PODCAST

Last Word

BBC Radio 4

Radio 4"s weekly obituary programme, telling the life stories of those who have died recently

society & culture personal journals

All Episodes

28:04

Jeff Beck, Alice Mahon, Tom Karen OBE, Gina Lollobrigida

Last Word ·

2023/01/20

Matthew Bannister onJeff Beck (pictured), who was acclaimed as one of the most influential and innovative rock guitarists of all time.Alice Mahon, the left wing Labour MP who often rebelled against her own party.Tom Karen OBE, the designer who came up with the Raleigh Chopper Bike, the Bond Bug, the Reliant Robin and the Popemobile.Gina Lollobrigida, the first post war Italian actress to gain an international reputation as a sex symbol. She was known for her rivalry with Sophia Loren. Producer: Neil

28:11

Gianluca Vialli, Fay Weldon, Michael Dower, Anita...

Last Word ·

2023/01/13

Matthew Bannister onGianluca Vialli (pictured), the Italian footballer who won many major trophies with Sampdoria and Juventus before moving to Chelsea as a player and then manager.Fay Weldon, the author who told stories of women taking control of their own destinies, including ‘The Life and Loves of A She Devil’.Michael Dower, the former Director General of the Countryside Commission who devoted his life to conserving and developing the British countryside.Anita Pointer, one of three Pointer

28:16

Pope Benedict XVI, Dame Vivienne Westwood, James...

Last Word ·

2023/01/06

Matthew Bannister onPope Benedict XVI, the religious conservative who was the first Pontiff to resign from the job in almost 600 years.Dame Vivienne Westwood (pictured), punk pioneer, high fashion designer and eco warrior.James Caan, the American actor best known for playing Sonny Corleone in The Godfather.Georgia Holt, the singer who enjoyed success late in life thanks to her daughter Cher. Producer: Tim BanoInterviewed guest: Catherine Pepinster Interviewed guest: Ian Kelly Interviewed guest:

28:20

Terry Hall, Dame Beryl Grey, Heather Iandolo, Eric...

Last Word ·

2022/12/30

Matthew Bannister onTerry Hall (pictured), the singer who captured the disillusionment of a generation with The Specials’ biggest hit “Ghost Town”. Heather Iandolo, the daughter of the notorious Nazi propaganda broadcaster known as Lord Haw Haw.Eric Allison, who turned his back on a life of crime to become the Guardian’s prisons correspondent.Dame Beryl Grey, the acclaimed ballerina who went on to run the London Festival Ballet. Producer: Tim BanoInterviewed Guests: Professor Colin Holmes, Simon

28:05

Victor Lewis-Smith, Maureen Doherty, Pablo Milanés,...

Last Word ·

2022/12/23

Matthew Bannister onThe columnist, broadcaster, producer, musician and outrageous hoaxer Victor Lewis-Smith (pictured).Maureen Doherty, the designer who worked with Issey Miyake and founded the influential fashion brand Egg. Edmund de Waal pays tribute.Pablo Milanés, the Cuban musician who was one of the founders of the nueva trova singer/songwriter movement.Ailsa Irving, who started and ran the UK Endometriosis Society after a long battle to get her own symptoms diagnosed. Producer: Neil

28:08

Joyce Bryant, George 'Johnny' Johnson MBE, Dame Clare...

Last Word ·

2022/12/16

Matthew Bannister onJoyce Bryant (pictured), the American singer who was named by Ebony magazine as one of the five most beautiful black women in the world.Squadron Leader George 'Johnny' Johnson MBE, the last surviving airman who took part in the Dambuster raids.Dame Clare Marx, the first woman to be elected President of the Royal College of Surgeons.Joseph Kittinger, who held the record for the world’s highest skydive for over 50 years. He jumped from 19.5 miles above sea level.Producer: Neil

28:04

Christine McVie, Jiang Zemin, Derek Granger

Last Word ·

2022/12/09

Matthew Bannister onChristine McVie who wrote some of Fleetwood Mac’s biggest hits and was a key player in the turbulent history of the band.Jiang Zemin, who became Chinese President after the 1989 protests in Tiananmen Square and presided over the opening up of the country’s economy.Derek Granger, the TV and film producer best known for the acclaimed adaptation of Brideshead Revisited.Producer: Neil GeorgeInterviewed guest: Tim Sullivan Interviewed guest: Isabel Hilton Interviewed guest: Matt

27:54

Doddie Weir, Hebe de Bonafini, Irene Cara, Cornelia...

Last Word ·

2022/12/02

Matthew Bannister onDoddie Weir (pictured), the leading Scottish rugby player who spent the last few years of his life raising funds for research into the causes of Motor Neurone Disease. Hebe de Bonafini, the human rights activist from Argentina who led the Mothers of Plaza de Mayo in campaigning to trace victims of the country’s so-called “Dirty War”.Irene Cara, the singer and actor best known for her role in the film “Fame” and for co-writing the hit song “Flashdance”. Cornelia Schroeder, the

28:01

Mehran Karimi Nasseri, Ann Savours, Sue Baker, Wilko...

Last Word ·

2022/11/25

Matthew Bannister onMehran Karimi Nasseri – otherwise known as Sir Alfred (pictured). He was the Iranian migrant who lived for eighteen years in terminal one of the Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris.Sue Baker, the motoring journalist who presented Top Gear.Ann Savours, the archivist and polar historian who wrote books on the search for the Northwest Passage and Captain Scott’s ship the Discovery.Wilko Johnson, the former guitarist with Dr Feelgood who was diagnosed with terminal cancer in 2013 and

28:11

Peter de Savary, Bob Le Sueur MBE, Ela Bhatt, Hannah...

Last Word ·

2022/11/18

Matthew Bannister onPeter de Savary, the serial entrepreneur who ran private members’ clubs, once owned both Land’s End and John O’Groats and spent a fortune trying to win the America’s Cup for the UK.Bob Le Sueur MBE, who risked his life during the German occupation of Jersey by helping Russian slave workers to escape.Ela Bhatt (pictured), the Indian trade unionist who campaigned for the rights of street vendors and other self-employed women. Hannah Pick-Goslar, the German-born Israeli nurse and

28:04

Leslie Phillips CBE, Dame Valerie Beral, Avtar Singh...

Last Word ·

2022/11/11

Matthew Bannister onLeslie Phillips CBE (pictured), the actor who made his name in the Navy Lark and the Carry On Films, then became a respected character actor.Dame Valerie Beral, the epidemiologist who created the million women study and investigated the safety of the contraceptive pill and HRT.Avtar Singh Jouhl, the trade unionist and activist who campaigned for racial equality.Atarah Ben-Tovim MBE, the flautist who inspired generations of children to take up music. Producer: Neil

28:00

Baroness Blood, Jerry Lee Lewis, Ian Jack, Hilaree...

Last Word ·

2022/11/04

Matthew Bannister onBaroness Blood (pictured), the trade unionist, community worker and peace campaigner who became the first woman from Northern Ireland to be given a life peerage.Jerry Lee Lewis, the rock 'n' roll pioneer whose turbulent private life included bigamy, violence and drug addiction. Ian Jack, the journalist known for his long form articles and for editing the Independent on Sunday and the literary magazine Granta. Hilaree Nelson, the intrepid ski mountaineer who completed more than

28:07

Dame Carmen Callil, Ivy Jo Hunter, Kathleen Booth,...

Last Word ·

2022/10/28

Matthew Bannister onDame Carmen Callil (pictured), the Australian-born publisher who founded the feminist Virago Books.Ivy Jo Hunter, known as the 'forgotten man of Motown', he co-wrote Dancing In The Street for Martha Reeves and the Vandellas.Kathleen Booth the mathematician and pioneering computer designer.Dietrich Mateschitz, the billionaire who turned the Red Bull energy drink into a global success by sponsoring sports clubs and daring stunts, including backing two Formula One motor racing

27:52

Ian Hamilton KC, Audrey Evans, Parvatiben Solanki,...

Last Word ·

2022/10/21

Matthew Bannister onIan Hamilton KC, the Scottish lawyer who, as a student, took part in removing the Stone of Destiny from Westminster Abbey and returning it to Scotland. Professor Audrey Evans, the paediatric oncologist who founded a global network of homes where the families of her young patients could stay during their treatment.Parvatiben Solanki, who teamed up with her husband to launch Garavi Gujarat, one of the biggest selling Asian news magazines outside India.Robbie Coltrane OBE

28:02

Dame Angela Lansbury, Lady Keswick, Sacheen...

Last Word ·

2022/10/14

Matthew Bannister onDame Angela Lansbury (pictured), the stage and screen actor best known in recent years for her role in the TV series Murder She Wrote.Lady Keswick who was Director of the Conservative think tank the Centre for Policy Studies after being a special adviser to Kenneth Clarke at Education and the Treasury. He pays tribute.Sacheen Littlefeather, who staged a high profile protest about the representation of Native Americans in Hollywood when she declined an Oscar on behalf of Marlon

28:02

Yusuf al-Qaradawi, 'Ma' Smith MBE, Mike Burrows,...

Last Word ·

2022/10/07

Matthew Bannister onYusuf al-Qaradawi, one of the most influential Muslim scholars of his generation. He reached a vast audience through his show on the TV channel Al Jazeera.'Ma' Smith MBE, who ran a celebrated soup kitchen in Oxford for thirty years.Mike Burrows, the pioneering cycle designer who came up with the Lotus 108 bike ridden by Chris Boardman when he won Olympic Gold in Barcelona.Loretta Lynn (pictured), the American country singer whose songs told the stories of working class

28:05

Dame Hilary Mantel, John McVicar, Joyce Reynolds,...

Last Word ·

2022/09/30

Matthew Bannister onDame Hilary Mantel (pictured), the Booker prize winning novelist best known for the Wolf Hall trilogy.John McVicar, the former armed robber who studied sociology in prison and became a writer and broadcaster. Joyce Reynolds, the eminent Cambridge classicist who specialised in the study of epigraphs and taught Dame Mary Beard who joins us to remember her.The multi-instrumentalist and singer Paul Sartin, a key figure on the English folk scene and member of the band Bellowhead. His

28:09

Jean-Luc Godard, Barbara Ehrenreich, Dennis Wilson,...

Last Word ·

2022/09/23

Kirsty Lang on Jean-Luc Godard (pictured), the critic and filmmaker who revolutionised French cinema.The writer and journalist Barbara Ehrenreich, whose bestseller 'Nickel and Dimed', is considered a classic in social justice literature.Captain Dennis Wilson, the Normandy veteran whose war poems were ranked alongside Wilfred Owen’s...And Mavis Nicholson, the Welsh broadcaster with a knack for making her subjects talk about matters that they had never previously confronted in public.Producer: Neil

28:10

Bill Turnbull, Anne Sutton, Norah Vincent, Drummie Zeb

Last Word ·

2022/09/16

Matthew Bannister on Bill Turnbull (pictured), the journalist and BBC Breakfast presenter who was also a beekeeper and committed fan of Wycombe Wanderers. Anne Sutton, whose detailed studies of the life and times of King Richard III transformed his reputation. Norah Vincent, who wrote a best-selling book about her experience of living as a man for eighteen months and then suffered a mental breakdown. Drummie Zeb, the drummer and vocalist with the British reggae band Aswad.Producer: Neil

28:09

Mikhail Gorbachev, Stella 'Jaye' Edwards, Jerry Allison

Last Word ·

2022/09/02

Matthew Bannister onThe last President of the Soviet Union Mikhail Gorbachev (pictured), who was feted in the West but often derided in his own country. We follow his journey from a collective farm in Stavropol to momentous times in the Kremlin, including the introduction of Perestroika and Glasnost, the end of the Cold War and the coup that toppled him from power.Stella 'Jaye' Edwards, who was the last surviving British woman pilot who delivered planes from factories to front line bases during the

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