Last Word
Radio 4's weekly obituary programme, telling the life stories of those who have died recently
- Update frequency
- every 6 days
- Average duration
- 27 minutes
- Episodes
- 531
- Years Active
- 2015 - 2025
Sir Terence Conran, Dame Diana Rigg CBE, Shere Hite, Toots Hibbert
Pictured: Sir Terence Conran
Matthew Bannister on:
Sir Terence Conran, the designer and businessman who transformed the UK’s approach to home décor and eating out.
Dame Diana Rigg, the actor who combin…
Stuart King, Comrade Duch, Deirdre Le Faye, David Bryant CBE
Pictured: Stuart King
Julian Worricker on: Stuart King, who co-founded a humanitarian charity which involved perilous flights to southern Africa in light aircraft straight after the war.... The Kh…
Chadwick Boseman, Sir Kenneth Robinson, Lord Renton of Mount Harry, Doreen Davies
Pictured: Chadwick Boseman
Matthew Bannister on
Chadwick Boseman, whose portrayal of the King of the fictional African kingdom of Wakanda in the movie Black Panther made him a global star.
Sir Kenneth R…
Dr James Partridge OBE, Sally Jacobs, Angela Buxton, Philip Horniblow OBE
Pictured: Dr James Partridge OBE (c) Paul Chambers Photography
Julian Worricker on: The theatre designer, Sally Jacobs, whose work included a groundbreaking production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, …
Julian Bream CBE, Elizabeth Ward OBE, Chris Graham-Bell, Stuart Christie
Pictured: Julian Bream
Matthew Bannister on
Julian Bream, said by many to be the greatest classical guitarist of all time.
Elizabeth Ward, who campaigned for the introduction of the kidney donor card …
Hawa Abdi, Clive Ponting, President Lee Teng-hui, Richard Brooke
Matthew Bannister on
Hawa Abdi, the Somali doctor who set up a clinic for pregnant women at her home that eventually became a sanctuary for thousands during violence in the country.
Clive Ponting, the …
John Hume, Stan Mellor MBE, Paulette Wilson, Sir Alan Parker
Pictured: John Hume
Matthew Bannister on:
John Hume, the politician widely credited with driving through the Northern Ireland peace process.
Stan Mellor, who became the first jump jockey to ride one tho…
Stuart Wheeler, Josephine Cox, Miloš Jakeš, Peter Green
Pictured: Stuart Wheeler
Matthew Bannister on
Stuart Wheeler, the spread betting tycoon who used his millions to fund anti-EU political parties and campaigns.
Josephine Cox, the multi-million selling au…
John Lewis, Tony Elliott CBE, Wendy Cooling, Dr Alan Howard
Matthew Bannister on John Lewis, the leading American civil rights campaigner who was beaten and imprisoned in the 1960s when he marched with Martin Luther King and later served as a Congressman. …
Jack Charlton, Zindzi Mandela, Charles Webb, Ida Haendel
Pictured: Jack Charlton
Matthew Bannister on
The footballer Jack Charlton, who went from a pit village in Northumberland to become a Leeds United stalwart and member of England’s 1966 World Cup winning…
Ennio Morricone, Sir Everton Weekes, Baroness Maddock, Earl Cameron CBE
Pictured: Ennio Morricone
Matthew Bannister on:
Ennio Morricone, the Italian composer best known for his scores for films like The Good, The Bad and the Ugly and The Mission, but keen to be remembered …
Milton Glaser, Terry Dicks, Professor Tom Arie, Else Blangsted
Pictured: Milton Glaser
Matthew Bannister on
The graphic designer Milton Glaser who came up with the iconic “I heart New York” logo – but didn’t make a penny from it.
Terry Dicks, the controversial righ…
Sir Ian Holm, Jean Kennedy Smith, Felicity Bryan MBE, Lily Lian
Pictured: Sir Ian Holm
Matthew Bannister on Sir Ian Holm, the respected actor best known for playing Bilbo Baggins in the Lord of the Rings films and for his interpretation of Shakespeare and Pinte…
Dame Vera Lynn, Professor Geoffrey Burnstock, Larry Kramer, Pierre Nkurunziza
Pictured: Dame Vera Lynn
Matthew Bannister on: Professor Geoffrey Burnstock, the eminent neurobiologist who identified the function of a neurotransmitter called ATP with important implications for t…
Christo Javacheff, Cathie Sabin OBE, Dorothy Wakely, Jonathan Whitehead
Pictured: Christo Javacheff
Matthew Bannister on:
The artist Christo Javacheff, best known for his extremely ambitious projects to wrap significant buildings and landscapes in fabric. They included the…
Dr Stanley Ho, Roger Fellows, Margaret Meek Spencer, Mory Kanté
Pictured: Stanley Ho
Julian Worricker on:
The man praised by both Tony Blair and Gordon Brown for being the architect of the national minimum wage, Roger Fellows….
One of Asia’s richest men - the gambli…
Margaret Maughan, John Cumming OBE, Jerry Givens, John Langdon, Eric Weissberg
Pictured: Margaret Maughan
Julian Worricker on Britain’s first Paralympic gold medallist, Margaret Maughan; Tanni Grey-Thompson compares the games of 1960 and now….
The music promoter and producer, Joh…
Lord Robert May of Oxford, Dr Judith Darmady OBE, Mark Barkan, Saroj Lal
Pictured: Lord Robert May of Oxford
Matthew Bannister on
Lord May, a former Chief Scientific Advisor to the UK government and President of the Royal Society. He developed the concept of the R value in …
Little Richard, Dr Janet Carr OBE, Professor John Horton Conway, Florian Schneider
Matthew Bannister on
The rock 'n' roll pioneer Little Richard, whose flamboyant performances and powerful vocal style influenced many who came after him.
Janet Carr, the psychologist whose long-running…
Catherine Hamlin, Irrfan Khan, Denis Goldberg, Ann Sayer
Pictured: Catherine Hamlin
Matthew Bannister on
Catherine Hamlin the obstetrician who, with her husband, set about tackling the devastating effects of obstetric fistulae in the women of Ethiopia.
Irrfan…