About this podcast
Biographical series in which guests choose someone who has inspired their lives.
Episodes
The newest 50 of 417 episodes
- Mel Giedroyc on Vera Gedroits · 24 minVera Gedroits was the daughter of a Lithuanian prince and a German-Russian mum. So begins the tale of one of our more extraordinary Great Lives - doctor, author, physician to the…
- Lea Ypi on Kant · 28 minKant was born in 18th century Prussia. He showed great intellectual promise as a child, but didn't make a name for himself until his late forties, when he published his lengthy…
- Shaun Keaveny picks Caroline Aherne · 28 minCaroline Aherne was born in London on Christmas eve, but her family moved north when she was a toddler. With an IQ of 176, school was easy, so she kept herself busy, mimicking…
- Tony Juniper on EO Wilson · 28 minEdward Osborne Wilson was a pioneer across several fields of biology, from entomology to biodiversity. He is best known for his expertise on ants, his work developing the field…
- Russell Kane on Iris Murdoch · 28 minIris Murdoch was born in Ireland in 1919, grew up in London and was educated in Bristol and Oxford. She's famous both as a novelist and a philosopher, and she won the Booker…
- Ruby Tandoh on Brian Jacques author of the Redwall series · 28 minBrian Jacques was a docker, sailor, boxer, trucker, milkman, poet and a folk singer too. Then he wrote his Redwall series of children's fantasy novels and became an overnight…
- Eric Ashby, Silent Watcher of the New Forest · 28 minEric Ashby was a quiet pioneer. He lived in the New Forest in the south of England, where he painstakingly filmed the local wildlife, particularly badgers, foxes and deer. His…
- Pauline Black of The Selecter on Poly Styrene of X-Ray Spex · 28 minPoly Styrene was born Marie Joan Elliot-Said in 1957 and went on to become front woman of X Ray Spex. When Pauline Black first saw her on Top of the Pops, Poly was wearing a red…
- Actor Laurence Olivier with Derek Jacobi and Tim Walker · 28 minLaurence Olivier, Baron Olivier of Brighton, was born in Dorking in 1907. He's best known these days for roles in films ranging from Wuthering Heights to Spartacus to the ageing…
- Cartoonist Naji al-Ali · 28 minNaji al-Ali was one of the best known cartoonists in the Arab world. His creation, a little boy called Handala, always stands with his back to the viewer, hands behind his back…
- Cleopatra picked by Kate Williams · 28 min"Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale her infinite variety." She's the most famous character in antiquity, made more famous by Shakespeare and Hollywood films. But this…
- Ade Edmondson on singer Sandy Denny · 27 minAde Edmondson - star of The Young Ones, The Comic Strip Presents, Bottom and much more besides - chooses the singer Sandy Denny. "I think a large part of my Englishness comes…
- Tony Garnett picked by Harry Bradbeer · 28 minTony Garnett was born in Birmingham and, after a brief career as an actor, found a new role behind the scenes of The Wednesday Play. These rapidly gained a reputation in the…
- Peter Cook picked by Jon Harvey aka Count Binface · 28 minPeter Cook was at the centre of the satire boom of the early sixties, both on stage with Beyond the Fringe and with his Soho club, The Establishment. Later he became a famous…
- Coco Khan picks Edith Garrud, the jujitsu fighting suffragette · 28 minWriter and podcaster Coco Khan nominates the little-known but formidable Edith Garrud, a woman who turned Edwardian expectations on their head. A pioneer of ‘Suffrajitsu’, she…
- William Gladstone, four-time PM · 27 min"Gladstone became prime minister at 82, and not as a figurehead. That is the Gladstone who has inspired me." Trevor Lyttleton. Born in 1809, William Gladstone's political life…
- Alistair McGowan on HE Bates · 27 minHE Bates is probably best known for the Darling Buds of May and Fair Stood the Wind for France, but Alistair McGowan is surprised that he is not known for his short stories…
- Beverley Knight on Sister Rosetta Tharpe, the godmother of rock and roll · 28 minShe influenced Elvis, Johnny Cash, Churck Berry, Little Richard and host of British blues acts of the 1960s. Sister Rosetta Tharpe, with her Gibson SG and wondrous voice, was a…
- Daisy Dunn on Marcus Agrippa, ancient Rome's king of cement · 27 minMarcus Vipsanius Agrippa was a Roman general best known for his military victories, but he also helped rebuild Rome, providing aqueducts, statues and the original Pantheon…
- Dr Sian Williams nominates Anna Freud · 28 minMatthew Parris invites a fellow Radio 4 presenter into the studio to nominate a Great Life. Dr Sian Williams, who as well as a broadcaster is a counselling psychologist chooses…
- Pianist and broadcaster Keelan Carew nominates Russian composer Nicolai Medtner · 28 minMatthew Paris is joined by the pianist and broadcaster Keelan Carew, who nominates the Great Life of the early 20th century composer Nicolai Medtner. It’s often the case that in…
- Comedian Helen Lederer on Joan Rivers · 28 minBorn Joan Molinsky in 1933, Joan Rivers shot to fame on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, who she later infuriated by hosting a late night chat show of her own. Comedian and…
- John Cooper Clarke on Johnny Green, road manager of The Clash · 27 minJohnny Green was a hippy, a driver, a writer, a father and the road manager of The Clash. He wrote about this experience in a memorable book, A Riot of Our Own. Then he found a…
- Helen Carr picks Christine de Pizan at the Gloucester history festival · 27 minChristine de Pizan was born in Italy but most of her life was spent in Paris, where her father was astrologer to the King of France. After her husband died she was left alone to…
- Alex Wheatle, the Bard of Brixton · 28 minAfter a childhood in care in Surrey, Alex Wheatle was moved to a hostel in Brixton aged fourteen. Later he was involved in the riots and given a prison sentence, events which…
- Spitfire pilot Jeffrey Quill picked by astronaut Tim Peake · 28 min"It was brilliant to read some of the old techniques the Spitfire test pilots were using, and in some respects test pilot flying isn't that different today, but we don't have to…
- Oliver Postgate · 28 min"Postgate's work is deep inside me and I think that's true for so many of my generation...His work represents nothing less than a touchstone for our national imagination and in…
- Sylvia Plath · 27 minLucy Jones, author of Matrescence, chooses the writer Sylvia Plath. Sylvia Plath was a precocious, prize-winning child,. Her mother had high expectations for her. Her father had…
- Elizabeth Day on Hatshepsut · 28 min"One of the things that she claimed was that her mother had been impregnated by the sun god Amon-Ra." Elizabeth Day's interest in the female pharaoh Hatshepsut was sparked by a…
- Comedian Stewart Lee on Derek Bailey · 31 min"The area I mostly work in is generally known as free - the free music area. And free is one of those four letter words, like rock or jazz or punk maybe. It started out meaning…
- Jock Stein, first British football manager to win the European Cup · 28 minJock Stein, first British football manager to win the European Cup, picked by composer Sir James MacMillan and aided by Jock Stein’s biographer, Archie MacPherson. Jock Stein was…
- Benjamin Franklin · 27 minMatthew Parris heads to the house where Benjamin Franklin lived for almost 17 years to meet banker and philanthropist John Studzinski. Franklin was born in Boston when it was…
- Miles Jupp on JL Carr, author of A Month in the Country · 27 min"I find his novels extraordinarily beautiful .. and they're an excellent length." Miles Jupp picks an author he loves, but knows little about. JL Carr was born in Yorkshire and…
- Helen Castor on Richard II · 28 minToday's great life is possibly more famous as a Shakespearean character - King Richard II who was deposed by his cousin Henry Bolingbroke in 1399. He's been chosen by historian…
- DJ Deb Grant on John Prine · 27 minDJ Deb Grant picks US mailman turned country-folk singer John Prine, whose beautiful songs captured the world in which he lived. Bob Harris, who first met him on the Old Grey…
- Sir Seretse Khama, first president of Botswana · 28 minSeretse Khama was born in 1921 in Bechuanaland when it was still a British Protectorate. In 1966 he became Botswana's first president. In between he married a white Londoner…
- Emily Williamson, co-founder of the RSPB · 28 minFor over a hundred years no one thought too much about the origins of the RSPB, but among its founders was a woman in Didsbury opposed to the use of feathers in fashionable hats…
- Tina Turner · 28 minRock Icon Tina Turner proposed by the actress and author Rebecca Humphries. Tina Turner began life as Anna Mae Bullock in Nutbush, Tennessee, joining Ike Turner's band in St…
- Raymond Blanc on Professor Nicholas Kurti · 28 minThe chef Raymond Blanc nominates his mentor and friend, the physicist Professor Nicholas Kurti. Kurti was born in Hungary but fled to Oxford when Hitler came to power. Pushing…
- Dervla Murphy, author of the classic Full Tilt · 28 minAt the age of 10 Dervla Murphy was given an atlas and a bicycle, and so began an adventurous life. Her account of a journey to India became a classic called Full Tilt but she…
- Ned Ludd mythical leader of the Luddites · 28 minWe don't even know if Ned Ludd was real, but perhaps that was the point. "You could say he was everyone and no one - and that's what made him so terrifying for the authorities."…
- Richey Edwards of The Manic Street Preachers · 28 minRichey was, beautiful says Cummins, a natural icon and a gift to photograph. He also believes his writing has been overshadowed by the fact of his disappearance in 1995. "I think…
- Benny Hill · 27 minBiography show in which the guest picks someone they admire. Benny Hill is a thorny choice but playwright Jonathan Maitland is determined that - despite accusations of sexism and…
- Maggi Hambling picks muse and lover Henrietta Moraes · 28 min“Henrietta's eyes looked into one's soul at the same time exposing her own. She posed for me most Mondays for the last seven months until two days before she died.” In a raw and…
- Harriet Harman on Maria Callas · 28 minThe legendary opera star Maria Callas was lauded for her magnetic stage presence and extraordinary vocal range. Born in New York in 1923 to Greek immigrant parents, she moved…
- Kate Raworth on Donella Meadows · 28 minBorn in Illinois in 1941, Dana Meadows studied Chemistry and Molecular Biology, before turning her back on a post doc position at Harvard, to pursue environmentalism. She joined…
- Mark Billingham chooses George Harrison · 27 min**** 4 Extra marks 25 years since death of George Harrison. George was a musician, singer and songwriter who became one of the most famous people in the world as one quarter of…
- Jake Arnott on John Gay · 28 minJohn Gay, eighteenth-century satirist and author of The Beggar's Opera, is nominated by the writer Jake Arnott - whose novels, including The Long Firm and He Kills Coppers, are…
- Ellen E Jones nominates Florynce Kennedy · 28 minOne dubbed "the biggest, loudest and indisputably the rudest mouth on the battleground", Florynce Kennedy was a force to be reckoned with. She was a lawyer, a vocal figure in the…
- AN Wilson selects Johann Wolfgang von Goethe · 28 min"I've chosen him because I think he was possibly the most interesting human being who has ever lived". AN Wilson Born in the middle of the 18th century in Frankfurt, Goethe went…
