Great Lives

Pianist Kirill Gerstein chooses the conductor and composer Ferruccio Busoni. Matthew Parris presents.

When Busoni died in Berlin in 1924, his pupil Kurt Weill said, "We did not lose a human being but …

Matthew Parris meets the poet Ian McMillan to find out about the life of his literary hero Malcolm Lowry.

Ian first discovered this 20th century writer's work as a young sixth former searching for li…

Journalist Helen Lewis rehabilitates the reputation of the ‘Black Queen’ of France, Catherine de Medici.

Helen and presenter Matthew Parris are joined by Dr Estelle Paranque, history lecturer at the …

She's the most influential woman that English history forgot, says Tom Holland - Aethelflaed, Lady of the Mercians, daughter of Alfred the Great.

Living and ruling at a time when the Anglo-Saxons wer…

Comedian and author Shappi Khorsandi has been desperate to tell the story of Emma, Lady Hamilton as she’s quite simply one of her greatest fans.

Everyone knows Emma Hamilton as simply the seducer of …

Matt Lucas champions Freddie Mercury of the band, Queen.

To what extent can a troubled childhood contribute to an adult's need to perform?

Farrokh Bulsara was born in Zanzibar, sent to school in Indi…

The arrival of Lotus shook up motor sport in 1960s and 70s. In Formula One, Colin Chapman made his cars lighter and quicker than anyone else, often challenging the rules.

But not everything he desi…

Matthew Parris meets Suzanne O'Sullivan to discuss her medical and literary hero, Oliver Sacks.

She first came across his work on a beach in Thailand, reading his famous collection of case studies, …

Ghulam Mohammad, or the Great Gama Pehlwan as he was more commonly known, was a Muslim wrestler born into a Kashmir family in India in 1878.

When writer Nikesh Shukla first came across him in a book …

Author and Journalist Sathnam Sanghera nominates a Great Life; a man dismissed as a fantasist and a liar in his own lifetime.

Alexander Gardner was a Scottish-American soldier, a traveller, an explor…

Mark Steel makes the case for Charlie Chaplin being one of the most radical comedians of his time.

He reckons it's sad that most see Chaplin as that bloke who wore a bowler hat, had a funny walk, wav…

Tim Smit has admired Humphrey Jennings since seeing Danny Boyle’s Olympics Opening Ceremony in 2012.

Jennings was a film maker, artist, and co-founder of the Mass Observation Movement. Many of the sc…

Comedian Russell Kane nominates the novelist Evelyn Waugh.

One of the greatest prose stylists of 20th century literature, not to mention one of the funniest, novelist Waugh also has a reputation fo…

In the summer of 2018, the name of Laura Ingalls Wilder was erased from a children's literary medal set up in her honour six decades ago.

Readers of the 'Little House on the Prairie' series of books …

Benazir Bhutto made history when, aged 35, she became the first democratically elected female Prime Minister of a Muslim majority country.

Her family are one of world’s most famous political dynastie…

Olympic rower Helen Glover champions the life of mountaineer Alison Hargreaves.

Alison's short life was defined by her love of the mountains. She became interested in climbing as a teenager and devo…

"Imagine a puddle waking up one morning and thinking, this is an interesting world I find myself in - fits me rather neatly, don't you think?"

Douglas Noel Adams wasn't even 50 when he died in 2001, b…

For Cherie Blair, leading barrister and QC, picking her great life was simple – her role model is Rose Heilbron, England's first woman judge.

When Cherie was growing up in Liverpool, Rose Heilbr…

Public historian Greg Jenner has always loved Gene Kelly.

"So much better than he had any right to be."

Born in Pittsburgh in 1912, Gene Kelly was a broad-shouldered Irish American whose first love wa…

Actress Patricia Greene (Jill Archer in BBC Radio 4's The Archers) makes the case for Elizabeth, Countess of Shrewsbury, or Bess of Hardwick as she's more commonly known.

Like her heroine, Patricia w…