Great Lives

In 1776 Thomas Jefferson penned the Declaration of Independence, kick-starting the movement against British rule and putting in place the foundations for democracy in what became the United States of…

Eartha Kitt was born in South Carolina in 1927. She had a tough upbringing but found her talent whilst in theatre school in New York. She became a star of stage and then screen, most notably as Cat…

Philosopher John Gray chooses as his great life the iconic British writer of dystopian and speculative fiction, J.G. Ballard, in conversation with the author's daughter Bea Ballard.

Presented by Matth…

Broadcaster and author Iszi Lawrence chooses the aviator Diana Barnato Walker.

Coming from a privileged background, Diana used her pocket money to take flying lessons, flew bombers during the Second …

Walter Murch picks Mohammad Mossadegh, prime minister following the nationalisation of the Anglo-Iranian oil company in 1951. Mossadegh was ousted in a coup in 1953.

Murch became fascinated in Mossad…

The award-winning Sound Recordist and Musician, Chris Watson nominates his hero, Ludwig Koch.

In 1889, German-born Koch was the first person ever to record birdsong (at the age of 8) onto a wax cylin…

An aristocrat in an eye patch, a jazz saxophonist, a crime novelist and a pioneering organic farmer.

Lady Eve Balfour was born in 1898 into the political elite - her uncle was A J Balfour, who was Pri…

Veteran British film director Ken Loach nominates the 17th century radical pamphleteer and and leader of the Diggers, Gerrard Winstanley.

Born in Wigan in 1609, Winstanley began writing religious pamp…

On the 11th June 1988, Jessye Norman performed a spine-tingling rendition of 'Amazing Grace' to a packed Wembley Stadium in London.

This was the climax of a concert marking the 70th birthday of Nelson…

The Godmother of English - and Irish - ballet, Dame Ninette De Valois or ‘Madam’ as she was known to those around her. She is widely regarded as one of the most influential figures in the history of …

She was born Josephine Edwina Jacques in 1922.

Hattie Jacques’ career began in music hall before graduating onto 1950s BBC radio comedies such as ‘Educating Archie', 'ITMA' and 'Hancock's Half Hour' …

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 …

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 t…

"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 Labou…

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 fera…

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 clai…

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 Rw…

"The most important thing to do in your life is not to interfere with somebody else's life." Frank Zappa was born December 1940 in Baltimore, USA. Comedian John Robins - who is obsessed - reckons th…

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 hi…

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 p…