PODCAST

Great Lives

BBC Radio 4

Biographical series in which guests choose someone who has inspired their lives.

society & culture documentary

All Episodes

27:42

Maxine Peake on Ellen Wilkinson

Great Lives ·

2017/08/09

Actress Maxine Peake nominates her working class hero, Ellen Wilkinson, as a great life. Ellen is regarded as one of the most important figures in the history of British radical left politics. She joined the Communist party, met Lenin and Trotsky in Moscow and then went on to become one of the Labour Party's youngest people entering parliament in 1924.For Maxine, the tragedy is that Ellen Wilkinson is now virtually a forgotten figure despite her remarkable achievements. With help from historian

29:50

Stephen Fry on PG Wodehouse

Great Lives ·

2017/08/08

Stephen Fry nominates his hero PG Wodehouse, a writer who he says simply cheers him up like no one else. Fry wrote to his hero when he was a schoolboy and his most treasured possession is a signed photograph which reads: "To Stephen Fry, All the best, PG Wodehouse." PG Wodehouse was a self-made man, he began as a bank clerk, married a chorus girl and was interned by the Nazis. He wrote some of the most entertaining novels, stories, plays and lyrics of the 20th century and created enduring

28:06

Peter Williams of Jack Wills chooses Steve Jobs

Great Lives ·

2017/06/01

Peter Williams - founder of British retail chain, Jack Wills - nominates Steve Jobs as his great life. For Williams, despite the fact that Steve Jobs was an abrasive and difficult person, it was his ability to predict what people wanted. It was his Apple products that have touched the lives of so many people world wide and for Peter it's his gadgets that have changed our attitudes to technology. To help Peter Williams make his case, he is joined by Luke Dormehl, technology journalist and author of

26:10

Iain Lee on Andy Kaufman

Great Lives ·

2017/05/30

There were so many hoaxes in Andy Kaufman's brief career that for years his fans believed that he wasn't really dead. Kaufman's best known as Latka Gravas in the American TV sitcom Taxi, and his life was undoubtedly weird. Performance artist, Elvis impersonator, wrestler - he's difficult to pin down. Nominator Iain Lee believes he was a genius, while Olly Double of the University of Kent school of arts reckons Kaufman didn't really care if his audience laughed or not. Presenter Matthew Parris draws

27:23

Sue Cameron on Emma of Normandy

Great Lives ·

2017/05/16

Twice Queen of England and mother of two kings, but have you heard of Emma of Normandy? Doyenne of Whitehall and Westminster journalists, Sue Cameron names William the Conqueror's aunt as her great life. Matthew Parris explores the time 1,000 years ago when England was emerging as a new nation in the decades before the Norman invasion, when the country's Anglo Saxon rulers were beset with Viking invasions. Emma, herself of French Viking descent, was pitched into a maelstrom of war and politics, when

27:38

Steven Knight on Sitting Bull

Great Lives ·

2017/05/09

For Steven Knight, the screen writer and director of ‘Peaky Blinders’ and ‘Taboo’, it was easy to nominate his great life. For him there was just one choice, his all-time hero Sitting Bull. As a young boy growing up in Birmingham in the 1970s, Steven was obsessed with stories and tales of Native Indians. At the age of thirteen, Steven searched for pen-pals and ended up exchanging letters with the great grand-children of Sitting Bull who lived in South Dakota. The correspondence and friendship he

27:40

Peaches Golding on Shirley Chisholm

Great Lives ·

2017/05/02

American-born Peaches Golding OBE - Bristol's former Lord Lieutenant and first black female High Sheriff - nominates African American politician Shirley Chisholm who ran unsuccessfully for US President in 1972.Fellow guest Dr Kate Dossett, Professor of American History at Leeds University, describes Chisholm’s contribution to the cause of African Americans and to feminism.Presented by Matthew Parris.Producer: Maggie AyreFirst broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in May 2017.

27:43

Anton Du Beke on Arnold Palmer

Great Lives ·

2017/04/25

Strictly Come Dancing's Anton Du Beke chooses the golf legend Arnold Palmer as his great life. Along with the sports broadcaster John Inverdale, he sets out the reasons why Palmer left a legacy far beyond the sporting world and far beyond the golf course. Producer: Maggie AyreFirst broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2017.

27:39

Ermonela Jaho on Mother Teresa

Great Lives ·

2017/04/20

Since her death in 1997, it's been fashionable in some quarters to decry the work of Mother Teresa among India's poor. Fellow Albanian - opera singer, Ermonela Jaho, offers an alternative view of the nun who dedicated her life to running homes in Calcutta and later around the world, providing food, shelter and care for the poor and dispossessed. Despite her hard-line views on abortion and despite criticism over her dealings with some of the most brutal regimes, Mother Teresa was purely a force for

27:55

Germaine Greer on Dame Elizabeth Frink

Great Lives ·

2017/04/11

Germaine Greer nominates sculptor Dame Elizabeth FrinkShe was best known for striking sculptures ranging from horses and goats, to wild eagles and disembodied heads. As a female sculptor working in a man's world, Elisabeth Frink found it hard to establish herself in the 1950s. To help tell the story of her hero, Germaine Greer is joined by Frink's son, Lin Jammet, and the art critic Richard Cork. Presented by Matthew Parris.Producer: Perminder KhatkarFirst broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in April 2017.

27:21

Gary Kemp on EW Godwin

Great Lives ·

2017/04/04

Gary Kemp, songwriter and guitarist with hit 1980s band Spandau Ballet, chooses the architect and designer Edward William Godwin as his great life. Gary began collecting pieces of Godwin's work as soon as he started making money from hit singles. He's remained fascinated by the life and work of the man who formed part of the Aesthetic Movement in the 19th century, designed houses for Oscar Wilde and James Whistler, and influenced Charles Rennie Mackintosh.Presented by Matthew Parris with guest

27:44

Chris Patten on Pope John XXIII

Great Lives ·

2017/01/24

Chris Patten, Lord Patten of Barnes, nominates a great life who was born a peasant and became a Pope. Pope John XXIII did well at school but was no star. He wasn't a striking figure of a man and struggled to keep his weight under control.There was nothing about him that stood out and his election as Pope took many by surprise. But he was the man who began to push the Roman Catholic church into the modern world.Presenter: Matthew Parris.With Eamon Duffy, Professor of the History of Christianity at

27:26

Len Goodman on Lionel Bart

Great Lives ·

2017/01/17

Len Goodman's great life was one of the biggest figures in creating British musicals and pop music in the 1960's. The writer and lyricist behind the hit musical Oliver, knew everybody who was anybody, made a fortune and partied with Royalty. But like many who flourished in that era he also lost everything in a blitz of booze, drugs and bad behaviour.Len Goodman makes a case for why he regards Bart as a genius.With Matthew Parris. Helping Len him to unravel the story of his hero the expert witness is

27:29

Akram Khan on Srinivasa Ramanujan

Great Lives ·

2017/01/10

In 1914, a self-taught Mathematics student named Ramanujan left India for Trinity College Cambridge.Here, alongside the celebrated English mathematician GH Hardy, he completed some extraordinary work on Pi and prime numbers. What was even more extraordinary was that he couldn't prove a lot of his work, and attributed many of his theories to a higher power.For the renowned UK choreographer Akram Khan, there is a beauty in patterns and maths, and he sees Ramanujan's genius as a clash between Eastern

27:29

Suzannah Lipscomb on CS Lewis

Great Lives ·

2017/01/03

Step though the wardrobe - as historian Suzannah Lipscomb selects the creator of the Narnia Chronicles, CS Lewis. The writer was a fascinating and extremely complicated man. Born in Northern Ireland, his mother died when he was a child, and his university career was interrupted so he could fight in the Great War.Suzannah views his writings as deeply moving, as they have influenced her faith.Presenter Matthew Parris is less convinced by the religious influence in his work. But contributor to the

27:41

Ruth Holdaway on Helen Rollason

Great Lives ·

2017/01/03

Ruth Holdaway - the former Chief Executive of Women in Sport - picks pioneering sports broadcaster Helen Rollason. Helen trained as a teacher, but after stints in community and local radio moved to the BBC to report for and later present the BBC’s 'Newsround' for children. She kept her hand in with sport and made history in 1990 when she was appointed as the first female presenter of BBC TV’s flagship 'Grandstand'. Sport was largely a male-dominated world at the time and there were plenty both

27:59

Orlando Murrin on Dinu Lipatti

Great Lives ·

2016/12/20

For many piano music lovers, Dinu Lipatti [1917-1950], the Romanian concert pianist, stands head and shoulders above others. Dinu lived during a time of great turbulence, leaving his native Romania for Switzerland at the outbreak of the Second World War. He left behind a wealthy family but they subsequently lost everything under communism.Food writer and former chef, Orlando Murrin explains his love for Lipatti's music and his fascination with his life. It has led him to spending time trying to save

27:32

Sir Ben Kingsley on Elie Wiesel

Great Lives ·

2016/12/14

Actor Sir Ben Kingsley tells Matthew Parris why he regards Elie Wiesel as his great life. A writer, a Nobel laureate, a holocaust survivor, Elie had to endure the worst horrors of mankind and survive the darkest of crimes. In the Holocaust he lost his mother, his father and his youngest sister. He once said: “To forget the dead would be to akin to killing them again a second time”.Sir Ben Kingsley regards Wiesel as was one the great voices of the holocaust and says he should never be forgotten.

27:48

Cary Grant

Great Lives ·

2016/12/02

Comedian and writer Lucy Porter champions Cary Grant as her Great Life finding that, despite his troubled relationships with women off screen, his on screen charm and generosity towards his female co-stars redeems him. With Grant's biographer, Geoffrey Wansell, who discusses the troubled screen icon's humble beginnings in Bristol and the following glamour and wealth of Los Angeles.Presenter: Matthew Parris Producer: Maggie AyreFirst broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in December 2016.

27:44

Cyrus Todiwala on Dadabhai Naoroji

Great Lives ·

2016/09/27

Chef Cyrus Todiwala chooses Dadabhai Naoroji, the 'Grand Old Man of India' who in 1892 became Britain's first Asian MP for Finsbury Central. He later returned to India and petitioned for the country to be self-governing. Gandhi, who was Dadabhai's mentee, would later refer to him as the Father of the Nation. Matthew Parris presents and Zerbanoo Gifford is the expert.Producer: Toby FieldFirst broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in September 2016.

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