Great Lives

By BBC Radio 4

Personal Journals Society & Culture

What's Great Lives about?

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

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Caroline Catz on Delia Derb...

01.19.2021

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 Dr David Butler from the University of ...

Great Lives episodes:

01.19.2021 Caroline Catz on Delia Derbyshire 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 Dr David Butler from the University of ...
01.12.2021 David Jonsson on Jean Michel Basquiat 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 huge admirer. But beyond this club scene personality ...
01.05.2021 Rob Rinder on Jessica Mitford. 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 from her fascist siblings. As an adult ...
12.29.2020 Diane Morgan on Air Chief Marshal Hugh Dowding 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 regarded as the architect of Britain's unlikely ...
12.17.2020 David Spiegelhalter on Frank Ramsey 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 Moore, who considered him to be one of the sharpest minds around. His ...
12.11.2020 The Great Lives of Great Lives 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 was about Morecambe and Wise, ...
12.08.2020 Katherine Parr, sixth wife of Henry VIII 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 because she survived the monstrous Henry VIII, but she ...
09.29.2020 Xuanzang, Chinese monk and traveller 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 westwards, and ...
09.22.2020 James Graham on John Maynard Keynes 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 Keynes. Keynes was not just the revolutionary economist ...
09.15.2020 Sir David Adjaye on Okwui Enwezor “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, the art establishment had been defined and ...
09.08.2020 Tom Allen on Kenneth Williams 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 Kenneth's biographer, Christopher Stevens, to explore the life ...
09.01.2020 Ernie Bevin, forgotten political giant 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, where he helped ...
08.25.2020 Jessie Ware on Donna Summer 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 of the Queen of Disco, Donna Summer. Jessie joins Matthew Parris ...
08.18.2020 Peter Frankopan on Konstantin Tsiolkovsky 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 fruition. To discuss Tsiolkovsky's life and achievements, Matthew Parris ...
08.12.2020 Frida Kahlo nominated by Author Jessie Burton “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," says Circe Henestrosa, co curator of ...
08.04.2020 Mussolini 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 said later. But Mussolini died before ...
06.02.2020 Dolly Alderton on Doris Day 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 view of the legendary ...
05.26.2020 Sybille Bedford, author of Jigsaw and A Legacy 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 to visit because of its 'long ...
05.13.2020 Sally Phillips on Hollywood star Myrna Loy 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 was most famous for ...
05.05.2020 Victoria Wood Victoria Wood grew up in a bungalow high up on the moors in Lancashire. The rooms were partitioned off with plywood, and she loved to play the piano on her own. She became the biggest comedy star in the UK, ...
04.29.2020 The amazing Maya Angelou 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 the Caged Bird Sings - returned to ...
04.21.2020 Ursula Le Guin nominated by Kate Stables 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 life from the literary elite. ...
04.14.2020 Frank Cottrell Boyce on Tove Jansson "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 Tove Jansson was born in ...
04.10.2020 Rick Stein on Jim Morrison As a twenty-one year old man travelling the world, a young Rick Stein discovered The Doors and became fascinated by the band's lead singer, Jim Morrison. Over the subsequent fifty years, the life and legend of one of rock and ...
01.21.2020 Andi Oliver on Nobel Prize-winning author Toni Morrison 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 author, editor and college professor Toni Morrison chronicled the lives ...
01.10.2020 Kurt Vonnegut and Josie Long "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 life happened in Dresden in 1945. ...
01.03.2020 Charlie Parker nominated by Ken Clarke 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 minister, home secretary and chancellor ...
12.24.2019 Bill Bailey on his hero Alfred Russel Wallace 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 Wallace-Darwin theory of evolution. When ...
12.24.2019 Novelist Enid Blyton 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 the attic, “my entire childhood,” were a heavy sledge, Twinkle ...
12.17.2019 Jeremy Paxman nominates Lord Shaftesbury 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. a Victorian politician whose numerous and wide-ranging social reforms transformed working and living ...
12.10.2019 War photographer and model Lee Miller proposed by Lindsey Hilsum of Channel 4 News 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 Vogue magazine. How ...
12.03.2019 Just William / Richmal Crompton proposed by Peter Oborne with Martin Jarvis "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 William Brown and his creator, Richmal Crompton. She wrote ...
10.07.2019 Constance Agatha Cummings-John 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. Born into the Sierra Leonean Krios elite in 1918, Constance was brought up in ...
09.17.2019 Comedian Sindhu Vee on Prince The comedian Sindhu Vee has loved Prince ever since she was a young girl in India - when her sister gave her illicit cassettes recorded from U.S. radio. Hearing his music changed her life forever, and seeing him perform influenced ...
09.12.2019 Fiona Shaw nominates actress Eleonora Duse Fiona Shaw, BAFTA award-winning star of Killing Eve, joins Matthew Parris to explore the life of one of history's most remarkable actresses whose name has slipped from public memory. She inspired Stanislavski's 'method', changed Chekhov's mind about acting, and took ...
09.03.2019 Philippa Perry on the Italian educator Maria Montessori Psychotherapist Philippa Perry nominates the Italian educator and doctor Maria Montessori, who revolutionised children's education. Montessori schools exist today in over 170 countries. They are defined by a child-centred approach to learning, nurturing independence and individuality in children as young ...
08.27.2019 First Labour Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald Ramsay Macdonald, Labour's first Prime Minister, 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 party betrayal began. Broadcaster Shaun Ley and ...
08.20.2019 Caroline Quentin nominates Sir John Vanbrugh, playwright and architect From acting in Men Behaving Badly and Jonathan Creek to restoring dozens of period properties and touring India for TV, the actress Caroline Quentin loves variety. When she discovered the life of the playwright and architect Sir John Vanbrugh, she ...
08.13.2019 Laura Marling on the first woman psychoanalyst, Lou Andreas-Salome Laura Marling, folk singer-songwriter, nominates the first female psychoanalyst, Lou Andreas-Salomé. Laura has been unravelling the mysteries of Russian-born Lou Andreas-Salomé ever since she came across her name in the biography of the poet, Rainer Maria Rilke. She'd never heard ...
08.13.2019 Robinson Crusoe Robinson Crusoe is 300 years old this year. Is he real? Well, the book says that it was 'written by himself'. In celebration we have invited two notable desert island survivors to discuss his life and strange surprising adventures, eight ...
08.12.2019 Ed Balls nominates Herbert Howells Ed Balls discusses the influence of the 20th-century composer Herbert Howells with biographer Paul Spicer. Presented by Matthew Parris.
05.28.2019 Kamila Shamsie chooses Asma Jahangir Kamila Shamsie, author of the award-winning novel 'Home Fire' champions the life of the Pakistani human rights lawyer Asma Jahangir. Kamila says she was only ten years old, growing up in Karachi, when Asma became her hero even before she ...
05.21.2019 Shirley Collins on the American song-hunter Alan Lomax The prolific and most significant of American song-hunters - Alan Lomax - has been chosen by English folk singer Shirley Collins. She's joined by singer-songwriter and activist Billy Bragg. Lomax did whatever was necessary to preserve traditional music and take ...
05.15.2019 Jeremy Deller on The Beatles' manager Brian Epstein 'Brian Epstein Died For You'. This is a phrase the Turner-prize winning artist Jeremy Deller has been vaguely obsessed with for years. He believes the music entrepreneur and The Beatles' manager Brian Epstein has never been properly credited for his ...
05.07.2019 Caroline Criado-Perez nominates Jane Austen 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 Byrne, author of three books about the novelist, to challenge some ...
05.01.2019 Conductor and composer Ferruccio Busoni 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 human being but a value." Unravelling exactly what this means ...
04.23.2019 Malcolm Lowry, writer, nominated by Ian McMillan Matthew Parris meets the poet Ian McMillan to find out about the life of his literary hero Malcolm Lowry. Ian first discovered this twentieth century writer's work as a young sixth former searching for literary inspiration. He stumbled by chance ...
04.18.2019 Catherine de Medici nominated by Helen Lewis Journalist Helen Lewis rehabilitates the reputation of the “Black Queen” of France, Catherine de Medici. Helen is joined by Dr Estelle Paranque, history lecturer at the New College of Humanities and author of a new book on the relationship between ...
04.16.2019 Aethelflaed, Lady of the Mercians, chosen by Tom Holland 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 Anglo-Saxons were fighting back against the Vikings, Aethelflaed became ...
04.02.2019 Shappi Khorsandi on Emma, Lady Hamilton 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 seducer of Admiral Horatio Nelson but according to ...

Older episodes

Great Lives

What's Great Lives about?

Download our free app to listen on your phone

Great Lives episodes:

Caroline Catz on Delia Derbyshire

David Jonsson on Jean Michel Basquiat

Rob Rinder on Jessica Mitford.

Diane Morgan on Air Chief Marshal Hugh Dowding

David Spiegelhalter on Frank Ramsey

The Great Lives of Great Lives

Katherine Parr, sixth wife of Henry VIII

Xuanzang, Chinese monk and traveller

James Graham on John Maynard Keynes

Sir David Adjaye on Okwui Enwezor

Tom Allen on Kenneth Williams

Ernie Bevin, forgotten political giant

Jessie Ware on Donna Summer

Peter Frankopan on Konstantin Tsiolkovsky

Frida Kahlo nominated by Author Jessie Burton

Mussolini

Dolly Alderton on Doris Day

Sybille Bedford, author of Jigsaw and A Legacy

Sally Phillips on Hollywood star Myrna Loy

Victoria Wood

The amazing Maya Angelou

Ursula Le Guin nominated by Kate Stables

Frank Cottrell Boyce on Tove Jansson

Rick Stein on Jim Morrison

Andi Oliver on Nobel Prize-winning author Toni Morrison

Kurt Vonnegut and Josie Long

Charlie Parker nominated by Ken Clarke

Bill Bailey on his hero Alfred Russel Wallace

Novelist Enid Blyton

Jeremy Paxman nominates Lord Shaftesbury

War photographer and model Lee Miller proposed by Lindsey Hilsum of Channel 4 News

Just William / Richmal Crompton proposed by Peter Oborne with Martin Jarvis

Constance Agatha Cummings-John

Comedian Sindhu Vee on Prince

Fiona Shaw nominates actress Eleonora Duse

Philippa Perry on the Italian educator Maria Montessori

First Labour Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald

Caroline Quentin nominates Sir John Vanbrugh, playwright and architect

Laura Marling on the first woman psychoanalyst, Lou Andreas-Salome

Robinson Crusoe

Ed Balls nominates Herbert Howells

Kamila Shamsie chooses Asma Jahangir

Shirley Collins on the American song-hunter Alan Lomax

Jeremy Deller on The Beatles' manager Brian Epstein

Caroline Criado-Perez nominates Jane Austen

Conductor and composer Ferruccio Busoni

Malcolm Lowry, writer, nominated by Ian McMillan

Catherine de Medici nominated by Helen Lewis

Aethelflaed, Lady of the Mercians, chosen by Tom Holland

Shappi Khorsandi on Emma, Lady Hamilton

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