Last Word

Julian Worricker on:

Sir Paul Cosford, who - as medical director of Public Health England - took on a prominent role during the Ebola outbreak and the Salisbury poisonings.

The Formula One boss, Max Mosley, who helped turn his sport into a global spectacle and became an outspoken privacy campaigner.

Dr Frances Rotblat, a haematologist, whose pioneering work led to significant advances in the treatment of haemophilia.

And the veteran actor, Norman Lloyd, whose career began in the 1920s and who worked alongside Orson Welles, Alfred Hitchcock and Charlie Chaplin.

Producer: Neil George

Interviewed guest: Dr Gillian Leng

Archive clips used: BBC News: BBC One, TX 7.3.2018; BBC News, BBC One, TX 25.10.2014; Today Programme: Radio 4, TX 24.5.2021; On the Ropes: Radio 4, TX 1.3.2011; Today: Radio 4, TX 22.11.1984; Brain of Britain: Radio 4, TX 12.9.1977; Art for the Millions: Radio 4, TX 1.2.2018

Matthew Bannister on

Dr. Spencer Silver, the American chemist who invented the adhesive used in Post It Notes.

Kevin Jackson, the writer, broadcaster and critic described as a “21st century man of letters”.

Patricia Brown, who played a leading role in cracking German codes at Bletchley Park during the second world war.

Asfaw Yemiru, the former street boy from Ethiopia who founded a school for orphans in Addis Ababa which has given free education to thousands of students.

Producer: Neil George

Interviewed guest: Linda Spencer

Archive clips used: Twenty Minutes_Dutch Icons_Vermeer: Radio 3, TX 8.10.2002; Saturday Review: Radio 4, TX 9.11.2019

Matthew Bannister on:

Olympia Dukakis, the Greek-American actor who won an Oscar for playing Cher’s mother in Moonstruck and became an LGBT icon after playing Anna Madrigal in Tales of the City. Its author Armistead Maupin pays tribute.

Eric McGraw who founded and edited a magazine for prisoners called “Inside Time”. Former inmate Noel “Razor” Smith explains how it changed the course of his life.

Anthony Thwaite, the poet, editor and critic who was a pivotal figure in British literary life. The former poet laureate Andrew Motion pays tribute.

Producer: Neil George

Interviewed guest: Gregory Pappas

Archive clips used: Hardtalk: BBC One, TX 19.3.2001; In Living Memory: Strangeways riot: Radio 4, TX 20.4.2005

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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