Great Lives

Towards the end of his comic rant about the descent of man, Simon Evans does something very dangerous.

He starts to read out to his audience an extract of John Stuart Mill. Potential comedy death?

He…

"We are ready to take the Pole in any kind of weather on offer," wrote the Norwegian Roald Amundsen in December 1911.

Born in 1872, Amundsen is part of a group of men - including the playwright Henri…

"Suddenly this light comes into your life" - says Hanif Kureishi, referring to his hero, his great life, David Bowie.

Hanif, an author, screenwriter and film maker, went on to become friends with Bow…

Catherine the Great assumed power in a St Petersburg coup, extended the empire into Crimea, Ukraine and Alaska. is Russia's longest lasting female ruler, and wasn't even Russian herself. All of this …

Hedy Lamarr was described by her studio as the most beautiful woman in the world. A recent film, called Bombshell, argued that she was a brilliant inventor as well. But what was going on behind that …

For soul singer Mica Paris, when she first dreamt of becoming a singer it was Josephine Baker who inspired her most.

Baker was a young black American dancer who became an overnight sensation in Paris…

Actor Simon Callow nominates one of the giants of the golden age of Hollywood, Orson Welles.

He once said of himself he 'started at the top and worked his way down' never managing to recreate the fil…

Stand up comedian and political commentator Ayesha Hazarika's hero is Jayaben Desai.

Jayaben led a two year strike at Grunwick Film processing factory in North London.

The majority of the workers were…

Richard Feynman was a physicist who helped design the atomic bomb and won the Nobel Prize.

He is the great life choice of businessman Tej Lalvani CEO of his family business Vitabiotics and the newest…

Professor of Nursing, Laura Serrant, chooses the life of the black, gay poet and activist Audre Lorde who still inspires the women's movement today.

She tells Matthew Parris why Audre has meant so mu…

Miles Davis - trumpeter, composer, bandleader - is championed by Adrian Utley of Portishead.

"He's always been really important in my life, right from early on when my dad used to play him. It was par…

Comedian, actor and artist Jim Moir aka Vic Reeves chooses the life of Don van Vliet - the Dadesque musician and painter Captain Beefheart who has influenced many musicians since the 1960s.

Jim joins…

Gisela Stuart, former MP for Birmingham Edgbaston champions Joseph Chamberlain to be nominated as her great life.

But can she really make the case for this former industrialist who made it to the cabi…

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 introduct…

Herodotus - father of history or father of lies?

Matthew Parris introduces a sparky discussion about a writer whose achievements include a nine book account of a war between east and west - the Persi…

Helen Arney is a self-confessed science nerd, stand-up entertainer, and once nicknamed a "geek songstress".

Matthew Parris discovers why she's chosen Hertha Ayrton (1854-1923), the pioneering Victori…

Former Chief Crown Prosecutor for North West England Nazir Afzal was responsible for convicting the men who sexually abused young girls in Rochdale.

Matthew Parris invites him to nominate a great life…

On a field outside Dublin, Daniel O'Connell met and shot a former royal marine in a duel.

John d'Esterre had been outraged when O'Connell, the later hero of Catholic emancipation, described the mainly…

Marcel Duchamp - the father of conceptual art, and responsible for that famously provocative urinal signed 'R Mutt, 1917' - is the great life choice of fellow artist Cornelia Parker.

She explains to…

Goldfrapp's Will Gregory is centre-stage at the Colston Hall in Bristol to tell Matthew Parris why he feels a kinship with Flann O'Brien.

The Irish writer's books 'At Swim-Two-Birds' and 'The Third Po…