Podcasts by Great Lives

Mohammad Mossadegh, PM of Iran ousted in a coup from 2023-12-05T16:41

Walter Murch picks Mohammad Mossadegh, prime minister following the nationalisation of the Anglo-Iranian oil company in 1951. Mossadegh was ousted in a coup in 1953.

Murch became fascinat...

Ludwig Koch from 2023-09-29T12:38

The award-winning Sound Recordist and Musician, Chris Watson nominates his hero, Ludwig Koch.

In 1889, German-born Koch was the first person ever to record birdsong (at the age of 8) onto...

Lady Eve Balfour from 2023-09-29T12:10

An aristocrat in an eye patch, a jazz saxophonist, a crime novelist and a pioneering organic farmer.

Lady Eve Balfour was born in 1898 into the political elite - her uncle was A J Balfour,...

Ken Loach on Gerrard Winstanley from 2023-09-29T11:31

Veteran British film director Ken Loach nominates the 17th century radical pamphleteer and and leader of the Diggers, Gerrard Winstanley.

Born in Wigan in 1609, Winstanley began writing re...

Chi-chi Nwanoku on Jessye Norman from 2023-09-19T16:00

On the 11th June 1988 Jessye Norman performed a spine-tingling rendition of 'Amazing Grace' to a packed Wembley Stadium, bringing to a close a concert marking the seventieth birthday of Nelson M...

Ninette de Valois from 2023-09-05T15:52

The Godmother of English - and Irish - ballet, Dame Ninette De Valois or ‘Madam’ as she was known to those around her. She is widely regarded as one of the most influential figures in the histor...

Sophie Scott on Hattie Jacques from 2023-08-15T16:00

Born in 1922, Hattie Jacques began her career in music hall before graduating onto the radio comedies of the 1950s such as Educating Archie', 'It's That Man Again' and 'Hancock's Half Hour' wher...

Stamford Raffles, founder of Singapore and London Zoo from 2023-08-08T15:32

It's a famous name - there's Raffles Hotel and Raffles Hospital, plus the rafflesia, the largest flowering plant in the world, an ant, a butterflyfish and a woodpecker, as well as the Raffles Cu...

Susie Dent on Thomas Mann from 2023-08-01T16:00

Thomas Mann was a German writer whose books explored themes around family, beauty and the creeping threat of fascism in Europe. Mann's best-known 'Death in Venice' revealed the author's attract...

Tony Benn from 2023-06-01T11:51

"It's the complicated ones I enjoy the most." Matthew Parris

Tony Benn, MP from 1950 to 2001, packed so much into a long career. He renounced the peerage inherited from his father, served ...

Jon Ronson picks Terry Hall of The Specials from 2023-05-16T15:55

When Jon Ronson was growing up, he went to see The Specials play in Cardiff. "I went on my own to Sophia Gardens," he says. "The crowd was fantastically wild. There’s a lot to not like about the...

Sir Edward Coke, prosecutor of Guy Fawkes from 2023-05-10T06:44

Edward Coke was born in Norfolk in 1552. He's best known as a judge and Parliamentarian, the link says Jesse Norman between Magna Carta and the English Bill of Rights. He was also, the programme...

Kofi Annan from 2023-05-02T16:00

In 1997 Kofi Annan became the seventh Secretary-General of the United Nations. The nineties were a turbulent period for the organisation and it had received criticism for a lack of action in bo...

Frank Zappa from 2023-04-25T16:10

"The most important thing to do in your life is not to interfere with somebody else's life." Frank Zappa was born December 1940 in Baltimore, USA. Comedian John Robins - who is obsessed - recko...

Frederick the Great of Prussia from 2023-04-11T15:13

Frederick the Great had a brute of a father. When young Frederick was captured trying to run away, he was locked up and forced to watch his friend - possibly his lover - being beheaded in front ...

Arthur Ashe from 2023-04-04T15:17

Broadcaster Qasa Alom chooses the first African American tennis player to win the US Open and Wimbledon, Arthur Ashe.

Arthur Ashe was born in Richmond, Virginia, a state in the US that in...

Astrid Lindgren, creator of Pippi Longstocking from 2023-02-20T14:10

The best-selling author of How to Train Your Dragon, Cressida Cowell, explains her love for the Swedish author, Astrid Lindgren. Born in 1907, Lindgren invented the Pippi Longstocking stories to...

Adjoa Andoh on Zora Neale Hurston from 2023-01-24T17:21

Actor Adjoa Andoh has a list of TV, theatre and film credits as long as your arm. She's best known worldwide as Bridgerton's Lady Danbury, and is due to direct - and star in the title role - in ...

Comedian Chris McCausland on Kurt Cobain from 2023-01-17T16:30

‘For me, it’s all about his authenticity’. Chris McCausland

Kurt Cobain, lead singer, guitarist and songwriter of the band Nirvana became the voice of a generation and is to this day consi...

Roger Deakin, wild swimmer and author of Waterlogged from 2023-01-09T11:29

Matthew Parris travels along the Thames to meet Nick Hayes - illustrator and author of The Book of Trespass - to discuss the life of Roger Deakin. They also enjoy a naked swim. Joining them, in ...

Minette Batters on Henry Plumb from 2023-01-03T17:00

"I was born an Englishman but I'll die a European." Those are the words of Henry Plumb, Lord Plumb, a farmer who was President of the National Farmers Union in the 1970s and who became the firs...

Bob Harris on Sir Matt Busby, Manchester United manager from 2022-12-27T17:00

The voice behind The Old Grey Whistle Test and Radio 2’s country music show, Bob Harris, tells us why Manchester United Football Club manager Sir Matt Busby is his Great Life.

Bob and Mat...

Noddy Holder on Chuck Berry from 2022-12-20T17:00

In 1972 Chucky Berry was onstage in Coventry. Seeking some audience participation Chuck launched into a cover of an unusual novelty record called 'My Ding-a-Ling'.

One of the men who can...

Olivia Laing on Christopher Lloyd, Gardener and Writer from 2022-12-13T16:30

Known to his friends as Christo, Lloyd spent his whole life, from childhood until his death aged 85, at work in the same garden: Great Dixter in East Sussex. He wrote a weekly column for Country...

Olia Hercules on Alla Horska, Ukrainian painter from 2022-12-09T12:00

"Cooking is like therapy to us. I grew up where my big extended family would come together in summer under the walnut tree. The adults would drink and we’d eat, stories would be told and we'd br...

Bonnie Greer on the Women of the Morant Bay Rebellion from 2022-09-28T10:05

Bonnie Greer OBE, playwright and critic, joins Matthew Parris to make a case for seven women from Jamaica who were hung or shot in 1865 after the Morant Bay Rebellion.

Bonnie makes a case...

George Lascelles, 7th Earl of Harewood nominated by Lesley Garrett from 2022-09-13T15:30

As Grandson of George V, George Lascelles was a first cousin to Queen Elizabeth II and with his distinguished beard and Nero style jackets, he was the very image of aristocracy, moving in the hi...

Romy Gill on poet Amrita Pritam from 2022-09-06T16:00

Chef Romy Gill remembers her Mother reading Amrita Pritam's poems to her when she was growing up. Romy was drawn to Amrita's fierce independent spirit and began to learn about her importance as ...

Rosalind Franklin picked by Kate Bingham, former head of the UK government's vaccine taskforce from 2022-08-30T15:31

Rosalind Franklin was born in 1920 and studied Natural Sciences. After working in Paris at the Laboratoire Central - where she became an x-ray crystallographer - she moved to King's College Lond...

Dame Kathleen Ollerenshaw, Educationalist from 2022-08-23T15:40

Dame Kathleen Ollerenshaw was born Kathleen Timpson in 1912. Deaf from an early age, she went on to have a brilliant career and is best known for her contribution to pandiagonal magic squares. S...

Ravi Shankar, India's famous sitar player from 2022-08-16T15:56

Ravi Shankar was born in India in 1920 and came to prominence just as India gained independence from Britain in 1947. He was initially a dancer and then a virtuoso sitarist and composer, and bec...

Holly Walsh on BS Johnson from 2022-08-10T18:29

BS Johnson was born in Hammersmith in 1933. A wartime evacuee, he never quite shook a sense of dislocation for the rest of his life. Holly's favourite book, she calls it the gateway drug to his ...

Pat Nevin on Johan Cruyff from 2022-08-02T16:00

Pat Nevin chooses Johan Cruyff who was part of the Dutch revolution of the 1970s. He burst onto the international stage at the 1974 World Cup with an incredible piece of skill against Sweden lat...

Judy Garland from 2022-05-31T15:54

Susie Boyt picks Judy Garland, the child star who became one of the most famous entertainers of the twentieth century. June 2022 will be the centenary of her birth.

"All people ever said t...

Joan Rhodes, strongest woman in the world from 2022-05-24T15:40

Joan Rhodes picked by Anna Maxwell Martin, star of Line of Duty and Motherland. Her choice is a lovely surprise, a strongwoman who could rip up phone books and bend nails. There's archive of he...

Rob Newman on Franklin D Roosevelt from 2022-05-17T15:30

Comedian and writer Rob Newman is a long-time fan of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who "saved the United States, just in time for the United States to save the world".

When FDR came in...

Mr Manchester Tony Wilson nominated by Terry Christian from 2022-05-10T16:22

He was a broadcaster, music mogul, social activist, local celebrity, publicity seeker, loud mouth, surreal politician, showman and, according to Paul Morley, "a great resourceful man of the nort...

Gil Scott-Heron from 2022-05-03T15:30

Described by those who knew him as a 'Revolutionary Man of Peace' Gil Scott-Heron transformed the musical landscape of the 1970's. In 2021 he was posthumously inaugurated into The Rock and Roll ...

Lolita Chakrabarti on actor Ira Aldridge from 2022-04-26T15:30

Award-winning playwright and actor Lolita Chakrabarti celebrates the life of Ira Aldridge, an icon of theatre who rose to fame at the height of the movement to abolish slavery and brought Shakes...

Janet Ellis on Puffin editor Kaye Webb from 2022-04-19T15:30

Writer, broadcaster and Blue Peter presenter Janet Ellis champions the life of Kaye Webb, who burst on to the children's publishing scene in 1961 and changed the industry forever.

With no...

Tom Hopkinson, editor of Picture Post from 2022-04-12T15:26

What does it take to be a great news editor? Tom Hopkinson was sacked by the proprietor of Picture Post for trying to run a true story during the 1950 Korean War. Later he also sent a photograph...

Brian Cox on Lindsay Anderson from 2022-04-08T08:11

Actor Brian Cox chooses his one-time mentor and fellow Scot, Lindsay Anderson. "His effect is still on me to this day, and I can't throw him off. He taught me how to think. He triggered someth...

Spike Milligan from 2022-01-25T16:54

Henry Normal thinks Spike Milligan changed his life, in particular with his 1973 poetry collection, Small Dreams of a Scorpion.

Spike's other work - The Goon Show, the books about the wa...

Roma Agrawal on Mrinalini Sarabhai from 2022-01-18T17:00

Mrinalini Sarabhai was an Indian classical dancer specialising in Bharatanatyam and becoming the first woman to perform Kathakali. She was very successful and performed around the world, with o...

Lady Hale on Lady Rhondda from 2022-01-11T17:00

Judge and former President of the Supreme Court, Lady Hale, chooses to nominate the suffragette, businesswoman, and founder of Time and Tide magazine, Margaret Haig Thomas, also known as Lady Rh...

William Lever, Lord Leverhulme, founder of Unilever from 2022-01-10T10:03

William Lever was a grocer's son who went on to make a fortune selling soap. Lifebuoy, Lux ... and eventually Unilever are just some of his creations. Picking him for Great Lives is Richard Walk...

Noor-Un-Nissa Inayat Khan from 2021-12-28T16:30

Noor-Un-Nissa Inayat Khan was an Indian muslim princess who became an under-cover agent for the ‘SOE’ – Churchill’s Special Operational Executive. She’s one of only a handful of women in the sec...

Jeanne Baret, first woman to sail round the globe from 2021-12-21T16:31

It all began with a small portrait in the Greenwich museum - of a sexless looking character in wide stripey trousers. Actor Nina Sosanya says she was immediately intrigued. Who was this? Why was...

Rory Sutherland on Johnny Ramone from 2021-12-14T17:00

Johnny Ramone is a founding member of the seminal New York punk band, the Ramones. Famed for their blisteringly short songs played at breakneck speed, the Ramones burst onto the scene in 1976 w...

JRR Tolkien, creator of The Hobbit from 2021-12-07T17:00

John Ronald Reuel Tolkien was born in Bloemfontein in 1892.

Orphaned before he was a teenager, he fought at the Somme in the First World War before going on to become one of the best-sell...

Ruth Rogers on James Baldwin from 2021-09-28T14:30

The chef and co-founder of The River Cafe, Ruth Rogers, picks the life of the writer and activist James Baldwin.

A writer, poet, playwright and activist, Baldwin was known as a trailblazin...

Yanis Varoufakis on Hypatia from 2021-09-21T16:00

The Greek politician and economist takes us back to ancient Alexandria and the life of the first woman to make her name as a mathematician. But Hypatia is best known now for being brutally murd...

Dorothy Byrne on Catherine of Siena from 2021-09-14T16:00

The president of Murray Edwards College, Cambridge and former Channel 4 editor champions the life of a 14th-century mystic. Like Dorothy Byrne, famous for her scathing attacks on broadcasting e...

Peggy Seeger on her husband Ewan MacColl from 2021-09-07T16:12

Ewan MacColl sang "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" to Peggy Seeger down the phone. When they met, Peggy says, he was in the grip of his midlife crisis. "I'm fond of saying the poor boy didn...

Josiah Wedgwood, master potter from 2021-09-01T10:35

When Josiah Wedgwood had part of an injured leg amputed, he encouraged his workers to celebrate the anniversary as St Amputation Day. This remarkable man from Stoke on Trent built a pottery empi...

Frantz Fanon from 2021-08-24T16:00

Born and raised in Martinique, Frantz Fanon fought for the Free French Forces against the Nazis, and then devoted his life to the liberation of Algeria from France. Fanon was a psychiatrist and...

Althea Gibson from 2021-08-17T15:59

Althea Gibson made sporting history in 1957 - the first black tennis player to win a Wimbledon title. She also won the US Open and the French Open. Raised on the streets of Harlem, her story i...

Yehudi Menuhin from 2021-08-10T15:53

Yehudi Menuhin was the original child prodigy. He was born in America in 1916, and was soon playing in concert halls round the world. He also played to the survivors of the German concentration ...

Hans Christian Andersen from 2021-08-03T16:06

Hans Christian Andersen was 'a very strange orchid,' says Michael Booth. He was born in 1806 in Denmark, and today is still famous for so many stories that every child knows, 156 in total. Hi...

The Surprise Lives from 2021-06-03T16:19

"Step one: invite notable guest. Step two: get them to talk about someone else."

After nearly 500 episodes, Great Lives feels like a stable series, but there have been surprises along the ...

Rosie Millard on Edward III from 2021-05-25T16:00

Edward III should be much better known, Rosie tells Matthew Parris. He not only won great battles like Crecy in 1346. He also championed the flourishing of Perpendicular architecture; he under...

Ben Miller on William Hazlitt from 2021-05-18T15:30

Actor, comedian and Author Ben Miller discusses the colourful, complicated and uncompromising life of William Hazlitt.

Born in 1778 William Hazlitt is considered one of the greatest critic...

Arlo Parks on Elliott Smith from 2021-05-12T13:16

Singer-songwriter Arlo Parks has been nominated for three Brit Awards at just 20 years old. Her inspiration for her debut studio album is drawn from American singer-songwriter Elliott Smith. Listen

Jonathan Dimbleby on Harry Hopkins from 2021-05-06T17:55

On May 10 1940, the Germans invaded the Low Countries, Winston Churchill became prime minister, and Harry Hopkins moved in to the White House. This remarkable man was President Roosevelt's close...

KT Tunstall on Ivor Cutler from 2021-04-27T15:30

Ivor Cutler is hard to categorise. Whimsical and uncompromising, depressive yet joyful, childlike and curmudgeonly, an 'outsider', championed by insiders like Paul McCartney, he's perhaps best k...

Black and British pioneer Kenny Lynch from 2021-04-20T18:30

Kenny Lynch was born in Stepney, East London in 1938. He toured with the Beatles, wrote best-selling songs, was a champion boxer in the army, and a regular face on British TV. He was also - at t...

Chinua Achebe, Nigerian novelist from 2021-04-15T09:33

Yasmin Alibhai-Brown picks Nigerian novelist, Chinua Achebe, the author of Things Fall Apart. With archive contributions from Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and Chinua Achebe himself. He was born in N...

The Talented Mr Ripley author, Patricia Highsmith from 2021-04-07T12:44

Director Jonathan Kent was friends with Patricia Highsmith. He'd been playing Tom Ripley for a tv show, and staying in the hotel suite next door to her. She took a shine to him. Now he repays th...

Rights activist Cesar Chavez nominated by Cori Crider from 2021-01-26T16:45

In 1960s California, Mexican-American Civil Rights Leader, Cesar Chavez led the United Farmworkers union in a series of strikes, boycotts and semi-religious processions, which inspired farmworke...

Caroline Catz on Delia Derbyshire from 2021-01-19T17:00

The actor Caroline Catz chooses Delia Derbyshire, the musician and composer who is best known for her work at the BBC Radiophonic Workshop where she realised the theme tune to Doctor Who. With ...

David Jonsson on Jean Michel Basquiat from 2021-01-12T16:30

Artist Jean-Michel Basquiat rose to fame in the 1980's Lower East Side New York arts scene.

Andy Warhol was his friend and collaborator, Madonna a one time girlfriend and David Bowie a hu...

Rob Rinder on Jessica Mitford from 2021-01-05T16:30

Jessica Mitford was the fifth born of the notorious Mitford Sisters. Born into the aristocracy, as a child she had her own language, collected a running-away fund and fought to set herself apart...

Diane Morgan on Air Chief Marshal Hugh Dowding from 2020-12-29T16:30

Comedian and actor Diane Morgan chooses the life of Air Chief Marshal Hugh Dowding.

Air Chief Marshal Hugh Dowding is best known for his role in the Battle of Britain. He is widely regar...

David Spiegelhalter on Frank Ramsey from 2020-12-17T18:57

Frank Plumpton Ramsey contributed original ideas to the fields of logic, mathematics, economics and philosophy. He was a friend and respected interlocutor of Keynes, Wittgenstein, Russell and Mo...

The Great Lives of Great Lives from 2020-12-11T17:13

Back in the late summer of 2001, a new biography series aired on Radio 4. Matthew Parris was not the first presenter, but he has chaired more editions than anyone else. His very first episode wa...

Katherine Parr, sixth wife of Henry VIII from 2020-12-08T18:18

In her book The Taming of the Queen, Philippa Gregory asks a simple question of her subject, Katherine Parr. Who would marry a serial killer?

Katherine Parr has been largely overlooked be...

Xuanzang, Chinese monk and traveller from 2020-09-29T16:00

It was an extraordinary journey, and a life that reads like a fairy tale. Xuanzang was born at the start of the seventh century in China. He studied as a monk and travelled for 16 years - first ...

James Graham on John Maynard Keynes from 2020-09-22T15:30

James Graham, the award-winning playwright whose work includes the TV dramas "Brexit: The Uncivil War" and "Quiz", tells Matthew Parris why he is inspired by the life and work of John Maynard Ke...

Sir David Adjaye on Okwui Enwezor from 2020-09-15T15:57

“I was astonished by the experience of standing there, where the two oceans met. I knew at that very moment this would be my concept: the meeting of worlds". Okwui Enwezor.

For centuries,...

Tom Allen on Kenneth Williams from 2020-09-08T16:15

Comedian and presenter Tom Allen first discovered Kenneth Williams as a young boy, watching the Carry On films and listening to Round the Horne with his mum.

He joins Matthew Parris and K...

Ernie Bevin, forgotten political giant from 2020-09-01T16:58

Ernie Bevin led an extraordinary life. Born in Somerset in 1881, his father is unknown and his mother died when he was eight. He left his job as a farm labourer age 11 and moved to Bristol, wher...

Jessie Ware on Donna Summer from 2020-08-25T16:15

Jessie Ware is a singer, songwriter and podcaster. Her latest, critically acclaimed, album, What's Your Pleasure?, draws inspiration from soul, funk, boogie, and disco - and, notably, the work o...

Peter Frankopan on Konstantin Tsiolkovsky from 2020-08-18T15:30

Bearded, profoundly deaf and somewhat eccentric, Tsiolkovsky's theoretical work means he is, for many, the "father of space travel". He died in 1935, and so never saw his research come to fruit...

Frida Kahlo nominated by Author Jessie Burton from 2020-08-12T09:07

“We’re talking here about a woman who was Mexican, dark skinned, disabled and queer, who produced art and didn’t allow her disabilities to define her. She defined who she was on her own terms," ...

Mussolini from 2020-08-04T17:29

September 1943, and German troops have just landed in gliders to rescue Benito Mussolini from the mountain resort where he was being held. “I knew my friend Adolf Hitler would not desert me,” he...

Dolly Alderton on Doris Day from 2020-06-02T17:00

Dolly Alderton's love of Doris Day began when she watched Calamity Jane as a young child. And for Dolly, the incandescent film star was as much of a poster girl as The Spice Girls. But Dolly's v...

Sybille Bedford, author of Jigsaw and A Legacy from 2020-05-26T15:30

Sara Wheeler first read Sybille Bedford in her early twenties, and discovered a dazzling writer. The book she read was called A Visit to Don Otavio. It's set in Mexico, a country Bedford wanted ...

Billy Bremner of Leeds United from 2020-05-19T15:30

Anand Menon, director of the UK in a Changing Europe, chooses the life of infamous Leeds United Captain, Billy Bremner.

Billy Bremner played for Leeds as a midfielder from 1959 until 1976....

Sally Phillips on Hollywood star Myrna Loy from 2020-05-13T13:52

When Sally Phillips first saw Myrna Loy, she burst into tears. It was in a film called The Best Years of Our Lives, about three veterans returning to their wives after World War Two. Myrna Loy w...

Victoria Wood from 2020-05-05T15:02

Actor and comedian Daniel Rigby chooses the creator of Acorn Antiques, As Seen on TV and Dinnerladies, Victoria Wood.

Victoria grew up in a bungalow high up on the moors in Lancashire. The...

Maya Angelou from 2020-04-29T11:33

Maya Angelou was born Marguerite Johnson in 1928. She was a mother, writer, dancer, director, performer, friend of presidents, and author of seven volumes of memoir. The very first - I Know Why ...

Ursula Le Guin nominated by Kate Stables from 2020-04-21T15:30

Ursula le Guin was born in California in 1929. Her books - including A Wizard of Earthsea and The Left Hand of Darkness - have been described as masterpieces but she battled prejudice all her li...

Frank Cottrell Boyce on Tove Jansson from 2020-04-14T15:30

"One of the best things a children's writer can do is to implant sign posts in childhood to things that are good, and to the small pleasures that will get you through life" Frank Cottrell-Boyce ...

Rick Stein on Jim Morrison from 2020-04-10T22:45

Chef , writer and presenter Rick Stein chooses the lead singer of The Doors, Jim Morrison.

As a 21 year old man travelling the world, a young Rick Stein discovered The Doors and became fas...

Andi Oliver on Nobel Prize-winning author Toni Morrison from 2020-01-21T16:44

When Andi Oliver first read Toni Morrison's 'The Bluest Eye' she felt as though someone climbed inside her head. Morrison's books saved her life - both emotionally and cerebrally.

The aut...

Kurt Vonnegut from 2020-01-10T13:00

"I am a German American, a pure one, dating back to when German Americans were still marrying each other." Kurt Vonnegut was born in Indianapolis in 1922, but the most important event in his lif...

Charlie Parker nominated by Ken Clarke from 2020-01-03T11:49

From Kansas City to New York, young Charlie Parker conquered the world of jazz.. He was famous during his life, and even more famous after he died aged 34. He's nominated here by former health m...

Bill Bailey on his hero Alfred Russel Wallace from 2019-12-24T18:00

Bill Bailey has not just travelled in naturalist Alfred Russell Wallace's footsteps, he's crazy about him too. "I love him, I really do." Wallace is best known for what used to be known as the W...

Novelist Enid Blyton from 2019-12-24T17:45

Janice Turner recently wrote a sweet, sensitive article about packing up the contents of her parent’s house. “The experience was almost unbearable,” she began. Among the items passed down from t...

Jeremy Paxman nominates Lord Shaftesbury from 2019-12-17T17:30

What makes a brilliant politician? What should motivate them? Does having a faith help?

Broadcaster and writer Jeremy Paxman chooses the seventh earl of Shaftesbury, Anthony Ashley-Cooper...

Lee Miller, war photographer and model from 2019-12-10T17:00

In the early summer of 1945, Lee Miller sent a telegram back to London about what she had seen in the Nazi death camps. “I implore you to believe this is true,” she wrote. Her employers were Vog...

Just William / Richmal Crompton proposed by Peter Oborne with Martin Jarvis from 2019-12-03T18:22

"It's absolutely joyous, one of the highlights of my career!" Peter Oborne on being joined by Martin Jarvis, the man who brings Just William to life.

Journalist Oborne is nominating both W...

Constance Agatha Cummings-John from 2019-10-07T14:52

The author Chibundu Onuzo nominates the first elected female in Africa, Constance Agatha Cummings-John.

Chibundu discovered the remarkable story of Constance while studying for her PhD. Bo...

Comedian Sindhu Vee on Prince from 2019-09-17T15:30

Comedian Sindhu Vee has loved Prince ever since she was a young girl in India - when her sister gave her illicit cassettes recorded from US radio.

A pop polymath and global superstar, Pri...

Fiona Shaw nominates the actress Eleonora Duse from 2019-09-12T16:47

Fiona Shaw - BAFTA award-winning star of BBC TV's Killing Eve - explores the life of one of history's most remarkable and forgotten actresses, Eleonora Duse.

The 19th-century performer in...

Philippa Perry on the Italian educator Maria Montessori from 2019-09-03T15:30

Psychotherapist Philippa Perry nominates the Italian educator and doctor Maria Montessori, who revolutionised children's education.

Montessori schools exist today in over 170 countries. T...

First Labour Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald from 2019-08-27T15:29

Ramsay MacDonald, Labour's first Prime Minister, is chosen by Shaun Ley.

In 1931 Ramsay MacDonald went to see the king in order to resign. George V persuaded him to stay, and a story of pa...

Caroline Quentin nominates Sir John Vanbrugh from 2019-08-20T16:15

From acting in TV's Men Behaving Badly and Jonathan Creek to restoring dozens of period properties and touring India for TV, Caroline Quentin loves variety.

When she discovered the life ...

Laura Marling on Lou Andreas-Salome from 2019-08-13T15:30

Laura Marling nominates the first female psychoanalyst, Lou Andreas-Salomé.

Folk singer-songwriter, Laura has been unravelling the mysteries of Russian-born Lou Andreas-Salomé ever since s...

Robinson Crusoe from 2019-08-13T12:32

Was Robinson Crusoe real? According to the book it was 'written by himself'.

To establish the facts, Matthew Parris is joined by two notable desert island survivors to discuss Crusoe’s lif...

Ed Balls nominates Herbert Howells from 2019-08-12T15:38

Former Member of Parliament Ed Balls chooses the 20th-century English composer, organist and teacher, Herbert Howells.

With the biographer of Herbert Howells, Paul Spicer.

Presente...

Kamila Shamsie chooses Asma Jahangir from 2019-05-28T15:23

Kamila Shamsie champions the life of the Pakistani human rights lawyer Asma Jahangir.

Author of award-winning novel 'Home Fire', Kamila says she was only ten years old, growing up in Kara...

Shirley Collins on Alan Lomax from 2019-05-21T15:30

The prolific and most significant of American song-hunters - Alan Lomax - is the choice of English folk singer Shirley Collins.

She's joined by singer-songwriter and activist Billy Bragg....

Jeremy Deller on The Beatles' manager Brian Epstein from 2019-05-15T15:30

Turner Prize Winner Jeremy Deller believes the music entrepreneur and The Beatles' manager Brian Epstein, has never been properly credited for his role within popular culture.

He's arguing...

Caroline Criado-Perez on Jane Austen from 2019-05-07T16:30

In 2013, Caroline Criado-Perez successfully campaigned for a woman to be featured on a banknote.

The Bank of England chose Jane Austen.

Caroline joins Matthew Parris and Dr Paula B...

Kirill Gerstein on Ferruccio Busoni from 2019-05-01T11:29

Pianist Kirill Gerstein chooses the conductor and composer Ferruccio Busoni. Matthew Parris presents.

When Busoni died in Berlin in 1924, his pupil Kurt Weill said, "We did not lose a huma...

Malcolm Lowry, nominated by Ian McMillan from 2019-04-23T16:30

Matthew Parris meets the poet Ian McMillan to find out about the life of his literary hero Malcolm Lowry.

Ian first discovered this 20th century writer's work as a young sixth former sear...

Catherine de Medici nominated by Helen Lewis from 2019-04-18T08:41

Journalist Helen Lewis rehabilitates the reputation of the ‘Black Queen’ of France, Catherine de Medici.

Helen and presenter Matthew Parris are joined by Dr Estelle Paranque, history lect...

Aethelflaed, Lady of the Mercians, chosen by Tom Holland from 2019-04-16T16:00

She's the most influential woman that English history forgot, says Tom Holland - Aethelflaed, Lady of the Mercians, daughter of Alfred the Great.

Living and ruling at a time when the Angl...

Shappi Khorsandi on Emma, Lady Hamilton from 2019-04-02T16:00

Comedian and author Shappi Khorsandi has been desperate to tell the story of Emma, Lady Hamilton as she’s quite simply one of her greatest fans.

Everyone knows Emma Hamilton as simply the...

Matt Lucas on Freddie Mercury from 2019-01-22T17:00

Matt Lucas champions Freddie Mercury of the band, Queen.

To what extent can a troubled childhood contribute to an adult's need to perform?

Farrokh Bulsara was born in Zanzibar, sen...

Rohan Silva on Colin Chapman from 2019-01-15T17:00

The arrival of Lotus shook up motor sport in 1960s and 70s. In Formula One, Colin Chapman made his cars lighter and quicker than anyone else, often challenging the rules.

But not everyt...

Suzanne O'Sullivan on Oliver Sacks from 2019-01-08T17:00

Matthew Parris meets Suzanne O'Sullivan to discuss her medical and literary hero, Oliver Sacks.

She first came across his work on a beach in Thailand, reading his famous collection of ca...

Nikesh Shukla on the Great Gama from 2019-01-01T17:00

Ghulam Mohammad, or the Great Gama Pehlwan as he was more commonly known, was a Muslim wrestler born into a Kashmir family in India in 1878.

When writer Nikesh Shukla first came across hi...

Sathnam Sanghera on Alexander Gardner from 2018-12-28T09:00

Author and Journalist Sathnam Sanghera nominates a Great Life; a man dismissed as a fantasist and a liar in his own lifetime.

Alexander Gardner was a Scottish-American soldier, a travelle...

Mark Steel on Charlie Chaplin from 2018-12-25T16:00

Mark Steel makes the case for Charlie Chaplin being one of the most radical comedians of his time.

He reckons it's sad that most see Chaplin as that bloke who wore a bowler hat, had a fun...

Mark Steel on Charlie Chaplin from 2018-12-25T16:00

Mark Steel makes the case for Charlie Chaplin being one of the most radical comedians of his time.

He reckons it's sad that most see Chaplin as that bloke who wore a bowler hat, had a fun...

Tim Smit on Humphrey Jennings from 2018-12-19T12:13

Tim Smit has admired Humphrey Jennings since seeing Danny Boyle’s Olympics Opening Ceremony in 2012.

Jennings was a film maker, artist, and co-founder of the Mass Observation Movement. Ma...

Russell Kane on Evelyn Waugh from 2018-12-11T16:30

Comedian Russell Kane nominates the novelist Evelyn Waugh.

One of the greatest prose stylists of 20th century literature, not to mention one of the funniest, novelist Waugh also has a r...

Samira Ahmed on Laura Ingalls Wilder from 2018-12-04T17:00

In the summer of 2018, the name of Laura Ingalls Wilder was erased from a children's literary medal set up in her honour six decades ago.

Readers of the 'Little House on the Prairie' seri...

Christina Lamb on Benazir Bhutto from 2018-09-25T16:00

Benazir Bhutto made history when, aged 35, she became the first democratically elected female Prime Minister of a Muslim majority country.

Her family are one of world’s most famous politi...

Helen Glover on Alison Hargreaves from 2018-09-20T16:16

Olympic rower Helen Glover champions the life of mountaineer Alison Hargreaves.

Alison's short life was defined by her love of the mountains. She became interested in climbing as a teena...

Mark Carwardine on Douglas Adams from 2018-09-18T15:30

"Imagine a puddle waking up one morning and thinking, this is an interesting world I find myself in - fits me rather neatly, don't you think?"

Douglas Noel Adams wasn't even 50 when he die...

Cherie Blair on Dame Rose Heilbron from 2018-09-11T16:00

For Cherie Blair, leading barrister and QC, picking her great life was simple – her role model is Rose Heilbron, England's first woman judge.

When Cherie was growing up in Liverpool,...

Greg Jenner on Gene Kelly from 2018-09-05T08:48

Public historian Greg Jenner has always loved Gene Kelly.

"So much better than he had any right to be."

Born in Pittsburgh in 1912, Gene Kelly was a broad-shouldered Irish American ...

Patricia Greene on Bess of Hardwick from 2018-08-21T16:00

Actress Patricia Greene (Jill Archer in BBC Radio 4's The Archers) makes the case for Elizabeth, Countess of Shrewsbury, or Bess of Hardwick as she's more commonly known.

Like her heroine...

Simon Evans on JS Mill from 2018-08-14T16:00

Towards the end of his comic rant about the descent of man, Simon Evans does something very dangerous.

He starts to read out to his audience an extract of John Stuart Mill. Potential come...

Erica Wagner on Roald Amundsen from 2018-08-08T07:39

"We are ready to take the Pole in any kind of weather on offer," wrote the Norwegian Roald Amundsen in December 1911. Born in 1872, Amundsen is part of a group of men - including the playwright ...

Hanif Kureishi on David Bowie from 2018-07-31T16:00

"Suddenly this light comes into your life" - says Hanif Kureishi, referring to his hero, his great life, David Bowie.

Hanif, an author, screenwriter and film maker, went on to become frie...

Barbara Stocking on Catherine the Great from 2018-05-29T16:00

Catherine the Great assumed power in a St Petersburg coup, extended the empire into Crimea, Ukraine and Alaska. is Russia's longest lasting female ruler, and wasn't even Russian herself. All of ...

Suzy Klein on Hedy Lamarr from 2018-05-22T16:00

Hedy Lamarr was described by her studio as the most beautiful woman in the world. A recent film, called Bombshell, argued that she was a brilliant inventor as well. But what was going on behind ...

Mica Paris on Josephine Baker from 2018-05-15T16:00

For soul singer Mica Paris, when she first dreamt of becoming a singer it was Josephine Baker who inspired her most.

Baker was a young black American dancer who became an overnight sensat...

Simon Callow on Orson Welles from 2018-05-09T09:34

Actor Simon Callow nominates one of the giants of the golden age of Hollywood, Orson Welles.

He once said of himself he 'started at the top and worked his way down' never managing to recr...

Ayesha Hazarika on Jayaben Desai from 2018-05-02T09:23

Stand up comedian and political commentator Ayesha Hazarika's hero is Jayaben Desai.

Jayaben led a two year strike at Grunwick Film processing factory in North London.

The majority ...

Tej Lalvani on Richard Feynman from 2018-05-01T15:30

Richard Feynman was a physicist who helped design the atomic bomb and won the Nobel Prize.

He is the great life choice of businessman Tej Lalvani CEO of his family business Vitabiotics an...

Laura Serrant on Audre Lorde from 2018-04-26T14:16

Professor of Nursing, Laura Serrant, chooses the life of the black, gay poet and activist Audre Lorde who still inspires the women's movement today.

She tells Matthew Parris why Audre has...

Adrian Utley of Portishead on Miles Davis from 2018-04-17T16:00

Miles Davis - trumpeter, composer, bandleader - is championed by Adrian Utley of Portishead.

"He's always been really important in my life, right from early on when my dad used to play him...

Jim Moir on Captain Beefheart from 2018-04-03T16:48

Comedian, actor and artist Jim Moir aka Vic Reeves chooses the life of Don van Vliet - the Dadesque musician and painter Captain Beefheart who has influenced many musicians since the 1960s.

Gisela Stuart on Joseph Chamberlain from 2018-01-25T14:12

Gisela Stuart, former MP for Birmingham Edgbaston champions Joseph Chamberlain to be nominated as her great life.

But can she really make the case for this former industrialist who made it...

Liza Tarbuck on Nikola Tesla from 2018-01-23T17:12

Actor and broadcaster Liza Tarbuck chooses the extraordinary life of the Serbian-American scientist, Nikola Tesla.

Nikola founded the Tesla Electric Light Company and was responsible for t...

Great Lives from 2018-01-23T17:12

Liza Tarbuck on Nikola Tesla

Justin Marozzi on Herodotus from 2018-01-16T17:00

Herodotus - father of history or father of lies?

Matthew Parris introduces a sparky discussion about a writer whose achievements include a nine book account of a war between east and west...

Hertha Ayrton from 2018-01-02T17:00

Helen Arney is a self-confessed science nerd, stand-up entertainer, and once nicknamed a "geek songstress".

Matthew Parris discovers why she's chosen Hertha Ayrton (1854-1923), the pionee...

Nazir Afzal on Gandhi from 2018-01-02T10:28

Former Chief Crown Prosecutor for North West England Nazir Afzal was responsible for convicting the men who sexually abused young girls in Rochdale.

Matthew Parris invites him to nominate ...

Louise Richardson on Daniel O'Connell from 2017-12-19T17:00

On a field outside Dublin, Daniel O'Connell met and shot a former royal marine in a duel.

John d'Esterre had been outraged when O'Connell, the later hero of Catholic emancipation, describe...

Louise Richardson on Daniel O'Connell from 2017-12-19T17:00

On a field outside Dublin, Daniel O'Connell met and shot a former royal marine in a duel.

John d'Esterre had been outraged when O'Connell, the later hero of Catholic emancipation, describe...

Cornelia Parker on Marcel Duchamp from 2017-12-12T16:30

Marcel Duchamp - the father of conceptual art, and responsible for that famously provocative urinal signed 'R Mutt, 1917' - is the great life choice of fellow artist Cornelia Parker.

She...

Will Gregory on Flann O'Brien from 2017-12-05T16:58

Goldfrapp's Will Gregory is centre-stage at the Colston Hall in Bristol to tell Matthew Parris why he feels a kinship with Flann O'Brien.

The Irish writer's books 'At Swim-Two-Birds' and '...

Helena Morrissey on Rachael Heyhoe Flint from 2017-09-26T16:00

City boss Dame Helena Morrissey champions the life of Rachael Heyhoe Flint, the pioneer of women's cricket.

Regarded as a ground breaker, Baroness Heyhoe Flint ruffled feathers and shook u...

Andrea Catherwood on Constance Markievicz from 2017-09-19T16:00

Constance Markievicz led an amazing life - a leading figure during the Easter Rising of 1916, she was the first woman elected to Parliament though she never took her seat.

Markievicz was b...

Nicholas Stern on Muhammad Ali from 2017-09-12T16:35

Nicholas Stern is IG Patel Professor of Economics and Government at the London School of Economics, among other positions, and former Chief Economist at the World Bank.

He is also a massi...

Helen Sharman on Elsie Widdowson from 2017-09-05T16:11

How many people realise the impact Elsie Widdowson had on the way we view nutrition?

She was a food scientist who devoted her life to improving the diets of adults and children in Britain...

Tracy Chevalier on Mary Anning from 2017-08-29T16:15

Novelist Tracy Chevalier discusses the life of Mary Anning with Matthew Parris.

Mary was a working class woman from Lyme Regis who discovered full dinosaur skeletons on Dorset's Jurassic C...

Don McCullin on Norman Lewis from 2017-08-22T14:30

In 1968 Norman Lewis wrote an article called Genocide in Brazil. The photographs that accompanied it were by Don McCullin.

Lewis later said that this one piece of journalism was the great...

Maxine Peake on Ellen Wilkinson from 2017-08-09T12:07

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 poli...

Stephen Fry on PG Wodehouse from 2017-08-08T11:33

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...

Peter Williams of Jack Wills chooses Steve Jobs from 2017-06-01T11:21

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,...

Iain Lee on Andy Kaufman from 2017-05-30T16:00

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, ...

Sue Cameron on Emma of Normandy from 2017-05-16T16:22

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...

Steven Knight on Sitting Bull from 2017-05-09T16:00

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.

Peaches Golding on Shirley Chisholm from 2017-05-02T15:27

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 ...

Anton Du Beke on Arnold Palmer from 2017-04-25T16:18

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 ...

Ermonela Jaho on Mother Teresa from 2017-04-20T12:13

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...

Germaine Greer on Dame Elizabeth Frink from 2017-04-11T16:00

Germaine Greer nominates sculptor Dame Elizabeth Frink

She was best known for striking sculptures ranging from horses and goats, to wild eagles and disembodied heads.

As a female sc...

Gary Kemp on EW Godwin from 2017-04-04T15:34

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'...

Chris Patten on Pope John XXIII from 2017-01-24T17:21

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 ...

Len Goodman on Lionel Bart from 2017-01-17T17:48

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...

Akram Khan on Srinivasa Ramanujan from 2017-01-10T16:55

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 extrao...

Suzannah Lipscomb on CS Lewis from 2017-01-03T17:15

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 North...

Ruth Holdaway on Helen Rollason from 2017-01-03T11:31

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 radi...

Orlando Murrin on Dinu Lipatti from 2016-12-20T16:45

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 nati...

Sir Ben Kingsley on Elie Wiesel from 2016-12-14T12:10

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...

Lucy Porter on Cary Grant from 2016-12-02T18:21

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 fema...

Cyrus Todiwala on Dadabhai Naoroji from 2016-09-27T15:58

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...

AA Gill on Arthur Neville Chamberlain from 2016-09-20T16:00

The writer and critic AA Gill nominates Neville Chamberlain as his great life.

But his choice is someone who is regarded as one of the worst Prime Ministers Britain has ever had. Chamberl...

Eliza Carthy on Caroline Norton from 2016-09-13T15:56

Eliza Carthy chooses the life of 19th-century poet and campaigner Caroline Norton to discuss with Matthew Parris.

Following separation from her controlling husband, Norton fought to gain...

Maureen Lipman on Dame Cicely Saunders from 2016-09-07T11:02

Actress and writer Maureen Lipman chooses the end-of-life care campaigner, Dame Cicely Saunders.

Dame Cicely Saunders was known as ‘the woman who changed the face of death’. At almost 6 f...

Tony Hawks on Marshall Rosenberg from 2016-08-30T16:00

Marshall Rosenberg was the stern-faced creator of nonviolent communication, a man who spent his life finding ways to eradicate hate.

Often armed only with his trademark giraffe and jackal...

Dag Hammarskjold from 2016-08-26T17:10

Sometime around midnight of September 17 1961, a plane approached an airstrip near Ndola in what was then northern Rhodesia.

The plane was a DC6, and on board the second ever secretary ge...

Georgina Godwin on Dag Hammarskjold from 2016-08-26T17:10

Matthew Parris presents a dramatic account of the life and death of Dag Hammarskjold.

Sara Pascoe on Virginia Woolf from 2016-08-16T15:56

Sara Pascoe champions the life of Virginia Woolf, author of 'Mrs Dalloway' and 'A Room of One's Own', describing her as a sensible feminist.

Sara explains why she thinks if she were aliv...

Alex Salmond on Thomas Muir from 2016-08-09T15:58

Alex Salmond chooses Thomas Muir for Great Lives, whom he describes as the Father of Scottish Democracy.

"I have devoted myself to the cause of The People. It is a good cause - it shall u...

Hilary Devey on Gracie Fields from 2016-08-02T15:45

A singer, comedian, music hall and film star from Rochdale, Gracie Fields was the nation’s darling. But in the midst of World War II, and at the phenomenal peak of her career, our great life fe...

Frank Turner on Joseph Grimaldi from 2016-05-31T15:58

Frank Turner chooses Joseph Grimaldi, the first celebrity of Pantomime who changed the face of Clowning forever. Matthew Parris presents, and Mattie Faint is the expert. Grimaldi was born into...

George Fox from 2016-05-24T16:00

George Fox, born in 1624 in Leicestershire, is best known as the founder of the Quakers. In early life he was apprenticed to a shoemaker, and for a while he worked as a shepherd as well. But it ...

Charles Moore on Gordon Hamilton-Fairley from 2016-05-17T16:10

Gordon Hamilton-Fairley was a brilliant cancer specialist, the father of oncology in the UK.

Then in 1975 he was killed by an IRA bomb intended for a politician who lived in his street. F...

Richard the Lionheart from 2016-05-16T11:58

Richard the Lionheart has been portrayed on screen by Sean Connery, Anthony Hopkins and Patrick Stewart, quite a starry list. But what is the reality behind the legend of this famous king?

Graeme Lamb on Christine Granville from 2016-05-03T16:00

Lt-Gen Sir Graeme Lamb, former head of British special forces, champions the life of wartime spy Christine Granville, assisted by her biographer Clare Mulley.

Christine, born Kristina Skar...

Sudha Bhuchar chooses the life of Zohra Sehgal from 2016-04-26T15:50

She was known as 'the grand old lady of Indian cinema' who starred in many Bollywood films famous in India, but not at first in Britain. We got to know her best in her later years when Zohra Seh...

Ray Peacock chooses the life of Lenny Bruce from 2016-04-21T14:51

To his followers Lenny Bruce was a genius and a free speech hero. To his detractors he was labelled sick and dirty. Bruce shocked his audiences intentionally. In his uncompromisingly frank humou...

Nancy Dell'Olio chooses the life of Lucrezia Borgia from 2016-04-21T14:07

Nancy Dell'Olio champions Lucrezia Borgia, a Renaissance woman who was much maligned.

Lucrezia Borgia was the Pope's daughter and, over the centuries, her name has been a byword for poison...

Alfred Hitchcock from 2016-04-07T09:27

Anthony Horowitz regards Alfred Hitchcock as a genius who changed the language of cinema and made some of the most memorable films of the 20th century.

However, the film director is also s...

Eliza Manningham-Buller chooses Abraham Lincoln from 2016-01-26T16:58

Former director of MI5, Eliza Manningham-Buller, tells Matthew Parris why she regards Abraham Lincoln as a great life.

But will her hero stand up to intensive scrutiny and merit the descr...

Nitin Sawhney on Jeff Buckley from 2016-01-20T15:34

Musician and performer Nitin Sawhney champions the life of Jeff Buckley who he regards as a genius singer, songwriter. The expert is Steve Abbott who was a friend of Buckley's and released his d...

Susan Calman on Molly Weir from 2016-01-13T10:47

Matthew Parris invites his guests to nominate the person who they feel is a great life. Comedian Susan Calman chooses the Scottish actress Molly Weir who began her long career on radio before m...

Martin Jennings on Charles Sargeant Jagger from 2016-01-05T17:33

In this episode, you might not know the name of the Great Life but you have probably walked past his work. At London's Hyde Park Corner - the 'Royal Artillery Memorial' stands – a huge stone mon...

Precious Lunga chooses Wangari Maathai from 2016-01-04T09:46

Matthew Parris's guest this week is the epidemiologst Precious Lunga, who nominates for Great Life status that of the Kenyan environmental activist Wangari Muta Maathai.

In the course of ...

Alvin Hall chooses James Baldwin from 2015-12-22T16:52

Alvin Hall is the friendly face of financial reality, lecturing, writing and broadcasting on the subject of managing money. But he is also passionately interested in fine art, music and literatu...

Roger Saul chooses Gertrude Jekyll from 2015-12-16T15:10

Matthew Parris invites fashion designer Roger Saul, who created the Mulberry brand, to nominate a great life. He has chosen the early 20th century garden designer Gertrude Jekyll whose beautiful...

Dickie Bird on the life of Sir Leonard Hutton from 2015-12-08T16:56

Harold 'Dickie' Bird, now retired but one of our best known cricket umpires champions the life of Sir Leonard Hutton.

According to Dickie, this Yorkshireman is one of the greatest opening ...

Toyah Willcox on Katharine Hepburn from 2015-09-29T15:53

Toyah Willcox chooses the actress and Hollywood legend, Katharine Hepburn.

Dubbed an 'oddity' and 'box office poison', Hepburn liked to goad the press and public with her eccentric behavio...

Nick Stadlen on Bram Fischer from 2015-09-22T15:55

This week's Great Life might have become an Afrikaner Nationalist Prime Minister of apartheid South Africa, but instead became its most prominent white opponent. A formidable advocate, he led th...

Hannah Rothschild on Thelonious Monk from 2015-09-15T15:58

Hannah Rothschild champions the life of the jazz musician Thelonious Monk.

Brilliant, eccentric and one of the true giants of jazz, Monk was an incredible pianist, the composer of jazz st...

Monica Ali chooses Richard Francis Burton from 2015-09-01T15:45

Sir Richard Francis Burton was an explorer, adventurer, soldier, author, poet, sexologist and translator. He brought us the Kama Sutra and spoke 29 languages. The author Monica Ali champions thi...

George Washington Williams from 2015-08-25T16:00

George Washington Williams was an incredibly early, mould-breaking, self-made black intellectual who fought in the American civil war and went on to write the first history of African Americans....

Michael Howard on Elizabeth I from 2015-08-19T14:47

Matthew Parris meets the former leader of the Conservative Party Michael Howard to discuss the life of Elizabeth I of England. They're joined by Professor Paulina Kewes of Jesus College Oxford...

Vicky Pryce on Melina Mercouri from 2015-08-11T16:27

Matthew Parris's guest is Vicky Pryce, the Greek born economist, who attracted media headlines on her conviction over speeding points incurred by her former husband, Chris Huhne. Vicky has ...

Ian McKellen on Edmund Hillary from 2015-08-04T16:00

On May 29 1953, Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay reached the summit of Everest.

Both men immediately became famous worldwide.

Actor Sir Ian McKellen, then a young teenager in Burn...

Val McDermid on PD James from 2015-06-02T16:27

Val McDermid thinks crime writing is most definitely a suitable job for a woman. She believes women are good at observing the minutiae of life and incorporating them into clue development. Despi...

David Blunkett on Louis Braille from 2015-05-28T16:14

Matthew Parris hears why David Blunkett has chosen Louis Braille, the 18th century French boy who blinded himself in his father's workshop, as his great life - with the help of guest expert the ...

US Ambassador Matthew Barzun on JG Winant from 2015-05-19T16:08

Matthew Parris meets the American Ambassador Matthew Barzun whose choice of great life is his wartime predecessor, John Gil Winant - the man widely held to have helped seal the special relations...

Antonia Quirke on Marlon Brando from 2015-05-12T15:25

Marlon Brando - greatest actor of the 20th century?

Film critic Antonia Quirke definitely thinks he is.

But the star of the Godfather, On the Waterfront and A Streetcar Named Desir...

Wendy Cope on John Clare from 2015-05-05T16:00

"John Clare, I cried last night for you" wrote Wendy Cope in a poem dedicated to the earlier poet, who overcame monumental setbacks such as a poverty-stricken upbringing and a long struggle with...

Dame Helen Ghosh on James Lees-Milne from 2015-04-28T16:00

Matthew Parris's guest is Dame Helen Ghosh, Director General of the National Trust, who chooses as her Great Life James Lees-Milne who worked for the Trust between 1936 and 1966. He was responsi...

Kulvinder Ghir on Zoran Music from 2015-04-21T15:31

Comedian and actor Kulvinder Ghir nominates the life of the artist Zoran Music. Matthew Parris finds out about Music who sketched corpses during and after he survived the horrors of being held a...

Rachel Johnson on Ottoline Morrell from 2015-04-14T16:00

Rachel Johnson author and journalist champions the life of Ottoline Morrell. The Bloomsbury hostess, a mistress, a dominant figure in the arts without being an artist herself was often mocked an...

Sir Trevor McDonald on Learie Constantine from 2015-04-07T16:00

The veteran broadcaster Sir Trevor McDonald chooses the life of Learie Constantine, the Trinidadian cricketer, politician and broadcaster who championed the rights of West Indians in Britain dur...

Mervyn King on Risto Ryti from 2015-01-27T17:48

Mervyn King, former Governor of the Bank of England tells Matthew Parris why the life of the Prime Minister of Finland Risto Ryti was so remarkable. They are also joined by expert and biographer...

Eve Pollard on Nora Ephron from 2015-01-26T12:26

Former newspaper editor and writer Eve Pollard tells Matthew Parris why Nora Ephron, the screenwriter of hit films such as 'When Harry Met Sally', 'Heartburn', and 'Sleepless in Seattle', is a G...

Michael Dobbs on Guy Burgess from 2015-01-13T17:00

Michael Dobbs champions the life of Guy Burgess - journalist, diplomat and spy. Between 1935 and 1951, Guy Burgess worked for a Conservative MP, the BBC, MI6 and the Foreign Office. Brilliant, ...

Philippa Langley on Richard III from 2015-01-06T17:00

When Philippa Langley and other members of the Richard III Society helped to discover the body of the king in a Leicester car park, Richard's life once again became a hotly contested debating po...

Tom Solomon on Roald Dahl from 2014-12-30T17:00

Writer Roald Dahl is well known as the author of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Fantastic Mr Fox and The BFG, but he was also fascinated by medical science. Professor Tom Solomon, who looked...

Brian Eno on Lord Young of Dartington from 2014-12-23T17:13

Brian Eno has worked with David Bowie, David Byrne and U2 but his choice of Great Life is not a rock star but the sociologist Lord Young of Dartington. Michael Young wrote the Labour Party's 194...

Laura Bates on Louisa May Alcott from 2014-12-16T17:00

Laura Bates, journalist and curator of the Everyday Sexism Project, explains to Matthew Parris why the 19th century children's author Louisa May Alcott has her vote for a Great Life. They are jo...

Arthur Smith on Emil Zátopek from 2014-12-09T17:43

Matthew Parris – himself current holder of the House of Commons marathon record time – meets comedian Arthur Smith, who also turns out to have been a runner when he was younger, and whose choice...

Professor Edith Hall on Lucille Ball from 2014-10-02T10:36

Matthew Parris discovers that Edith Hall, Professor of Classics at King’s College, London, has a surprising nomination for a Great Life.

She's chosen Lucille Ball, the vivacious redhead, w...

Andrew Adonis on Joseph Bazalgette from 2014-10-02T10:17

Matthew Parris hears from Labour peer Lord Adonis why Joseph Bazalgette, the Victorian engineer, has his nomination as a Great Life. Bazalgette, the grandson of a French immigrant who made a for...

Stella Rimington on Dorothy L Sayers from 2014-09-10T08:15

Dame Stella Rimington, former director of MI5 and a celebrated crime writer herself, nominates for a Great Life that of Dorothy L Sayers.

Sayers' first Lord Peter Wimsey novel was publish...

Labi Siffre on Arthur Ransome from 2014-09-09T16:06

Singer-songwriter Labi Siffre discusses the life and work of Arthur Ransome.

Siffre says that the Swallows and Amazons books taught him responsibility for his own actions and also a moral...

Tom Shakespeare on Gramsci from 2014-09-02T15:30

Dr Tom Shakespeare is a lecturer at the Medical School in the University of East Anglia and prominent campaigner for the rights of the disabled.

He explains to Matthew Parris why the life ...

Ray Mears on Rommel from 2014-08-26T15:00

The life of Erwin Rommel, for a time Hitler's favourite general is nominated by Ray Mears. Matthew Parris hears why this German soldier was a "great life". They are also joined by Dr Niall Barr,...

Baroness Oona King on Ida B Wells from 2014-08-19T15:30

Matthew Parris leads a discussion on Ida B. Wells the African American civil rights and women's rights activist who was a political trailblazer. She is the great life chosen by Baroness Oona Ki...

Jazzie B on James Brown from 2014-08-12T15:30

Soul II Soul’s Jazzie B tells Matthew Parris why he nominates James Brown, the “Godfather of Soul”, for this series.

Jazzie B, who was awarded a CBE for services to black British music, sp...

Jonathan Meades on Edward Burra from 2014-08-05T16:00

Writer Jonathan Meades nominates the English artist Edward Burra, who died in 1976, for "great life" status, arguing that he deserves to be better known. Burra painted sailors, drinkers and pr...

Ernest Hemingway from 2014-05-27T15:00

Michael Palin first came across his Great Life when he was studying for school exams, and his love of Ernest Hemingway has never gone away. He, along with expert Naomi Wood, tells Matthew Parris...

John Craven on Brunel from 2014-05-13T15:30

Countryfile presenter John Craven proposes Victorian Engineer, Isambard Kingdom Brunel, as a great life. He's joined by engineering historian Julia Elton and presenter Matthew Parris.

And ...

Isy Suttie on Jake Thackray from 2014-05-06T15:59

Jake Thackray hated being known as the north country Noel Coward, but at the height of his fame the description stuck. His songs are very British, but his influences were European - Georges Bras...

Emma Kirkby on Henry Purcell from 2014-05-06T12:43

Soprano Emma Kirkby discusses the life of English composer Henry Purcell with Matthew Parris.

Despite dying at the age of 36, Purcell was arguably the first composer to become a national ...

Deborah Moggach on Arnold Bennett from 2014-04-29T15:30

Novelist and screenwriter, Deborah Moggach, nominates the Potteries writer Arnold Bennett, whose work she thinks has been wrongly overlooked, as he was considered as being too popular.

Mo...

Marcus du Sautoy on Jorge Luis Borges from 2014-04-22T15:00

Mathematician Marcus de Sautoy champions the blind Argentinian writer Jorge Luis Borges. He is fascinated by the connection between the creator of 'The Library of Babel' and science - did Borg...

Sir Mark Walport on Sir Hans Sloane from 2014-04-15T15:30

Sir Mark Walport, the government's Chief Scientific Advisor champions the life of Sir Hans Sloane, founder of the British Museum. Along with expert Marjorie Caygill they tell Matthew Parris why ...

Ian Curtis from 2014-04-09T07:00

Series of biographical discussions with Matthew Parris.

Poet Simon Armitage nominates Joy Division singer Ian Curtis, who took his own life in 1980 at the age of 23. Curtis's fellow band m...

Sarah Vine on Dante from 2014-04-08T09:30

"Whenever I have too much to drink, I bang on about Dante ...." Sarah Vine makes a choice from the heart - the great Italian writer Dante Alighieri, father of the Italian language and author of ...

Evelyn Glennie on Jacqueline Du Pre from 2014-04-01T15:30

Evelyn Glennie, solo percussionist talks about her admiration for the cellist Jacqueline Du Pre with presenter Matthew Parris.

Producer: Perminder Khatkar

First broadcast on BBC Radi...

DJ Sara Cox nominates singer Lisa 'Left Eye' Lopes from 2014-01-28T16:30

The DJ Sara Cox nominates Lisa 'Left Eye' Lopes, a hip hop artist and rapper who performed with the band TLC. She burned her lover's house down and TLC went bankrupt. Lisa died in a car accide...

Mark Constantine on Kahlil Gibran from 2014-01-23T10:05

Businessman Mark Constantine chooses Lebanese-American author of ‘The Prophet’, Khalil Gibran. With Matthew Parris.

Snubbed and practically ignored by the literary establishment in the We...

Meg Rosoff on Isabella Bird from 2014-01-23T09:52

At home in Edinburgh Isabella Bird was the very picture of the ailing Victorian spinster but the moment her tiny feet hit the gangway of a steamer or squeezed into the stirrups of a horse she wa...

Dave Allen chosen by Adil Ray from 2014-01-14T16:30

Comedian Dave Allen is chosen by Adil Ray, creator and star of Citizen Khan. He explains to Matthew Parris how the legendary Irish comic helped shape his own career.

Producer: Perminder K...

David Baddiel on John Updike from 2014-01-08T10:12

Writer and comedian David Baddiel chooses the American novelist, John Updike. With Matthew Parris and Justin Cartwright.

His novels perfectly captured the shifting moral codes of middle A...

Sir David Chipperfield on Le Corbusier from 2013-12-31T16:31

Pioneer of Modern architecture, Le Corbusier, chosen by award winning architect Sir David Chipperfield.

Le Corbusier aimed to build a better world through radical buildings and the controv...

Michael Horovitz on Allen Ginsberg from 2013-12-17T16:30

Matthew Parris is joined by Michael Horovitz who nominates fellow poet and founder of the 'Beat Generation', Allen Ginsberg, as his Great Life. Ginsberg's friend and biographer Barry Miles provi...

Ricky Ross on Hank Williams from 2013-12-10T17:00

The life of the 'Hillbilly Shakespeare' Hank Williams is the choice of Deacon Blue singer Ricky Ross.

Williams is regarded as being the prototype rock star and continues to be hugely inf...

Nina Simone from 2013-11-27T08:00

The chanteuse, pianist, composer and civil rights activist Nina Simone is the choice of another female musician who has made a career of defying convention; Joanna Macgregor. Presented by Matthe...

Nancy Mitford from 2013-10-02T11:28

Grace Dent nominates Nancy Mitford for her wit, and for the way in which she showed women that it was possible to live your life fully and unconventionally.

Nancy Mitford's greatest succe...

Al Murray on Bernard Montgomery from 2013-10-01T16:00

"In defeat, unbeatable; in victory, unbearable" – so said Winston Churchill on this week's Great Live, Field Marshal Bernard Law Montgomery. Many would argue that he was Britain's greatest field...

Sir Brendan Barber on John Steinbeck from 2013-09-24T16:00

Matthew Parris is joined by trade unionist Sir Brendan Barber who nominates American author John Steinbeck as his Great Life. The author of The Grapes of Wrath aimed to fight the cause of the...

Konnie Huq on Ada Lovelace from 2013-09-17T16:00

TV presenter Konnie Huq chooses the mathematician and daughter of Lord Byron, Ada Lovelace. With Matthew Parris.

From Banking, to air traffic control systems and to controlling the United...

Peter Bowles on George Devine from 2013-09-10T16:00

Matthew Parris is joined by actor Peter Bowles who nominates George Devine, groundbreaking artistic director of the Royal Court Theatre. Devine battled against the theatrical establishment, repr...

Paul Mason on Louise Michel from 2013-09-03T16:00

TV journalist and writer Paul Mason talks to Matthew Parris about the 19th Century French anarchist, Louise Michel, heroine of the Paris Commune. They're joined by historian Carolyn Eichner who ...

Julie Burchill on Ava Gardner from 2013-08-27T16:00

The writer Julie Burchill talks to Matthew Parris about the Hollywood star Ava Gardner. They're joined by Ava's biographer Lee Server.

Often described as ‘the most beautiful woman in the ...

Tanika Gupta on Rabindranath Tagore from 2013-08-20T16:00

Playwright Tanika Gupta chooses as her Great Life, a man who is a hero to Bengali speakers across the World, Rabindranath Tagore.

Born in 1861, to a wealthy family in Calcutta, Tagore woul...

Gabriel Gbadamosi on Fela Kuti from 2013-08-13T16:00

Poet, playwright, and critic Gabriel Gbadamosi chooses as his Great Life the political maverick and inventor of Afrobeat, musician Fela Kuti, and tells Matthew Parris why his work deserves to be...

Russell Grant on Ivor Novello from 2013-08-06T16:00

Astrologer and performer Russell Grant chooses one of the greatest screen legends of cinema's early years – Ivor Novello.

Born in 1893 in Cardiff, Novello was also a talented writer and c...

Russell Grant on Ivor Novello from 2013-08-06T16:00

Astrologer and performer Russell Grant chooses one of the greatest screen legends of cinema's early years – Ivor Novello.

Born in 1893 in Cardiff, Novello was also a talented writer and c...

Florence Nightingale from 2013-06-05T14:15

Dr Lucy Worsley chooses a figure as familiar as she is unknown, the great champion of Victorian nursing, Florence Nightingale. Known as 'the Lady with the Lamp' for her work in the Crimea.

Primo Levi from 2013-05-21T16:00

Edmund de Waal chooses a writer he believes is one of the greatest of the modern age - Primo Levi, author of the Periodic Table. Born in 1919 in Turin, Levi was an Italian Jew, one of the few de...

Salvador Dali from 2013-05-14T16:00

John Cooper Clarke, poetry's Punk Laureate, nominates Salvador Dali, the surrealist behind melting clocks, lobster telephones, and that trademark moustache.

Matthew Paris asks whether Dali...

Bill Shankly from 2013-05-07T16:00

Mumsnet founder Justine Roberts champions the life of Liverpool’s football manager Bill Shankly.

In the 1960s, Bill Shankley took his team from division two to become one of the world's gr...

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle from 2013-04-30T16:00

Broadcaster Gyles Brandreth nominates Sir Arthur Conan Doyle as his "Great Life". Matthew Parris chairs, assisted by biographer Andrew Lycett.

Conan Doyle is best known as the creator of S...

David Livingstone from 2013-04-23T16:00

Dr David Livingstone was the Victorian equivalent of an astronaut - a man who ventured into the  interior of Africa to report on territory that was wholly unknown to Europeans. In this programme...

Kenny Everett from 2013-04-16T16:00

Chris Tarrant chooses one of the great pioneers of modern radio.

He's the man born Maurice Cole in Liverpool in 1944, who found fame on TV as Gizzard Puke, Cupid Stunt and Sid Snot: Kenny ...

Galileo from 2013-04-09T16:00

The DJ and broadcaster Bobby Friction champions the Italian physicist and astronomer Galileo Galilei. He is the first Great Lives guest to have named a child after his nominated hero.

Gali...

George Bell from 2013-04-02T16:00

"I remember seeing him sitting on the bishops' bench, and I went to him and said, George, I believe you are going to make a speech. He replied, yes I am. I said, George, there isn't a soul in th...

William Robinson from 2013-01-29T17:00

Gardener Carol Klein's great life is a Victorian hero of the wild garden, the writer and horticulturalist William Robinson. Matthew Parris presents, with expert help from Robinson's biographer R...

Aubrey Beardsley from 2013-01-15T17:00

Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen on the Victorian artist Aubrey Beardsley, whose shocking originality he compares to that of Alexander McQueen. Laurence's first foray into art was copying Beardsley drawi...

John Stuart Mill from 2013-01-08T17:00

Max Mosley nominates the philosopher and proponent of personal liberty, John Stuart Mill, as his great life. With presenter Matthew Parris and biographer Richard Reeves.

Max Mosley trained...

Grigori Rasputin from 2013-01-01T17:00

What was so notable about Grigori Rasputin ? "The hypnotic power shining in his exceptional gaze," said one observer. The photos are indeed remarkable, and so are the myths. This programme begi...

Ralph Vaughan Williams from 2012-12-25T17:00

Matthew Parris talks to writer, broadcaster and 6Music presenter Stuart Maconie about the life of Ralph Vaughan Williams.

The expert witness is Em Marshall-Luck, chairman of the Ralph Vau...

Jean Cocteau from 2012-12-11T17:00

Francesca Simon is a writer, journalist and - most famously - the creator of the "Horrid Henry" series of children's books

She describes herself as "a giddy fan" of the artist, film-maker ...

Dick Francis from 2012-12-04T17:00

The date is 1956, Aintree, and Dick Francis is riding the Queen Mother's horse to victory in the Grand National. Except Devon Loch collapses bizarrely to the ground within sight of the finishing...

George Orwell from 2012-09-28T09:02

Whilst at school, a young Alan Johnson was given some money by a teacher and told to go and buy four copies of any book for the school library. He headed down the Kings Road in Chelsea, stopping...

Edith Wharton from 2012-09-25T16:00

"If only we'd stop trying to be happy we could have a pretty good time." Edith Wharton is as well known for her wit as for her novels. Born in 1862, she was the first woman to win the Pulitzer P...

Karel Reisz from 2012-09-11T16:00

Film director Stephen Frears discusses the life of his mentor, Czech-born director, Karel Reisz, with the help of critic and Reisz's friend, John Lahr. Frears is one of Britain's most successful...

Stan Laurel from 2012-09-04T16:00

The late Ken Dodd explains to Matthew Parris why Stan Laurel inspired him to get into comedy, with the help of expert Glenn Mitchell.

Born Stan Jefferson into a theatrical family, in Lanca...

Juvenal from 2012-08-29T14:49

Matthew Parris invites writer and comic Natalie Haynes to explain why her nomination for a Great Life is a Roman poet about whose life we know very little. Dr Llewelyn Morgan of Brasenose Colleg...

Leonard Maguire from 2012-08-21T16:00

Matthew Parris finds out why the actor Bill Paterson would nominate for Great Life status a Scottish actor little known outside Scotland. He is Leonard Maguire, who died in 1997 after a career w...

Walter Scott from 2012-08-14T16:00

Tory MP author and adventurer Rory Stewart champions the life of Sir Walter Scott. Presenter Matthew Parris is joined by Scott's biographer Stuart Kelly. Scott arguably invented the idea of Scot...

Josephine Bonaparte from 2012-08-07T16:00

"I get to Milan," wrote Napoleon. "I fling myself into your room. I have left everything in order to see you, to clasp you in my arms .... you were not there." The tale of Napoleon and Josephine...

Henry Cooper from 2012-07-31T16:00

The date is June 18 1963, the final seconds of the fourth round of a boxing match. In the ring, Henry Cooper, eight years older and 26 pounds lighter than his opponent, Cassius Clay. And then Co...

Sebastian Walker from 2012-05-22T16:00

Lynn Barber first met Sebastian Walker at Oxford. "He was the first person I'd ever met who was gay...quite funny looking with a big adam's apple and bespeckled face...he dressed in a very dand...

Goya from 2012-05-15T16:00

Diana Athill joins Matthew Parris to explore the life of the Spanish painter, Francisco de Goya, who has been called the last old masters and the first of the moderns.

The literary editor ...

John Ford from 2012-05-08T16:00

John Ford had a monumental Hollywood career - over 140 films, Oscars he never turned up to receive, and a blunt way of approaching the business that made him enemies as well as friends. He stood...

Edward Said from 2012-04-26T15:59

Edward Said was a man, who, in his own words, lived two quite separate lives. First there was the scholar and literary critic of Columbia University, and then there was the fierce critic of Amer...

George Lyward from 2012-04-24T16:00

The musician and broadcaster Tom Robinson nominates educationalist George Lyward in this episode of Great Lives.

Aged 15 and struggling with his sexuality, Tom Robinson attempted to take h...

Gertrude Stein from 2012-04-17T16:00

Gertude Stein, American poet, writer and art collector, lived most of her life in France.

She was one of the first people to spot the genius of Picasso, Cezanne and Matisse, and she belie...

Oscar Wilde from 2012-04-10T16:00

Oscar Wilde, author of The Importance of Being Earnest and The Ballad of Reading Gaol, is proposed by Will Self, a writer once described as a 'high powered satirical weapon'.

In 1895, and ...

Dylan Thomas from 2012-04-03T16:00

Dylan Thomas, arguably Wales's most famous poet, comes under scrutiny on Great Lives. A man famous both for his linguistic exuberance and his chaotic, alcohol-fuelled private life, Dylan Thomas is ...

Razia Sultana from 2012-01-31T17:00

Co-chairman of the Conservative party, Baroness Warsi recalls her Pakistani-born father during her Yorkshire childhood telling her about the heroic martial deeds conducted by a thirteenth century I...

Vera Brittain from 2012-01-24T17:00

The writer and pacifist Vera Brittain is discussed by her daughter Baroness Shirley Williams and Dr Clare Gerada, Chair of the Royal College of GPs. Vera Brittain's life was shaped by the grief th...

Gracie Allen from 2012-01-17T17:00

Matthew Parris is joined by the actress Emma Kennedy to explore the life of the American comedienne Gracie Allen. George Burns and Gracie Allen were a hugely successful stage act who went on to con...

Joseph Rotblat from 2012-01-10T17:00

Astronomer Royal Sir Martin Rees tells Matthew Parris why his hero, physicist Joseph Rotblat, lived a "great life". Rotblat was a brilliant physicist who was the only scientist to resign from the...

Lonnie Donegan from 2012-01-03T17:00

Downton Abbey actor Jim Carter tells Matthew Parris why skiffle king Lonnie Donegan is his hero. Lonnie Donegan is probably best remembered for the novelty hits "My Old Man's a Dustman" and "Doe...

Ludwig II of Bavaria from 2011-12-27T17:00

Brian Sewell on his long-standing love of "Mad" King Ludwig II of Bavaria, who built the ultimate fantasy castle at Neuschwanstein. From his first fateful glimpse of one of Ludwig's palaces, Brian'...

Thomas Hobbes from 2011-12-20T17:00

Thomas Hobbes: the writer and psychologist Steven Pinker joins Matthew Parris to discuss the life of the great English philosopher. Noel Malcolm from All Souls College, Oxford provides the expert a...

Ludwig Wittgenstein from 2011-12-13T17:00

Ludwig Wittgenstein, the fascinating and misunderstood genius who changed the course of philosophy, is chosen by writer Raymond Tallis. With biographer Ray Monk, he brings alive this most enigmatic...

Philip K Dick from 2011-12-06T16:45

Actor Michael Sheen (Frost/Nixon; The Queen; Midnight in Paris) explores the life of Philip K. Dick with Matthew Parris, and explains why he had such a big influence on his recent production of Ham...

William Shakespeare from 2011-10-07T16:30

No less a figure than the national bard, William Shakespeare, is nominated for great life status by poetry curator and TV producer, Daisy Goodwin. Dominic Dromgoole, Artistic Director of the Globe ...

Gerald Durrell from 2011-09-27T16:00

Former England footballer Graeme le Saux champions the life of writer, broadcaster and conservationist Gerald Durrell. Graeme and presenter Matthew Parris are joined in the studio by Durrell's wido...

Hildegard Von Bingen from 2011-09-20T15:45

When the singer Cerys Matthews first played the music of the 12th century nun, Hildegard von Bingen, on her BBC 6 music show, she said she felt she could hear the tumble weed rolling through the li...

Edwin Lutyens from 2011-09-13T16:41

If Edwin Lutyens, the architect behind New Delhi, the Cenotaph, and the British embassy in Washington, sounds an austere, imperial figure then think again. He was fun and almost child-like - he lov...

Hans Fallada from 2011-09-06T16:01

The Fast Show comedian Simon Day tells Matthew Parris why he's fascinated by the life and work of German author Hans Fallada. Matthew is also joined by Fallada's biographer Jenny Williams. Hans Fa...

Eduardo Paolozzi from 2011-08-23T16:00

This week's Great Life, Sir Eduardo Paolozzi, hated being tagged as the father of pop art, yet his representations of images from popular culture came almost two decades before Warhol and Lichtenst...

Kirsty MacColl from 2011-08-09T15:45

Broadcaster Janice Long tells Matthew Parris why singer-songwriter Kirsty MacColl led a "great life" despite her tragically early death in a boating accident in Mexico in 2000. Kirsty MacColl was...

Graham Greene from 2011-08-02T16:00

The Third Man, Brighton Rock, Travels With My Aunt - the books of Graham Greene all still have a definite ring. But the the man himself was an enigma. He worked both as a spy as well as a foreign c...

Harold Pinter from 2011-05-24T16:00

Matthew Parris is joined by Diane Abbott MP and biographer and critic Michael Billington to explore the life of playwright and Nobel Laureate Harold Pinter. His name - if you add an "esque" to it...

Jack Johnson from 2011-05-17T16:00

It was the fight of the century, July 4th 1910, when Tim Jeffries, the so-called Great White Hope, was stopped by Jack Johnson in the 15th round. Suddenly white supremacy didn't seem so self-assure...

Petra Kelly from 2011-05-10T15:45

Matthew Parris presents the biographical series in which his guests choose someone who has inspired their lives. Green MP Caroline Lucas nominates German Green politician Petra Kelly. Kelly was one...

Lewis Carroll from 2011-05-03T15:45

Matthew Parris and writer Lynne Truss discuss the life of author Lewis Carroll. Famous for the Alice books, Carroll was also a brilliant mathematician and early photographer. But his reputation has...

Kathleen Ferrier from 2011-04-26T15:45

Kathleen Ferrier was a British contralto singer who died in 1953 from breast cancer. Her professional career had lasted just 14 years but in that time she had had become an international star, sing...

Simone de Beauvoir from 2011-04-19T16:00

Actress Diana Quick tells Matthew Parris why she believes that existentialist philosopher Simone de Beauvoir lived a great life, despite living in the shadow of Jean Paul Sartre. Simone de Beauvo...

Leonard Bernstein from 2011-04-12T16:00

The conductor Charles Hazlewood chooses the great American composer Leonard Bernstein, music director of the New York Philharmonic and creator of West Side Story, Wonderful Town, and Candide. The c...

Thomas Edison from 2011-04-05T16:00

Matthew Parris presents the biographical series in which his guests choose someone who has inspired their lives. Here, Sir Clive Sinclair nominates fellow inventor Thomas Edison. Edison invented so...

Marcus Garvey from 2011-02-01T17:00

Playwright Kwame Kwei-Armah is a passionate advocate of Marcus Garvey, the inspirational black leader of the early twentieth century. Long before Martin Luther King or Malcolm X, Marcus Garvey was ...

Mary Stott from 2011-01-25T17:00

The writer Katharine Whitehorn chooses Mary Stott, the great campaigning journalist and the first editor of the Guardian women's page. She's the journalist who more than anyone started the revoluti...

Gertrude Bell from 2011-01-18T17:00

Gertrude Bell was a British woman who arguably founded the modern state of Iraq. Explorer, mountaineer and archaeologist, this extraordinarily talented woman travelled widely across Arabia in the y...

Aneurin Bevan from 2011-01-04T17:00

In his time, Aneurin Bevan was, according to one biographer, "the most colourful and controversial, most loved and most loathed political personality in Britain". The founding father of the NHS is...

Sammy Davis Jr from 2010-12-28T17:00

Lionel Blair chooses his friend and dancing partner Sammy Davis Jr. Sammy described himself as a 'one-eyed black Jew' - and he was described by others as one of the greatest all-round entertainers ...

Samuel Beckett from 2010-12-21T17:00

Business guru Sir Gerry Robinson was born in Ireland but moved to England in his teens, and he chooses Samuel Beckett, another Irishman who lived away for much of his life - in Paris. Gerry, a late...

DH Lawrence from 2010-12-14T17:00

DH Lawrence was, in the words of Geoff Dyer, a man with thin wrists and thick trousers. He was also the author of Women in Love, Sons and Lovers and Lady Chatterley's Lover. But poet and performer ...

Malcolm McLaren from 2010-12-07T17:00

Matthew Parris presents the life of the great rock and roll swindler, Malcolm McLaren, who died earlier this year. 'I've been called many things,' McLaren wrote as advance publicity for his one m...

Walt Disney from 2010-09-28T16:00

Satirical cartoonist Gerald Scarfe nominates Walt Disney. Gerald Scarfe spent much of his childhood in his sick bed, so it's not surprising that Disney cartoons and feature films meant so much to ...

Michel de Montaigne from 2010-09-21T16:00

Michel de Montaigne is one of the most influential writers of the French Renaissance. He is known for popularising the essay as a literary genre and became famous for his ability to fuse intellec...

Winston Churchill from 2010-09-14T16:00

Winston Churchill's is the Great Life chosen by Lord Digby Jones, former Director General of the CBI. Expert contribution comes from Professor David Reynolds. Both men have vivid memories of the da...

Golda Meir from 2010-09-07T16:00

Golda Meir was the Iron Lady of Israeli politics, a straight-talking, intransigent leader who once said, "There is a type of woman who does not let her husband narrow her horizons". She is the cho...