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 Cup, a horse race in Singapore. He was born in 1781 and as an agent of the East India Company, Thomas Stamford Raffles rose to become lieutenant governor of Java during the Napoleonic war. He's also often named as the founder of Singapore and also London Zoo. But how did he achieve so much so fast?

The producer in Bristol is Miles Warde

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 attraction to young boys and it was turned into a film in 1971 directed by Visconti and starring Dirk Bogarde.

He moved to Switzerland before the outbreak of the Second World War and lived in exile in Europe and the USA for the rest of his life.

From his home in California he rubbed shoulders with the likes of Einstein and Brecht, and he recorded broadcasts for the BBC urging the German people to rise up and overthrow Hitler. He was married and had six children, two of whom took their own lives.

Lexicographer and TV word expert on 'Countdown' Susie Dent says German was her first love and she loves the tension in Mann's work between the pull of one's senses and the desire to stay aloof and detached.

Presented by Matthew Parris.

With expert witness, Karolina Watroba, Research fellow in German and Comparative Literature at the University of Oxford. Karolina was born in Poland where Mann is a huge cultural icon.

Produced at BBC Bristol by Toby Field.

First broadcast on Radio 4 in August 2023.

"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 in the Labour governments of both Harold Wilson and Jim Callaghan, led the Stop the War Coalition from 2001 and became pretty much the country’s pre-eminent rock star politician in older age. Comedian Ellie Gibson says she was a Tony Benn groupie and saw him speak many times. A brilliant orator and prolific diarist, he was by the 1980s distrusted by many in his own party, and a bogey figure in the right wing press. Contributors include ex Labour MP, Chris Mullin, and his biographer, Jad Adams; plus rare early archive of Tony Benn himself talking about his constitutional fight to give up his inherited peerage.

Ellie Gibson is one half of the Scummy Mummies podcast duo.

The producer in Bristol is Miles Warde

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 feral nature of British street culture – i.e. getting beaten up - but out of turmoil can come great art, songs like Ghost Town and Concrete Jungle. Anyway, before The Specials came on, I made a decision: I would pretend to faint in the hope that I could watch the show from the side of the stage. It worked like a dream. I was carried by the bouncers to the wings, and left there. This was probably the most exciting moment of my life, and as I stood there, Terry Hall noticed me and came over to ask if I was okay. Terry Hall, the coolest man in Britain, being kind and showing concern."

Years later Terry Hall publicly announced that he'd been abducted by paedophiles as a boy. Jon Ronson immediately remembered the care and concern Terry had shown him and wondered if this was why.

Programme includes Terry's bandmate, Lynval Golding, giving his first interview since Terry died in December; plus two of his friends, Shaun O'Donnell and Gary Aspden, and the voice of Terry himself.

Jon Ronson is the author of Adventures with Extremists and presenter of Things Fell Apart, about the culture wars.

The producer in Bristol is Miles Warde

Sir 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 claims, an occasionally appalling human being who used his own daughter in a marriage deal to buy himself favour with the King.

Joining Jesse Norman, and presenter Ian Hislop, in the studio, and often backing up his claims for Coke's greatness, is Dr Alexandra Gajda of Oxford University.

Jesse Norman is a government minister, former paymaster general and one time financial secretary to the Treasury.

Producer: Miles Warde

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in May 2023.

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 both Rwanda and Bosnia leading to thousands of deaths. Kofi was born in Ghana and after a brief spell in the USA slowly worked his way up through the organisation and his appointment was seen by many as a return to a consensus and multi-lateral approach to diplomacy.

Choosing Kofi is the writer, biologist and presenter Gillian Burke. Gillian's Mum worked for the UN and Gillian describes herself as a "Child of the UN". For both Gillian and her Mum, Kofi Annan was a symbol of hope and an embodiment of the core principles of the UN, and she is keen to learn what qualities Kofi had that made him a good diplomat. To help answer that is former ambassador to the UN, Sir Jeremy Greenstock. Sir Jeremy praises Kofi's ability to listen to all sides but says his eyes would harden when he disagreed with what was being said. Together with Matthew Parris, they chew over the successes and failures of Kofi Annan's career, the role of the UN, and what impact he might be having today if he were still alive.

Presenter: Matthew Parris

Produced for BBC Audio, Bristol by Toby Field

"The most important thing to do in your life is not to interfere with somebody else's life."

Joining the award winning comedian and broadcaster in studio is Deb Grant, who provides a steadying balance to John Robins' fan boy approval of all things Zappa. Programme includes multiple clips of Frank himself, including his most famous quote: "Most rock journalism is people who can't write, interviewing people who can't talk, for people who can't read."

The producer in Bristol is Miles Warde

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 of his eyes. King of Prussia from 1740, Frederick was also a musician, a composer, a writer and a chancer who took extraordinary military risks to secure his place in Europe. Adolf Hitler thought the world of Frederick the Great, but how do Germans view him today?

Joining Matthew Parris to discuss a really extraordinary great life is Christopher Clark, regius professor of history at Cambridge University and Frederick's nominator. He recalls crossing into East Berlin in the eighties and being thrilled to discover Frederick's cultural legacy was still largely intact. Also in studio is Katja Hoyer, author of Beyond the Wall who grew up with the spectre of Frederick looming large both at school and at home.

The producer in Bristol is Miles Warde

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

Arthur was born in Richmond, Virginia, a state in the US that in 1943 was still part of the segregated south. If Arthur wanted to compete with white players, he had to leave for St Louis and then California to play.

His story is staggering, and not just his success in a notoriously elitist sport. His mother died when he was six, he had a heart attack when he was 36, and he died of AIDS when he was just 49, contracted from a tainted blood confusion.

Film maker and broadcaster Qasa Alom grew up loving Rafa Nadal. Then Ashe's story blew him away.

"In a world where we have so many demonstrative heroes, in sport, in politics, the extrovert who is shouting the loudest often gets heard. There's a really good opportunity here to showcase other ways of being a champion, and Arthur Ashe for me is certainly that person."

Programme contains historic interviews, including Arthur Ashe talking to Anthony Clare for In The Psychiatrists Chair shortly after his first heart attack.

It also includes a new interview with Raymond Arsenault, American author of Arthur Ashe: A Life.

Presenter: Matthew Parris

Producer: Miles Warde

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in April 2023.

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 tell to her children during the war years, only writing them down for a publisher years later.

Following the immense success of Pippi, Astrid Lindgren went on to write Emil of Lonneberga, Children of Noisy Village and the fantasy novels Mio, my son; Ronia the Robber's Daughter; and The Brother's Lionheart. But it was Pippi who brought her fame and fortune. She was a particular hit in post-war Germany, where it is claimed the stories helped de-nazify the Hitler youth.

In the 70s and 80s Lindgren began campaigning on child, environmental and animal rights, influencing Swedish government policy and becoming known as the 'Grandmother of all Sweden'. She is still very much adored there today.

Cressida Cowell is a recent children's laureate. Also joining the discussion is Johan Palmberg, Lindgren's great grandson, who recalls. "She had this understanding of what a child might be interested in ... she would be the first one to climb the trees and have the children follow her up"

Produced in Bristol by Ellie Richold

Image courtesy of Jacob Forsell