter which promotes the interests of its members, some 200,000 British businesses, a figure which includes some 80% of FTSE 100 companies and around 50% of FTSE 350 companies.-Role:The CBI works...
, nominated Winston ChurchillWinston ChurchillSir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, was a predominantly Conservative British politician and statesman known for his leadership of the United Kingdom during the Second World War. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest wartime leaders of the century and served as Prime Minister twice...
, former Prime Minister of the United KingdomPrime Minister of the United KingdomThe Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the Head of Her Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom. The Prime Minister and Cabinet are collectively accountable for their policies and actions to the Sovereign, to Parliament, to their political party and...
Series 23, November 2010 - January 2011
- Mark BorkowskiMark BorkowskiMark Borkowski is a British PR agent and author with an interest in the history of public relations and the art of the publicity stunt. He attended King's Stanley Junior School and St Peters High School in Gloucester and began working in public relations at nineteen years old...
, PR man, nominated Malcolm McLarenMalcolm McLarenMalcolm Robert Andrew McLaren was an English performer, impresario, self-publicist and manager of the Sex Pistols and the New York Dolls...
, the rock & roll swindler - John HegleyJohn HegleyJohn Richard Hegley is an English performance poet, comedian, musician and songwriter.-Early life:He was born in the Newington Green area of Islington, London, England, into a Roman Catholic household. He was brought up in Luton and Bristol...
, poet, nominated DH Lawrence, writer - Gerry RobinsonGerry RobinsonSir Gerrard Jude "Gerry" Robinson is an Irish businessman. He is the former non-executive Chairman of Allied Domecq and the ex-Chairman/Chief Executive of Granada.-Early life:...
, business guru, nominated Samuel BeckettSamuel BeckettSamuel Barclay Beckett was an Irish avant-garde novelist, playwright, theatre director, and poet. He wrote both in English and French. His work offers a bleak, tragicomic outlook on human nature, often coupled with black comedy and gallows humour.Beckett is widely regarded as among the most...
, Irish playwright - Lionel BlairLionel BlairLionel Blair is a British actor, choreographer, tap dancer and television presenter. He is the son of Myer Ogus and Deborah Greenbaum...
, dancer & TV celebrity, nominated Sammy Davis Jr, dancer, singer & entertainer - Neil KinnockNeil KinnockNeil Gordon Kinnock, Baron Kinnock is a Welsh politician belonging to the Labour Party. He served as a Member of Parliament from 1970 until 1995 and as Labour Leader and Leader of Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition from 1983 until 1992 - his leadership of the party during nearly nine years making him...
, former MPMember of ParliamentA Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
, nominated Aneurin BevanAneurin BevanAneurin "Nye" Bevan was a British Labour Party politician who was the Deputy Leader of the Labour Party from 1959 until his death in 1960. The son of a coal miner, Bevan was a lifelong champion of social justice and the rights of working people...
, founder of the NHS - Barry CryerBarry CryerBarry Charles Cryer OBE is a British writer and comedian. Cryer has written for many noted performers, including Dave Allen, Stanley Baxter, Jack Benny, Rory Bremner, George Burns, Jasper Carrott, Tommy Cooper, Les Dawson, Dick Emery, Kenny Everett, Bruce Forsyth, David Frost, Bob Hope, Frankie...
, comedian, nominated JB Priestley, novelist & playwright - Jim Al-KhaliliJim Al-KhaliliJim Al-Khalili OBE is an Iraqi-born British theoretical physicist, author and science communicator. He is Professor of Theoretical Physics and Chair in the Public Engagement in Science at the University of Surrey...
, Iraqi-born physicist, nominated Gertrude BellGertrude BellGertrude Margaret Lowthian Bell, CBE was an English writer, traveller, political officer, administrator, and archaeologist who explored, mapped, and became highly influential to British imperial policy-making due to her extensive travels in Greater Syria, Mesopotamia, Asia Minor, and Arabia. Along...
, writer, traveller, politician & administrator - Katherine Whitehorn, journalist, nominated Mary StottMary StottMary Stott was a British feminist and journalist. Stott was a journalist and columnist on the "Women's Page" of The Guardian....
, campaigning journalist - Kwame Kwei-ArmahKwame Kwei-ArmahKwame Kwei-Armah, is a British actor, playwright, singer and broadcaster. In 2005 he became the second black Briton to have a play staged in the West End...
, playwright & actor, nominated Marcus GarveyMarcus GarveyMarcus Mosiah Garvey, Jr., ONH was a Jamaican publisher, journalist, entrepreneur, and orator who was a staunch proponent of the Black Nationalism and Pan-Africanism movements, to which end he founded the Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League...
, inspirational black leader
Series 24, April–May 2011
- Clive SinclairClive SinclairSir Clive Marles Sinclair is a British entrepreneur and inventor, most commonly known for his work in consumer electronics in the late 1970s and early 1980s....
, British inventor, nominated Thomas EdisonThomas EdisonThomas Alva Edison was an American inventor and businessman. He developed many devices that greatly influenced life around the world, including the phonograph, the motion picture camera, and a long-lasting, practical electric light bulb. In addition, he created the world’s first industrial...
, American inventor - Charles HazlewoodCharles HazlewoodCharles Matthew Egerton Hazlewood is a British conductor and advocate for broadening access to orchestral music. Renowned for his widespread presence across the BBC, he conducts orchestras around the world, making his debut with the Royal Concertgebouw in Amsterdam and the Orchestra of the Age of...
, conductor, nominated Leonard BernsteinLeonard BernsteinLeonard Bernstein August 25, 1918 – October 14, 1990) was an American conductor, composer, author, music lecturer and pianist. He was among the first conductors born and educated in the United States of America to receive worldwide acclaim...
, conductor and composer - Diana QuickDiana Quick-Life:Quick was born in London, England. She grew up in Dartford, Kent, the third of a dentist's four children. She was educated at Dartford Grammar School for Girls, Kent. She was greatly aided by her English teacher, Miss Davis, who encouraged her to pursue acting...
, actress, nominated Simone de BeauvoirSimone de BeauvoirSimone-Ernestine-Lucie-Marie Bertrand de Beauvoir, often shortened to Simone de Beauvoir , was a French existentialist philosopher, public intellectual, and social theorist. She wrote novels, essays, biographies, an autobiography in several volumes, and monographs on philosophy, politics, and...
, philosopher - Sue MacGregorSue MacGregorSusan Katriona MacGregor CBE is a British writer and broadcaster.-Early life:Her parents were Scottish and emigrated to South Africa where she was brought up. Her father was a doctor, a neurologist who was in the British 14th Army in Burma in the Royal Army Medical Corps...
, broadcaster, nominated Kathleen FerrierKathleen FerrierKathleen Mary Ferrier CBE was an English contralto who achieved an international reputation as a stage, concert and recording artist, with a repertoire extending from folksong and popular ballads to the classical works of Bach, Brahms, Mahler and Elgar...
, contralto singer - Lynne TrussLynne TrussLynne Truss is an English writer and journalist, best known for her popular book Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation.-Early life:...
, writer and journalist, nominated Lewis CarrollLewis CarrollCharles Lutwidge Dodgson , better known by the pseudonym Lewis Carroll , was an English author, mathematician, logician, Anglican deacon and photographer. His most famous writings are Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and its sequel Through the Looking-Glass, as well as the poems "The Hunting of the...
, mathematician and author of Alice in Wonderland - Caroline LucasCaroline LucasCaroline Patricia Lucas is a British politician. Lucas is the leader of the Green Party of England and Wales, and the Green Party's first and only Member of Parliament in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom...
, British Green MP, nominated Petra KellyPetra KellyPetra Karin Kelly was a German politician and activist. She was instrumental in founding the German Green Party, the first Green party to rise to prominence worldwide.- Early life :...
, German Green policitian - Matthew SyedMatthew SyedMatthew Syed is a British journalist and broadcaster. He used to be an English table tennis international, and was the English number one for many years...
, sports journalist, nominated Jack JohnsonJack Johnson (boxer)John Arthur Johnson , nicknamed the “Galveston Giant,” was an American boxer. At the height of the Jim Crow era, Johnson became the first African American world heavyweight boxing champion...
, "the Galveston Giant", boxer - Diane AbbottDiane AbbottDiane Julie Abbott is a British Labour Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament for Hackney North and Stoke Newington since 1987, when she became the first black woman to be elected to the House of Commons...
, Member of Parliament, nominated Harold PinterHarold PinterHarold Pinter, CH, CBE was a Nobel Prize–winning English playwright and screenwriter. One of the most influential modern British dramatists, his writing career spanned more than 50 years. His best-known plays include The Birthday Party , The Homecoming , and Betrayal , each of which he adapted to...
, playwright
Series 25, August-September 2011
- Tim ButcherTim ButcherTim Butcher is an English journalist, broadcaster and best-selling author.Born in Rugby, Warwickshire, England, he was educated at Rugby School, and Magdalen College, Oxford University....
, journalist, nominated Graham GreeneGraham GreeneHenry Graham Greene, OM, CH was an English author, playwright and literary critic. His works explore the ambivalent moral and political issues of the modern world...
, author, playwright and critic - Janice LongJanice LongJanice Long is an English radio broadcaster currently working on BBC Radio 2. Her show is on Sunday to Thursday nights from midnight to 02:00. She is the older sister of TV and radio personality Keith Chegwin.-Early career:...
, broadcaster, nominated Kirsty MacCollKirsty MacCollKirsty Anna MacColl was an English singer-songwriter.MacColl scored several pop hits from the early 1980s to the early 1990s...
, singer-songwriter - Gwyneth LewisGwyneth LewisGwyneth Lewis is a Welsh poet, and was the first National Poet for Wales.-Biography:Born into a Welsh speaking family, Lewis's father started teaching her English when her mother went into hospital to give birth to her sister....
, poet, nominated Emily DickinsonEmily DickinsonEmily Elizabeth Dickinson was an American poet. Born in Amherst, Massachusetts, to a successful family with strong community ties, she lived a mostly introverted and reclusive life...
, American poet - Antonio CarluccioAntonio CarluccioAntonio Carluccio, OBE OMRI is an Italian chef, restaurateur and food expert, based in London.-Biography:Antonio Carluccio was born in Vietri sul Mare, Salerno, Italy. His father was a stationmaster, and he moved with his father's job when he was young and grew up in Piedmont...
, Italian restaurateur, nominated Eduardo PaolozziEduardo PaolozziSir Eduardo Luigi Paolozzi, KBE, RA , was a Scottish sculptor and artist. He was a major figure in the international art sphere, while, working on his own interpretation and vision of the world. Paolozzi investigated how we can fit into the modern world to resemble our fragmented civilization...
, artist - Daisy GoodwinDaisy GoodwinDaisy Georgia Goodwin is an award-winning British television producer, poetry curator and best-selling novelist.Having attended Westminster School in London and Queen's College, London, Goodwin studied history at Trinity College, Cambridge and attended Columbia Film School before joining the BBC...
, broadcaster and poetry curator, nominated William ShakespeareWilliam ShakespeareWilliam Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...
, poet and playwright - Simon DaySimon DaySimon Day is a British comedian most famous for his roles in the sketch show The Fast Show, sitcom Grass and a series of comedic adverts for Powergen.-Life and career:...
, comedian, nominated Hans FalladaHans FalladaHans Fallada , born Rudolf Wilhelm Friedrich Ditzen in Greifswald, Germany, was a German writer of the first half of the 20th century. Some of his better known novels include Little Man, What Now? and Every Man Dies Alone...
, German writer - Simon JenkinsSimon JenkinsSir Simon David Jenkins is a British newspaper columnist and author, and since November 2008 has been chairman of the National Trust. He currently writes columns for both The Guardian and London's Evening Standard, and was previously a commentator for The Times, which he edited from 1990 to 1992...
, journalist, nominated Edwin LutyensEdwin LutyensSir Edwin Landseer Lutyens, OM, KCIE, PRA, FRIBA was a British architect who is known for imaginatively adapting traditional architectural styles to the requirements of his era...
, architect - Cerys MatthewsCerys MatthewsCerys Elizabeth Matthews is a Welsh singer and songwriter. She is known as the lead singer of the Welsh rock band Catatonia, her more recent bilingual solo career, and for a 1998 Christmas duet with Tom Jones.-Biography:...
, musician, nominated Hildegard of BingenHildegard of BingenBlessed Hildegard of Bingen , also known as Saint Hildegard, and Sibyl of the Rhine, was a German writer, composer, philosopher, Christian mystic, Benedictine abbess, visionary, and polymath. Elected a magistra by her fellow nuns in 1136, she founded the monasteries of Rupertsberg in 1150 and...
, German mystic - Graeme le SauxGraeme Le SauxGraeme Pierre Le Saux is a retired English footballer of French ancestry who played for the Premier League clubs Chelsea, Blackburn Rovers and Southampton, and for the England national football team. Primarily a left back, he was sometimes also played in midfield or on the left wing.After...
, former England footballer, nominated Gerald DurrellGerald DurrellGerald "Gerry" Malcolm Durrell, OBE was a naturalist, zookeeper, conservationist, author and television presenter...
, author and conservationist
Earlier highlights
Great Lives features include:A E Housman
The murder mystery writer Colin Dexter
Colin Dexter
Norman Colin Dexter, OBE, is an English crime writer, known for his Inspector Morse novels which were written between 1975 and 1999 and adapted as a television series from 1987 to 2000.-Early life and career:...
suggested the English poet A E Housman as his "great life" in May 2008. Dexter and Housman were both classicists who found a popular audience for another genre of writing. Parris said he had never much cared for Housman, but admitted that this changed his mind.
Nina Simone
Nina Simone
Eunice Kathleen Waymon , better known by her stage name Nina Simone , was an American singer, songwriter, pianist, arranger, and civil rights activist widely associated with jazz music...
The legendary chanteuse, pianist, composer and civil rights
Civil rights
Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from unwarranted infringement by governments and private organizations, and ensure one's ability to participate in the civil and political life of the state without discrimination or repression.Civil rights include...
activist Nina Simone is the choice of another female musician who’s made a career of defying convention, Joanna MacGregor
Joanna MacGregor
Joanna MacGregor is a classical, jazz and contemporary pianist.-Biography:MacGregor grew up in North London, and was educated at home by her Seventh-day Adventist parents until she attended South Hampstead High School at the age of 11. Her mother is a piano teacher who studied at the Royal...
.
Julia Ward Howe
Julia Ward Howe
Julia Ward Howe was a prominent American abolitionist, social activist, and poet, most famous as the author of "The Battle Hymn of the Republic".-Biography:...
The American academic, Elaine Showalter
Elaine Showalter
Elaine Showalter is an American literary critic, feminist, and writer on cultural and social issues. She is one of the founders of feminist literary criticism in United States academia, developing the concept and practice of gynocritics.She is well known and respected in both academic and popular...
, joins presenter Matthew Parris to discuss the life of the 19th century American writer, Julia Ward Howe. Best known as the author of the Battle Hymn of the Republic, Ward Howe was a feminist, a pacifist and - according to Showalter - a great lost poet. With Professor Gary Williams.
W. H. Auden
W. H. Auden
Wystan Hugh Auden , who published as W. H. Auden, was an Anglo-American poet,The first definition of "Anglo-American" in the OED is: "Of, belonging to, or involving both England and America." See also the definition "English in origin or birth, American by settlement or citizenship" in See also...
Broadcaster Jeremy Vine
Jeremy Vine
Jeremy Guy Vine is a British author, journalist and news presenter for the BBC. He is known for his direct interview style and exclusive reporting from war-torn areas throughout Africa...
loves the poetry of W.H. Auden but isn't much interested in his life. Presenter Matthew Parris doesn't think a lot of the poetry but is fascinated by Auden's life. Biographer Richard Davenport-Hines
Richard Davenport-Hines
Richard Davenport-Hines is a British historian and literary biographer, best known for his biography of the poet W. H. Auden....
thinks you need to understand the life to appreciate the work. Jeremy Vine reads one of his own poems and wonders whether Auden would have liked it. Matthew thinks it's "estimable". Richard thinks it's "sincere". They both wonder whether Auden would have fancied Jeremy. And all three examine Auden's life.
Eleanor Roosevelt
Eleanor Roosevelt
Anna Eleanor Roosevelt was the First Lady of the United States from 1933 to 1945. She supported the New Deal policies of her husband, distant cousin Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and became an advocate for civil rights. After her husband's death in 1945, Roosevelt continued to be an international...
Eleanor Roosevelt, wife of US president Franklin Delano Roosevelt, was born into a wealthy American family but transcended her origins to become a formidable campaigner for human rights and economic justice - both in the United States and on the world stage. Civil liberties lawyer Helena Kennedy argues that she's one of the great women of the last century, and, with the help of Roosevelt biographer, Blanche Wiesen Cook
Blanche Wiesen Cook
Blanche Wiesen Cook , Distinguished Professor of history at John Jay College in the City University of New York, is the author of Eleanor Roosevelt: Volume One 1884-1933, a Los Angeles Times Book Prize winning biography of Eleanor Roosevelt...
, examines her extraordinary life. Presented by Matthew Parris.
Max Miller
Max Miller was one of the highest-paid and most popular comedians of the 20th century. But his risqué humour got him banned from the BBC. TV critic Garry Bushell
Garry Bushell
Garry Bushell is an English newspaper columnist, rock music journalist, television presenter, author and political activist. Bushell also sings in the Oi! band The Gonads and manages the New York City Oi! band Maninblack. Bushell's recurring themes are comedy, country and class...
thinks he represented the true voice of working-class humour, and with the help of Roy Hudd
Roy Hudd
Roy Hudd, OBE is an English comedian, actor, radio host and author, and an authority on the history of music hall entertainment.- Early life :...
, who worked with Miller, examines the career of the "cheeky chappie". Matthew Parris presents.
Leon Trotsky
Leon Trotsky
Leon Trotsky , born Lev Davidovich Bronshtein, was a Russian Marxist revolutionary and theorist, Soviet politician, and the founder and first leader of the Red Army....
A fiery return for the biographical series in which Matthew Parris chooses the living, and the living choose the dead. Christopher Hitchens
Christopher Hitchens
Christopher Eric Hitchens is an Anglo-American author and journalist whose books, essays, and journalistic career span more than four decades. He has been a columnist and literary critic at The Atlantic, Vanity Fair, Slate, World Affairs, The Nation, Free Inquiry, and became a media fellow at the...
proposes Leon Trotsky, hero of the Russian Revolution later assassinated with an ice pick in the skull. He sees him as the perfect combination of the man of ideas and man of action, and says Trotsky's writings still make the hairs on his neck stand up. Matthew Parris is joined by Professor Robert Service
Robert Service (historian)
Robert John Service is a British historian, academic, and author who has written extensively on the history of Soviet Russia, particularly the era from the October Revolution to Stalin's death...
in resisting him all the way.
Robin Day
Robin Day
Sir Robin Day, OBE was a British political broadcaster and commentator. His obituary in the Guardian stated that "he was the most outstanding television journalist of his generation...
News presenter Krishnan Guru-Murthy
Krishnan Guru-Murthy
Krishnan Guru-Murthy , is a British television presenter and journalist employed by Channel 4. He presents the Channel 4 Evening News and the foreign affairs programme Unreported World.-Education:...
nominates his illustrious predecessor Robin Day. During the height of his career, he was regarded as Britain's finest political interviewer - the "great inquisitor" - on television and radio. Some salute him for breaking the mould of deferential interviewing but others think he bullied his subjects and stole the limelight himself with his mannered performances. Krishnan Guru-Murthy explains why for him Day remains a hero, we hear archive evidence, and Matthew Parris chairs the programme.
W. G. Grace
W. G. Grace
William Gilbert Grace, MRCS, LRCP was an English amateur cricketer who is widely acknowledged as one of the greatest players of all time, having a special significance in terms of his importance to the development of the sport...
Piers Morgan
Piers Morgan
Piers Stefan Pughe-Morgan , known professionally as Piers Morgan, is a British journalist and television presenter. He is editorial director of First News, a national newspaper for children....
, former editor of the Daily Mirror and life-long cricket
Cricket
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players on an oval-shaped field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard long pitch. One team bats, trying to score as many runs as possible while the other team bowls and fields, trying to dismiss the batsmen and thus limit the...
enthusiast, nominates W.G. Grace as the greatest English cricketer and, some would say, the greatest English sportsman of all time. He seeks to persuade presenter Matthew Parris, who is himself not a fan of cricket, of the achievements of the man who elevated cricket to its unique place in English life. Grace's biographer Simon Rae acts as umpire.
Tamara Karsavina
Tamara Karsavina
Tamara Platonovna Karsavina was a famous Russian ballerina, renowned for her beauty, who was most noted as a Principal Artist of the Imperial Russian Ballet and later the Ballets Russes of Serge Diaghilev...
Writer and broadcaster Anna Raeburn
Anna Raeburn
Anna Raeburn is a British broadcaster and journalist who is famous for her role as an 'agony aunt' giving advice on life relationship and more general life problems. She is principally known for her work on Capital Radio in London....
nominates the ballerina Tamara Karsavina. Born in Russia in 1885 she was caught up in the October revolution and fled to England, where she lived until her death in 1978. She was the leading female dancer in Diaghilev's Ballet Russes from its beginning in 1909 until 1922, and her partnership with Nijinsky created many of the greatest ballet roles that we know. In England she coached Margot Fonteyn and created roles for Frederick Ashton. Anna Raeburn explains why Karsavina still lives for her and Matthew Parris chairs the programme, with expert contribution from Judith Mackrell.
Ignaz Semmelweis
Ignaz Semmelweis
Ignaz Philipp Semmelweis was a Hungarian physician now known as an early pioneer of antiseptic procedures. Described as the "savior of mothers", Semmelweis discovered that the incidence of puerperal fever could be drastically cut by the use of hand disinfection in obstetrical clinics...
Writer and broadcaster Frances Cairncross
Frances Cairncross
Frances Anne Cairncross CBE is a British economist, journalist and academic.Cairncross read Modern History at St Anne's College, Oxford, graduating in 1965, and holds an MA in Economics from Brown University, Rhode Island....
nominates a forgotten hero of medicine: Ignaz Semmelweis. Semmelweis was a doctor ahead of his time: in the mid-nineteenth century he discovered why women were dying in droves after childbirth: doctors were spreading disease on their hands around hospitals. The solution he came up with was regular hand-washing. But his message was ignored. Women carried on dying, Semmelweis went mad, and he died in obscurity. Matthew Parris chairs the programme, and Semmelweis biographer Sherwin B. Nuland
Sherwin B. Nuland
Dr. Sherwin Nuland is an American surgeon and author who teaches bioethics, history of medicine, and medicine at the Yale University School of Medicine and, upon occasion, bioethics and history of medicine at Yale College...
offers expert advice.
Johnny Weissmuller
Johnny Weissmuller
Johnny Weissmuller was an Austro-Hungarian-born American swimmer and actor best known for playing Tarzan in movies. Weissmuller was one of the world's best swimmers in the 1920s, winning five Olympic gold medals and one bronze medal. He won fifty-two US National Championships and set sixty-seven...
Olympic gold medallist Duncan Goodhew
Duncan Goodhew
Duncan Alexander Goodhew MBE is a British swimming athlete. After swimming competitively in America as a collegian at North Carolina State University, he was an Olympic swimmer for Great Britain and won Olympic gold and bronze medals at the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow.-Biography:Goodhew...
tells Matthew Parris why athlete-turned-actor Johnny Weissmuller deserves the mantle of greatness. Weissmuller's only son Johnny Jr joins them to explore his heroic father's disturbing childhood, his astonishing swimming talent, and his Hollywood adventures with bad-tempered chimps and ticklish tigers.
Ella Fitzgerald
Ella Fitzgerald
Ella Jane Fitzgerald , also known as the "First Lady of Song" and "Lady Ella," was an American jazz and song vocalist...
The singer Ella Fitzgerald is the choice of the entrepreneur Ivan Massow
Ivan Massow
Ivan Massow is a British entrepreneur and financial adviser. He founded PayMeMy.com in September 2011; a service which pays back 'trail' commissions - often thousands of pounds a year - to policy-holders themselves, instead of the IFAs who originally set the policies up.Ivan was also Chairman of...
on this week's edition of Great Lives. He joins presenter Matthew Parris and Dame Cleo Laine
Cleo Laine
Dame Cleo Laine, Lady Dankworth, DBE is a jazz singer and an actress, noted for her scat singing and vocal range...
to explore the contradictions in the life of the woman they called "the First Lady of Song".
Sigmund Freud
Sigmund Freud
Sigmund Freud , born Sigismund Schlomo Freud , was an Austrian neurologist who founded the discipline of psychoanalysis...
Craig Brown
Craig Brown (satirist)
Craig Edward Moncrieff Brown is a British critic and satirist from England, probably best known for his work in Private Eye.-Biography:...
reveals great dreams on Great Lives as he proposes Sigmund Freud. Almost seventy years after his death, the father of psychoanalysis remains a powerful and compelling character, though critics have denounced his work as "the greatest intellectual confidence trick of the last century". Matthew Parris chairs the programme, and Adam Phillips
Adam Phillips (psychologist)
Adam Phillips is a British child psychotherapist, literary critic and essayist. He is known for his books dealing with topics related to psychoanalysis...
offers expert advice.
Noel Coward
Noël Coward
Sir Noël Peirce Coward was an English playwright, composer, director, actor and singer, known for his wit, flamboyance, and what Time magazine called "a sense of personal style, a combination of cheek and chic, pose and poise".Born in Teddington, a suburb of London, Coward attended a dance academy...
Julian Clary
Julian Clary
Julian Peter McDonald Clary is an English comedian and novelist, known for his deliberately stereotypical camp style, with a heavy reliance on innuendo and double entendre.-Early life and education:...
proves the perfect guest for the series in which one of the living proposes one of the dead. His hero is Sir Noel Coward, nominated here for his elegance, for his plays, and for being gay in an age when it was still illegal. Sheridan Morley
Sheridan Morley
Sheridan Morley was an English author, biographer, critic, director, actor and broadcaster. He was the eldest son of actor Robert Morley and grandson of actress Dame Gladys Cooper, and wrote biographies of both...
reveals many of the secrets of his life, including the extent of his role in allied intelligence during the Second World War, while presenter Matthew Parris wonders how long his literary achievements will last.
Andrew Carnegie
Andrew Carnegie
Andrew Carnegie was a Scottish-American industrialist, businessman, and entrepreneur who led the enormous expansion of the American steel industry in the late 19th century...
In 1901, when Andrew Carnegie sold his steel making empire to the banker J.P Morgan for 480 million dollars, the financier congratulated him on becoming “the richest man in the World”. But it’s not just Carnegie’s wealth that inspired this week’s guest, Daily Telegraph’s Editor-at-Large Jeff Randall
Jeff Randall (journalist)
Jeff William Randall is a journalist, who presents Jeff Randall Live, a business and politics show on Sky News...
, to nominate him for ‘Great Lives’. By the time he died, Carnegie had given most of his vast fortune away. Presenter Matthew Parris invites Randall to explore the life of an extraordinary businessman and philanthropist, with the help of Eric Homberger, Professor of American Studies at UEA.
Morecambe and Wise
Morecambe and Wise
Eric Morecambe and Ernie Wise, usually referred to as Morecambe and Wise, or Eric and Ernie, were a British comic double act, working in variety, radio, film and most successfully in television. Their partnership lasted from 1941 until Morecambe's death in 1984...
Matthew Parris admits that he finds Morecambe and Wise "chummy and unchallenging" and their scripts to be "rather lame". But fear not; on hand to defend the talents of the comedy duo is Penelope Keith
Penelope Keith
Penelope Anne Constance Keith, CBE, DL is an English actress.Having started her television career in the 1950s, Penelope Keith became a household name in the United Kingdom in the 1970s when she played Margo Leadbetter in the sitcom The Good Life...
, who has not only selected them as her "great lives" for the consistently brilliant biography series, but was also their guest star in the 1977 Christmas edition of the show, which notched up over 28 million viewers.