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
Gianluca Vialli, Fay Weldon, Michael Dower, Anita Pointer
Matthew Bannister on
Gianluca Vialli (pictured), the Italian footballer who won many major trophies with Sampdoria and Juventus before moving to Chelsea as a player and then manager.
Fay Weldon, the au…
Pope Benedict XVI, Dame Vivienne Westwood, James Caan, Georgia Holt
Matthew Bannister on
Pope Benedict XVI, the religious conservative who was the first Pontiff to resign from the job in almost 600 years.
Dame Vivienne Westwood (pictured), punk pioneer, high fashion de…
Terry Hall, Dame Beryl Grey, Heather Iandolo, Eric Allison
Matthew Bannister on
Terry Hall (pictured), the singer who captured the disillusionment of a generation with The Specials’ biggest hit “Ghost Town”.
Heather Iandolo, the daughter of the notorious Nazi…
Victor Lewis-Smith, Maureen Doherty, Pablo Milanés, Ailsa Irving
Matthew Bannister on
The columnist, broadcaster, producer, musician and outrageous hoaxer Victor Lewis-Smith (pictured).
Maureen Doherty, the designer who worked with Issey Miyake and founded the influ…
Joyce Bryant, George 'Johnny' Johnson MBE, Dame Clare Marx, Joseph Kittinger
Matthew Bannister on
Joyce Bryant (pictured), the American singer who was named by Ebony magazine as one of the five most beautiful black women in the world.
Squadron Leader George 'Johnny' Johnson MBE…
Christine McVie, Jiang Zemin, Derek Granger
Matthew Bannister on
Christine McVie who wrote some of Fleetwood Mac’s biggest hits and was a key player in the turbulent history of the band.
Jiang Zemin, who became Chinese President after the 1989 p…
Doddie Weir, Hebe de Bonafini, Irene Cara, Cornelia Schroeder
Matthew Bannister on
Doddie Weir (pictured), the leading Scottish rugby player who spent the last few years of his life raising funds for research into the causes of Motor Neurone Disease.
Hebe de Bon…
Mehran Karimi Nasseri, Ann Savours, Sue Baker, Wilko Johnson
Matthew Bannister on
Mehran Karimi Nasseri – otherwise known as Sir Alfred (pictured). He was the Iranian migrant who lived for eighteen years in terminal one of the Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris…
Peter de Savary, Bob Le Sueur MBE, Ela Bhatt, Hannah Pick-Goslar
Matthew Bannister on
Peter de Savary, the serial entrepreneur who ran private members’ clubs, once owned both Land’s End and John O’Groats and spent a fortune trying to win the America’s Cup for the U…
Leslie Phillips CBE, Dame Valerie Beral, Avtar Singh Jouhl, Atarah Ben-Tovim MBE
Matthew Bannister on
Leslie Phillips CBE (pictured), the actor who made his name in the Navy Lark and the Carry On Films, then became a respected character actor.
Dame Valerie Beral, the epidemiologist…
Baroness Blood, Jerry Lee Lewis, Ian Jack, Hilaree Nelson
Matthew Bannister on
Baroness Blood (pictured), the trade unionist, community worker and peace campaigner who became the first woman from Northern Ireland to be given a life peerage.
Jerry Lee Lewis, t…
Dame Carmen Callil, Ivy Jo Hunter, Kathleen Booth, Dietrich Mateschitz
Matthew Bannister on
Dame Carmen Callil (pictured), the Australian-born publisher who founded the feminist Virago Books.
Ivy Jo Hunter, known as the 'forgotten man of Motown', he co-wrote Dancing In Th…
Ian Hamilton KC, Audrey Evans, Parvatiben Solanki, Robbie Coltrane OBE
Matthew Bannister on
Ian Hamilton KC, the Scottish lawyer who, as a student, took part in removing the Stone of Destiny from Westminster Abbey and returning it to Scotland.
Professor Audrey Evans, the…
Dame Angela Lansbury, Lady Keswick, Sacheen Littlefeather, Franca Fendi
Matthew Bannister on
Dame Angela Lansbury (pictured), the stage and screen actor best known in recent years for her role in the TV series Murder She Wrote.
Lady Keswick who was Director of the Conserva…
Yusuf al-Qaradawi, 'Ma' Smith MBE, Mike Burrows, Loretta Lynn
Matthew Bannister on
Yusuf al-Qaradawi, one of the most influential Muslim scholars of his generation. He reached a vast audience through his show on the TV channel Al Jazeera.
'Ma' Smith MBE, who ran …
Dame Hilary Mantel, John McVicar, Joyce Reynolds, Paul Sartin
Matthew Bannister on
Dame Hilary Mantel (pictured), the Booker prize winning novelist best known for the Wolf Hall trilogy.
John McVicar, the former armed robber who studied sociology in prison and bec…
Jean-Luc Godard, Barbara Ehrenreich, Dennis Wilson, Mavis Nicholson
Kirsty Lang on Jean-Luc Godard (pictured), the critic and filmmaker who revolutionised French cinema.
The writer and journalist Barbara Ehrenreich, whose bestseller 'Nickel and Dimed', is considered a…
Bill Turnbull, Anne Sutton, Norah Vincent, Drummie Zeb
Matthew Bannister on Bill Turnbull (pictured), the journalist and BBC Breakfast presenter who was also a beekeeper and committed fan of Wycombe Wanderers. Anne Sutton, whose detailed studies of t…
Mikhail Gorbachev, Stella 'Jaye' Edwards, Jerry Allison
Matthew Bannister on
The last President of the Soviet Union Mikhail Gorbachev (pictured), who was feted in the West but often derided in his own country. We follow his journey from a collective farm i…
Margaret Keane, Keith Smith, Mario Fiorentini, Brenda Fisher
Matthew Bannister on
Margaret Keane (pictured), the American artist whose paintings of children with 'Big Eyes' became hugely popular in the 1960s. Her identity as the painter was kept secret by her h…