Actor and broadcaster Liza Tarbuck chooses the extraordinary life of the Serbian-American scientist, Nikola Tesla. Nikola founded the Tesla Electric Light Company and was responsible for the introduction of the AC current in America - seeing off competition from his rival and former hero, Thomas Edison.  Liza explains to Matthew Parris how his inventions were ahead of their time.   Despite the fortunes and misfortunes of this brilliant and eccentric man, he died virtually penniless in a hotel room in New York.    With the help of Professor Iwan Morus from Aberystwyth University. Producer: Maggie Ayre First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in January 2018.

Liza Tarbuck on Nikola Tesla

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

Personal Journals

Society & Culture

History

Philosophy

Places & Travel

Dame Anita Roddick started The Body Shop in Brighton as a way to earn a living while her husband was travelling the Americas by horseback.  Her idea for ethically-sourced beauty products which were initially sold in urine sample bottles soon flew.  The first shop that she began with a £4,000 loan and painted green to disguise the damp on the walls then developed into a global empire  which was eventually sold to L'Oreal for £652m in 2006. Retail consultant and broadcaster Mary Portas has chosen Anita Roddick as her Great Life for her extraordinary creativity, her playfulness and her innovation.  She is joined by Anita Roddick's daughter Sam who now works with the Roddick Foundation which distributes some of her fortune to charitable causes.   They reflect on how Anita Roddick put principles ahead of profit.  She championed cruelty-free beauty and drew inspiration from her international travels to bring exotic-sounding products to the High Street.  She pioneered the introduction of creches at work and used her shop windows to promote the environmental campaigns she believed in, leading her to be dubbed the "Queen of Green".  They discuss her legacy and ask whether there is still a place for The Body Shop today. Archive includes Anita Roddick talking on the Nine O' Clock News on 16th April 1984 and from the BBC Life And Times television programme from 2000.  It also features Peter Kyle MP talking about his time working for Anita Roddick on the Political Thinking Podcast from 2003. Presenter: Matthew Parris
Producer: Robin Markwell for BBC Studios Audio in Bristol

Mary Portas on Anita Roddick

Lady Rachel MacRobert was born Rachel Workman in Massachusetts in 1884.  She was sent to study in the UK where she developed a passion for geology, and attended the Annual General Meeting of the Royal Geological Society despite women not being allowed.  She became Lady Rachel MacRobert through marriage to Alexander MacRobert in 1911.  He was thirty years her senior and a successful businessman.  When he was knighted Lady MacRobert refused to attend the ceremony saying "I will bow to no man."  They had three sons who all died whilst flying, two of whom in active service.  In response Lady MacRobert paid for a plane, 'MacRobert's Reply' to be commissioned in their memory.  She ran her husband's businesses in India after his death and bred cattle on the family estate in Aberdeenshire.  Choosing Lady Rachel MacRobert is the Chief Executive of the Royal Academy of Engineering, Dr Hayaatun Sillem.  When Hayaatun discovered that the MacRobert Award for engineering was named after a woman she began looking into her life and discovered an independent visionary who was once described as "charmingly volcanic." But it's her response to the loss of her three sons which Hayaatun admires most, praising its defiance and also how it seized agency from a situation that could have easily made her a victim.  Gordon Masterton from Edinburgh University and Trustee of The MacRobert Trust joins the discussion and says after a recent speech to launch an AI version of Lady MacRobert young women came up to him and said "Who would have thought she was such a badass."  Presenter: Matthew Parris
Produced by Toby Field for BBC Studios Audio

Lady Rachel MacRobert, chosen by Hayaatun Sillem

Professor Alice Roberts, best known as the presenter of Digging for Britain, picks the wife of two English kings and the mother of two English kings. Queen Emma was born in Normandy and came to England as a diplomatic peaceweaver when she married Aethelred in 1002. Somehow she survived the invasion of the Danes under Swein Forkbeard and married his son, King Canute after Aethelred's death. Together with help from Professor Janina Ramirez - author of Femina - and Patricia Bracewell who has written a trilogy of historical novels based on Emma's life, Alice pieces together an extraordinary life, the richest woman in England, aunt of William the Conqueror, mother of Edward the Confessor. Alice Roberts is Professor of Public Engagement in Science at Birmingham University and the author of Crypt: Life, Death and Disease in the Middle Ages and Beyond
Programme also includes recorded audio of Professor Pauline Stafford, author of Gendering the Middle Ages The producer in Bristol is Miles Warde

Queen Emma

Frank Whittle’s fascination with aeroplanes started as a nine-year-old boy when he was nearly decapitated by one that was taking off from a local common in Coventry where he grew up. From that moment he set his sights on becoming a pilot, and joined the RAF in 1923. A few years later, aged just 21, he came up with an idea for powering aircraft so that they could fly much further and faster than the existing propeller planes. Despite a dearth of support from the Air Ministry, he doggedly pursued his vision of a turbojet engine and the RAF’s first fighter jet entered service towards the end of the Second World War, in 1944. His invention not only revolutionised air combat, but also international travel.  The inventor and entrepreneur James Dyson finds his story so inspiring that he has collected some of Whittle’s inventions, including an original working jet engine from 1943. He finds it amazing that Whittle got it right first time, which inventors almost never do. James Dyson is joined in the studio by Frank Whittle’s son, Ian Whittle, who is also a pilot. Presenter: Matthew Parris
Producer: Beth McLeod for BBC Studios Audio

James Dyson on Frank Whittle

Bestselling children's author Katherine Rundell discusses the extraordinary life of E Nesbit who wrote The Railway Children and Five Children And It. Katherine praises her “bold unwillingness to speak down to children” and reflects that “she never seemed to forget what it was like to be a child”.  E, or Edith, Nesbit’s conjuring of mythical beasts like the Phoenix and the sand fairy the Psammead was a particular inspiration to Katherine Rundell who says "you can really believe they are flesh and blood”.  Edith Nesbit has also influenced the work of Jacqueline Wilson and JK Rowling who have both praised this trailblazing writer. She had a particularly colourful private life and a very open marriage. She flouted the social conventions of the time. She was married when seven months pregnant. Her husband had children outside of their relationship and Edith then raised them as her own. She was a feminist but didn't believe in Votes for Women.   She co-founded the Fabian Society and kept company with the likes of George Bernard Shaw and Noel Coward.   Katherine Rundell is joined by Elisabeth Galvin who has written a biography of E Nesbit.  The programme features an excerpt from The Phoenix And The Carpet by E Nesbit as well as clips from the 1970 film of The Railway Children distributed by EMI films and the 1991 BBC television adaptation of Five Children And It. Presenter: Matthew Parris
Producer: Robin Markwell

Liza Tarbuck on Nikola Tesla

Download our free app to listen on your phone