Matthew Bannister on

Baroness O’Cathain, the successful businesswoman who became Managing Director of the Barbican Arts Centre in London but left after losing the confidence of staff and artists.

Michael Collins, the Apollo 11 astronaut who stayed in the Apollo command module while Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walked on the moon.

Sharon Matola, the former lion tamer who became an environmentalist in Belize, establishing a zoo to care for the country’s rare and rescued animals.

Jim Steinman, the songwriter whose masterwork “Bat Out Of Hell” became one of the best-selling albums of all time.

Producer: Neil George

Interviewed guest: Lord Faulkner of Worcester

Interviewed guest: Sir Nicholas Kenyon

Interviewed guest: Lou Nicolait

Interviewed guest: Andrea Polanco

Interviewed guest: Meat Loaf

Interviewed guest: Don Black

Archive clips used: The Farming Week: Radio 4, TX 1.8.1987; Woman's Hour: Radio 4, TX 17.10.1989; 13 Minutes to the Moon: World Service, TX 15.5.2019; Naomi's Nightmares of Nature: CBBC, TX 2.7.2014; Simon Bates interview with Meat Loaf and Jim Steinman, recorded circa 1993, TX unknown; World at One: Radio 4, TX 21.4.2021; I Write the Songs - Series 3: Radio Wales, TX 12.3.2016

Matthew Bannister on:

Geoff Crowther, the global traveller, writer and map maker whose work helped to build the success of the Lonely Planet guide books.

Isamu Akasaki, the Nobel prize winning physicist whose discoveries paved the way for LED lighting.

June Newton, who was a successful portrait photographer using the name Alice Springs to avoid comparisons with her husband and fellow photographer Helmut Newton.

Les McKeown, the front man of the Scottish boy band The Bay City Rollers. At their height the band provoked the same hysteria from fans as the Beatles had done a decade earlier.

Producer: Neil George

Interviewed guest: Ashley Crowther

Interviewed guest: Tony Wheeler

Interviewed guest: Hiroshi Amano

Interviewed guest: Professor Russell Dupuis

Interviewed guest: Dana Thomas

Interviewed guest: Billy Sloan

Interviewed guest: Nina Myskow

Archive clips used: Newsnight: BBC One, TX 5.8.1999

Matthew Bannister on

Helen McCrory, the actor best known for playing the matriarch Aunt Polly in Peaky Blinders, but equally acclaimed for her classical stage performances. David Hare pays tribute.

Hans Küng, the controversial Catholic theologian who often clashed with the Vatican and wrote many books including 'Does God Exist?” and “Can We Save The Catholic Church?”.

Eric Gordon, the communist journalist who took his family to live in China under Chairman Mao and on his return bought the North London newspaper the Camden Journal and turned its fortunes around.

George Reynolds, the colourful ex-offender who became a multi-millionaire, bought his local football club Darlington FC and once offered to pay off the mortgages of many of his employees and give them each a Mercedes car.

Producer: Neil George

Interviewed guest: David Hare

Interviewed guest: Mark Strong

Interviewed guest: Michael Coveney

Interviewed guest: David Willey

Interviewed guest: Charles Curran

Interviewed guest: Kim Gordon

Interviewed guest: Mike Amos

Archive clips used: Sunday programme: Radio 4, TX 7.10.2012; Infallibility Questioned - Prof. Hans Kung: Radio 4, TX 24.7.1971; BBC News: BBC One, TX 16.12.1968; Twenty-Four Hours - Gordon Family Interview: Radio 4, TX 20.10.1969; BBC News: BBC One, TX 16.10.1969; Midweek: Radio 4, TX 2.4.2003; Homeground - George Reynolds Playing By His Own Rules: BBC 2, TX 16.3.2004; Desert Island Discs – Helen McCrory: Radio 4, TX 3.7.2020

Matthew Bannister on:

The Liberal Democrat peer Baroness Williams of Crosby. As Shirley Williams she was a Labour cabinet minister who abolished the 11-plus exam in many parts of the UK, then a member of the Gang of Four who founded the SDP and later the Lib Dem leader in the House of Lords. Her former colleague Lord Owen pays tribute.

Glynn Lunney, who was the flight director on key American space missions, including the Apollo 11 moon landing and the aborted Apollo 13 mission, during which he played a key role in saving the astronauts' lives. His fellow flight director Gerry Griffin pays tribute.

And Lyn Macdonald, the historian who documented the testimony of ordinary First World War soldiers. The author Sebastian Faulks tells us how she inspired his best-selling novel “Birdsong”.

Producer: Neil George

Interviewed guest: Julia Langdon

Interviewed guest: Lord David Owen

Interviewed guest: Gerry Griffin

Interviewed guest: Kevin Fong

Interviewed guest: Sebastian Faulks

Archive clips used: Desert Island Discs - Shirley Williams: Radio 4, TX 3.2.2006; World At One: Launch of SDP: Radio 4, TX 26.3.1981; BBC News: BBC One, TX 29.11.1959; The Reunion – The Gang of Four: Radio 4, TX 17.8.2018; I Died In Hell... They Called It Passchendaele: Radio 4, TX 26.10.1977; Woman's Hour: Radio 4, TX 9.11.1974

Matthew Bannister on

Doreen Lofthouse, the Lancashire businesswoman who took Fisherman’s Friends lozenges from a Fleetwood chemist’s shop to a multi-million pound international company.

Dr Chris Doake, the glaciologist who was able to predict with great accuracy the break-up of the Antarctic ice shelf.

Barbara Hosking, who served as a Downing Street press officer under both Harold Wilson and Ted Heath and came out as a lesbian in her nineties.

Bernice Cohen, the self-taught investor who became a TV star.

Producer: Neil George

Interviewed guest: Duncan Lofthouse

Interviewed guest: David Pearce

Interviewed guest: Dr Andy Smith

Interviewed guest: Iain Dale

Interviewed guest: Lawrence Lever

Archive clips used: Women of the Year: BBC One, TX 16.10.1989; Government ad re preparations for the European Single Market: BBC One, TX 12.7.1990; Horizon: Antarctica - Ice Station Rescue: BBC Two, TX 5.2.2018; The Emma Barnett Show: Radio 4, TX 14.2.2018; The Morning Show: BBC One, TX 14.2.2003; Woman’s Hour: Radio 4, TX 4.6.1999

Matthew Bannister on

Bob Davey, the retired water board superintendent who made it his mission to restore an ancient church in Norfolk – and in the process made a remarkable archaeological find.

George Segal, the American film star who was nominated for an Oscar for his performance in “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” and starred opposite Glenda Jackson in the comedy “A Touch of Class”.

Lady Violet Aitken, the aristocratic power boat racer who carried on competing despite a serious injury.

Tony Hendra, the outrageous British-born comedian who made his name in America. He edited the magazine National Lampoon, wrote for Spitting Image and played the manager of Spinal Tap in the classic spoof rockumentary.

Producer: Neil George

Interviewed guest: Nick Ullett

Interviewed guest: Sue Gattuso

Interviewed guest: Michael Goldfarb

Interviewed guest: Laura Levi

Archive clips used: Making History: Radio 4, TX 8.5.2012; BBC NEWS: BBC One, TX 11.7.1969

Matthew Bannister on:

The Egyptian feminist writer Nawal El Saadawi who faced persecution and imprisonment but never wavered from her commitment to campaigning for women’s rights.

Brigadier Jack Thomas who had a distinguished military career, serving during the Second World War, the Korean war and in Northern Ireland.

John Magufuli, the autocratic President of Tanzania who advocated prayer and inhaling herbal infusions as a way of tackling the Coronavirus pandemic.

Ion Mihai Pacepa, the senior Romanian intelligence officer who defected to the West and lived the rest of his life under a secret identity.

Producer: Neil George

Interviewed guest: Mona Eltahawy

Interviewed guest: Sally Nabil

Interviewed guest: John Thomas

Interviewed guest: Brigadier Norman Allen

Interviewed guest: Zuhura Yunus

Interviewed guest: Prof Ronald Rychlak

Archive clips used: Woman’s Hour: Radio 4, TX 25.7.2011; Woman at Point Zero: Radio 4, TX 19.4.1993; Breakfast News: BBC One, TX 14.7.1988

Julian Worricker on:

One of the best known sports commentators of his generation, motor racing's Murray Walker

The woman who co-founded what became the charity, Missling People, Mary Asprey

King Goodwill Zwelithini, who ruled the Zulu nation at a time of enormous change in South Africa

And Bunny Wailer, founder member of the Wailers, whose album Blackheart Man is regarded as one of reggae's finest.

Producer: Neil George

Interviewed guest: Simon Taylor

Interviewed guest: Nomsa Maseko

Interviewed guest: Sophie Macaulay

Interviewed guest: Trevor McDonald

Interviewed guest: David Katz

Interviewed guest: Clive Allick

Desert Island Discs: Radio 4, TX 16.3.2014; 5 Live Sport Special - Murray Walker (BBC Podcast); BBC News: BBC One, TX 24.9.1994; BBC News: BBC One, TX 26.5.1991; The learning zone: BBC 2, TX 15.1.1998

Matthew Bannister on

Nicola Pagett, the acclaimed actor who made her name on TV in Upstairs Downstairs and as Anna Karenina but also excelled in classical stage roles. Later in life she suffered severe mental illness.

Stan Shaw, one of the last Sheffield craftsmen known as “little mesters”. He spent eighty years forging, grinding and finishing blades in the city’s cutlery industry.

Professor John Mallard, who led the team at Aberdeen University which developed the first full body MRI scanner.

Rupert Neve, the recording engineer who designed mixing desks revered by rock stars and music producers.

Producer: Neil George

Interviewed guest: Simon Williams

Interviewed guest: Michael Coveney

Interviewed guest: Prof David Lurie

Interviewed guest: Dave Harries

Interviewed guest: Phil Ward

Archive clips used: Woman’s Hour: Radio 4, TX 23.9.1997; Shelford Interviews: Rupert Neve discusses how technologies in the 60's changed sound engineering

Matthew Bannister on

Sheikh Ahmed Zaki Yamani, the Saudi oil minister who presided over the 1970s embargo that caused crises for Western economies.

Sidney Alford, the maverick explosives expert who created methods of defusing improvised explosive devices used in Northern Ireland, Afghanistan and the Middle East. He also demolished large buildings and created spectacular effects for film makers.

Alison Lurie, the American novelist whose biting satires on academic life and manners have been compared to Jane Austen.

Chris Barber, the jazz trombonist and band leader who was a leading figure in the trad boom of the 1960s.

Producer: Neil George

Interviewed guest: Dr Mai Yamani

Interviewed guest: Javier Blas

Interviewed guest: Jeffrey Robinson

Interviewed guest: Roland Alford

Interviewed guest: Prof Judith Newman

Archive clips used: Panorama: BBC One, TX 20.11.1973; Book at Bedtime – Foreign Affairs: Radio 4, TX 11.10.2004; Desert Island Discs: Radio 4, TX 9.3.1985; 15 Minute Drama - Imaginary Friends: Radio 4, TX 11.7.2011; Chris Barber - Leader of the Band: Radio 2, TX 20.4.2011