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
Ronan O'Rahilly, Sir John Houghton CBE, Sue Davies OBE, Barbara Smoker
Pictured: Ronan O’Rahilly
Matthew Bannister on
Ronan O’Rahilly, the Irish businessman who ran the pirate radio station Radio Caroline on a ship off the coast of Essex.
Sir John Houghton, the atmospheric…
Dame Jocelyn Barrow DBE, Keith Critchlow, Leonard ‘Nipper’ Read, John Prine
Pictured: Dame Jocelyn Barrow
Matthew Bannister on
The artist, professor of architecture and expert on sacred geometry Keith Critchlow. He was a key figure in the Prince’s School of Traditional Arts an…
Sir Stirling Moss OBE, Professor Margaret Burbidge, Mahmoud Jibril, Tim Brooke-Taylor OBE
Pictured: Sir Stirling Moss OBE
Matthew Bannister on Sir Stirling Moss, the iconic British racing driver, noted for his courage and patriotism. Although he never won the world championship, he storm…
Dr Bill Frankland MBE, John Tydeman OBE, The Marquess of Bath, Honor Blackman
Pictured: Dr Bill Frankland
Julian Worricker on:
Dr Bill Frankland, who survived three years in a Japanese prisoner of war camp, studied under Alexander Fleming, and brought the pollen count into the p…
Albert Uderzo, Valerie Pettit OBE, Reverend Joseph Lowery, Julie Felix
Pictured: Albert Uderzo
Matthew Bannister on
Valerie Pettit OBE, the senior MI6 officer in charge of the daring operation to get Soviet double agent Oleg Gordievsky out of Russia after his cover was bl…
Betty Williams, Dr Fuad Nahdi, Sol Kerzner, Kenny Rogers
Picture Betty Williams
Matthew Bannister on: Fuad Nahdi, the journalist, commentator and campaigner named as one of the world’s 500 most influential Muslims. Sol Kerzner, the South African businessm…
Michel Roux, Sammy McCarthy, Lilian Mohin, Roy Hudd
Pictured: Michel Roux
Matthew Bannister on
Michel Roux, the French chef who, with his brother Albert, transformed the British restaurant scene in the 1970s
Sammy McCarthy, the British featherweight cham…
Javier Pérez de Cuéllar, Max von Sydow, Professor Hannah Steinberg, Charles Portis
Pictured: Javier Pérez de Cuéllar
Matthew Bannister on
The United Nations Secretary-General Javier Pérez de Cuéllar. The Peruvian diplomat faced major challenges including the Iran-Iraq war and the Fa…
Katherine Johnson, Nexhmije Hoxha, Sir Michael Berridge, Diana Serra Cary (Baby Peggy)
Pictured: Katherine Johnson
Matthew Bannister on
Nexhmije Hoxha, the wife of the Albanian dictator Enver Hoxha. The couple ran a repressive Stalinist regime and she was known in the West as the Lady Ma…
Hosni Mubarak, Andrew Weatherall, Mary Higgins Clark, John Bevan
Matthew Bannister on
Andrew Weatherall, a hugely influential figure in the dance music scene of the 1990s, who revolutionised what a DJ could be and produced many hit albums and remixes. Radio 1's Ann…
Heather Couper CBE, Leonard Woodley QC, Joseph Shabalala
Pictured: Heather Couper
Matthew Bannister on
Heather Couper, the astronomer who used her engaging media appearances to enthuse a generation about space. We talk to her co-author and business partner N…
Daniel arap Moi, Feng Huiyan, Professor Donald West, Colonel ‘Mad Mike’ Hoare
Pictured: Daniel arap Moi
Julian Worricker on:
Daniel arap Moi, who led Kenya for 24 years, but did so amidst corruption scandals and the repression of political opponents...
The teacher Feng Huiyan, w…
Kirk Douglas, Terry Hands CBE, Hazel Murphy, Seamus Mallon
Pictured: Kirk Douglas
Julian Worricker on:
Terry Hands, long serving artistic director of the RSC, who co-founded the Liverpool Everyman theatre and revived the Clwyd theatre Cymru...
The wine marketer…
Nicholas Parsons CBE, Mary Craig, Lord Maclennan of Rogart, Kobe Bryant
Pictured: Nicholas Parsons
Matthew Bannister on The Just A Minute host, TV presenter and actor Nicholas Parsons. Sheila Hancock and Tony Hawks pay tribute - in just a minute!
Mary Craig who wrote the b…
Tony Garnett, Joy Rainey, Professor Cuchlaine King, Terry Jones
Pictured: Terry Jones
Matthew Bannister on Tony Garnett, the TV and film producer whose tragic childhood inspired him to make influential films like Up The Junction, Cathy Come Home and Kes.
Joy Raine…
Sir Roger Scruton FBA, FRSL, Sultan Qaboos bin Said of Oman, Bobby Neame CBE, Elizabeth Sellars
Pictured: Sir Roger Scruton
Matthew Bannister on Sir Roger Scruton, the leading conservative philosopher of his generation, known for his work on aesthetics. His outspoken views made him a controversi…
General Qasem Soleimani, M.C. Beaton, George Laurer, Dr Sidney Holt
Pictured: General Qasem Soleimani
Matthew Bannister on
Iranian General Qasem Soleimani, who was killed by an American drone strike. We try to uncover the motivation of the man who spread Iran's milita…
Neil Innes, Steve Sawyer, Sheila Mercier, Alasdair Gray
Pictured: Neil Innes
Matthew Bannister on
Neil Innes, the talented musician who was a member of the Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band, worked with Monty Python and satirised the Beatles. Roger McGough and Michael…
Andrew Graham-Yooll OBE, Andrea Newman, Peter Davis, Olly Croft OBE
Julian Worricker on:
The journalist, Andrew Graham-Yooll OBE, who risked his life to tell the story of the so-called 'disappeared' in Argentina in the 1970s.
The writer Andrea Newman, best known for 'B…
Kenny Lynch OBE, Chris Moncrieff CBE, Kate Figes, Branko Lustig
Pictured: Kenny Lynch OBE
Matthew Bannister on
Chris Moncrieff, the journalist who covered parliament for the Press Association for more than 50 years. He even has a bar named after him in the House of…