Great Lives

Daisy Dunn on Marcus Agrippa, ancient Rome's king of cement

02 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa was a Roman general best known for his military victories, but he also helped rebuild Rome, providing aqueducts, statues and ...

Dr Sian Williams nominates Anna Freud

23 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Matthew Parris invites a fellow Radio 4 presenter into the studio to nominate a Great Life. Dr Sian Williams, who as well as a broadcaster is a counse...

Pianist and broadcaster Keelan Carew nominates Russian composer Nicolai Medtner

16 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Matthew Paris is joined by the pianist and broadcaster Keelan Carew, who nominates the Great Life of the early 20th century composer Nicolai Medtner.I...

Comedian Helen Lederer on Joan Rivers

10 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Born Joan Molinsky in 1933, Joan Rivers shot to fame on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, who she later infuriated by hosting a late night chat sho...

John Cooper Clarke on Johnny Green, road manager of The Clash

10 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Johnny Green was a hippy, a driver, a writer, a father and the road manager of The Clash. He wrote about this experience in a memorable book, A Riot o...

Helen Carr picks Christine de Pizan at the Gloucester history festival

28 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Christine de Pizan was born in Italy but most of her life was spent in Paris, where her father was astrologer to the King of France. After her husban...

Alex Wheatle, the Bard of Brixton

19 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

After a childhood in care in Surrey, Alex Wheatle was moved to a hostel in Brixton aged fourteen. Later he was involved in the riots and given a priso...

Spitfire pilot Jeffrey Quill picked by astronaut Tim Peake

12 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

"It was brilliant to read some of the old techniques the Spitfire test pilots were using, and in some respects test pilot flying isn't that different ...

Oliver Postgate

03 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

"Postgate's work is deep inside me and I think that's true for so many of my generation...His work represents nothing less than a touchstone for our n...

Sylvia Plath

27 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Lucy Jones, author of Matrescence, chooses the writer Sylvia Plath. Sylvia Plath was a precocious, prize-winning child,. Her mother had high expectati...

Elizabeth Day on Hatshepsut

20 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

"One of the things that she claimed was that her mother had been impregnated by the sun god Amon-Ra." Elizabeth Day's interest in the female pharaoh H...

Comedian Stewart Lee on Derek Bailey

13 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

"The area I mostly work in is generally known as free - the free music area. And free is one of those four letter words, like rock or jazz or punk may...

Jock Stein, first British football manager to win the European Cup

06 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Jock Stein, first British football manager to win the European Cup, picked by composer Sir James MacMillan and aided by Jock Stein’s biographer, Arc...

Benjamin Franklin

29 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Matthew Parris heads to the house where Benjamin Franklin lived for almost 17 years to meet banker and philanthropist John Studzinski.Franklin was bor...

Miles Jupp on JL Carr, author of A Month in the Country

22 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

"I find his novels extraordinarily beautiful .. and they're an excellent length."Miles Jupp picks an author he loves, but knows little about. JL Carr ...

Helen Castor on Richard II

15 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Today's great life is possibly more famous as a Shakespearean character - King Richard II who was deposed by his cousin Henry Bolingbroke in 1399. He'...

DJ Deb Grant on John Prine

08 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

DJ Deb Grant picks US mailman turned country-folk singer John Prine, whose beautiful songs captured the world in which he lived. Bob Harris, who firs...

Sir Seretse Khama, first president of Botswana

30 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Seretse Khama was born in 1921 in Bechuanaland when it was still a British Protectorate. In 1966 he became Botswana's first president. In between he m...

Emily Williamson, co-founder of the RSPB

23 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

For over a hundred years no one thought too much about the origins of the RSPB, but among its founders was a woman in Didsbury opposed to the use of f...

Tina Turner

16 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Rock Icon Tina Turner proposed by the actress and author Rebecca Humphries. Tina Turner began life as Anna Mae Bullock in Nutbush, Tennessee, joining...

Raymond Blanc on Professor Nicholas Kurti

09 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The chef Raymond Blanc nominates his mentor and friend, the physicist Professor Nicholas Kurti. Kurti was born in Hungary but fled to Oxford when Hitl...

Dervla Murphy, author of the classic Full Tilt

02 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

At the age of 10 Dervla Murphy was given an atlas and a bicycle, and so began an adventurous life. Her account of a journey to India became a classic ...

Ned Ludd mythical leader of the Luddites

26 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

We don't even know if Ned Ludd was real, but perhaps that was the point. "You could say he was everyone and no one - and that's what made him so terri...

Richey Edwards of The Manic Street Preachers

19 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Richey was, beautiful says Cummins, a natural icon and a gift to photograph. He also believes his writing has been overshadowed by the fact of his dis...

Benny Hill

12 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Biography show in which the guest picks someone they admire. Benny Hill is a thorny choice but playwright Jonathan Maitland is determined that - despi...

Maggi Hambling picks muse and lover Henrietta Moraes

05 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

“Henrietta's eyes looked into one's soul at the same time exposing her own. She posed for me most Mondays for the last seven months until two days b...

Harriet Harman on Maria Callas

29 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The legendary opera star Maria Callas was lauded for her magnetic stage presence and extraordinary vocal range. Born in New York in 1923 to Greek immi...

Kate Raworth on Donella Meadows

09 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Born in Illinois in 1941, Dana Meadows studied Chemistry and Molecular Biology, before turning her back on a post doc position at Harvard, to pursue e...

Mark Billingham chooses George Harrison

03 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

George Harrison was a musician, singer and songwriter who became one of the most famous people in the world as one quarter of the Beatles. That alone ...

Jake Arnott on John Gay

03 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

John Gay, eighteenth-century satirist and author of The Beggar's Opera, is nominated by the writer Jake Arnott - whose novels, including The Long Firm...

Ellen E Jones nominates Florynce Kennedy

24 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

One dubbed "the biggest, loudest and indisputably the rudest mouth on the battleground", Florynce Kennedy was a force to be reckoned with. She was a l...

A N Wilson selects Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

17 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

"I've chosen him because I think he was possibly the most interesting human being who has ever lived". A N WilsonBorn in the middle of the 18th centur...

Jessica Fostekew on Boudica

10 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

"The Queen Boadicea, standing loftily charioted, Brandishing in her hand a dart and rolling glances lioness-like, Yell'd and shriek'd between her daug...

Reginald D Hunter selects Eugene V Debs

03 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Eugene Victor Debs, born 1855 in Indiana USA, was a railway worker, a trade unionist and a five time candidate for the presidency. He was imprisoned d...

Pen Hadow nominates Sir Peter Scott

27 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

"Make the boy interested in natural history," wrote Captain Scott from his tent in the Antarctic. He was talking about his son, three year old Peter S...

Lauren Cuthbertson on Margot Fonteyn

20 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Margot Fonteyn was an icon: a ballerina who helped build and indeed embodied the traditional image of a dancer, just as the artform was finding its fe...

Dr Hannah Critchlow picks Professor Colin Blakemore

13 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Professor Colin Blakemore was a famous communicator of science, the youngest ever Reith lecturer on the BBC. He was also targeted by members of the an...

Doug Allan on Captain Jacques Cousteau

06 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Captain Jacques-Yves Cousteau was an oceanographer, filmmaker and explorer who made the seas a subject of fascination for millions.During his time in ...

Ekow Eshun on the first openly gay footballer, Justin Fashanu

23 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In 1981 Brian Clough paid £1 million pounds to bring Justin Fashanu to Nottingham Forest. It was the climax of a meteoric career, but within months t...

Anneka Rice picks the largely forgotten Jane Morris, muse to Rossetti and wife of William Morris

16 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The biography show where famous guests picks someone they admire or love. Jane Morris was the wife of William Morris and muse of Gabriel Dante Rossett...

The surgeon Henry Marsh picks 'the saviour of mothers' Dr Semmelweis

02 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The biography show where famous guests pick someone from history they admire or they love. Our only rule is they must be dead. Today neurosurgeon Dr H...

The Roman Emperor Nero

26 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

An unexpected choice for Great Lives, the Roman Emperor Nero has a reputation for debauchery and murder. He was also surprisingly popular, at least du...

Film director Julien Temple on Elizabethan bad boy Christopher Marlowe

19 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Julien Temple, director of The Great Rock n Roll Swindle, Glastonbury and Absolute Beginners, chooses Christopher Marlowe, writer of brilliant plays i...

Zing Tsjeng on Swedish painter Hilma af Klint

13 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Hilma af Klint (1862-1944) was barely known during her lifetime but an exhibition of her work at the Guggenheim Museum in 2018 shattered attendance re...

Miriam Margolyes on Charles Dickens

05 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The great Miriam Margolyes chooses Charles Dickens, author of Oliver Twist and A Christmas Carol."He's the man in my life. He's tugged me into his wor...

Mary Portas on Anita Roddick

27 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Dame Anita Roddick started The Body Shop in Brighton as a way to earn a living while her husband was travelling the Americas by horseback. Her idea f...

Lady Rachel MacRobert, chosen by Hayaatun Sillem

13 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Lady Rachel MacRobert was born Rachel Workman in Massachusetts in 1884. She was sent to study in the UK where she developed a passion for geology, an...

Queen Emma

07 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Professor Alice Roberts, best known as the presenter of Digging for Britain, picks the wife of two English kings and the mother of two English kings. ...

James Dyson on Frank Whittle

29 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Frank Whittle’s fascination with aeroplanes started as a nine-year-old boy when he was nearly decapitated by one that was taking off from a local co...

Katherine Rundell on E Nesbit

22 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Bestselling children's author Katherine Rundell discusses the extraordinary life of E Nesbit who wrote The Railway Children and Five Children And It.K...

Antoni Gaudi

15 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Baroness Ros Altmann, a Conservative peer and former pensions minister, was “blown away” by the architecture of Antoni Gaudi on a trip to Barcelon...

Sir Bruce Forsyth

08 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The political writer and broadcaster Steve Richards remembers the 1970s as a “dark decade.” But one shining light for the teenage Steve was Saturd...

Harry Enfield on Gerard Hoffnung

01 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Gerard Hoffnung’s life was short. He died in 1959 at the age of 34, but this cartoonist, musician, broadcaster and raconteur achieved a lot in that...

Alan Freeman picked by Simon Mayo

23 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In 1961 Alan 'Fluff' Freeman took over as the host of the BBC Radio's 'Pick of the Pops' and changed music broadcasting forever. From the opening "Gr...

Actor Niamh Cusack on the life of poet Mary Oliver

16 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The Pulitzer Prize winning poet Mary Oliver died in 2019. She was best known for her poetry that reflected her love of the natural world and her famo...

Mr Motivator picks Harry Belafonte

09 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Harry Belafonte became the King of Calypso with hits like 'Day-O' and 'Jump in the Line' but he would later describe himself as an activist who became...

Jimmy Wales on Thomas Jefferson

02 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In 1776 Thomas Jefferson penned the Declaration of Independence, kick-starting the movement against British rule and putting in place the foundations ...

Eartha Kitt proposed by Faye Tozer

26 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

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 s...

John Gray on JG Ballard

19 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

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

Iszi Lawrence on Diana Barnato Walker

14 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Broadcaster and author Iszi Lawrence chooses the aviator Diana Barnato Walker. Coming from a privileged background, Diana used her pocket money to tak...

Mohammad Mossadegh, PM of Iran ousted in a coup

05 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

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

Ludwig Koch

29 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

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 r...

Lady Eve Balfour

29 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

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 politic...

Ken Loach on Gerrard Winstanley

29 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

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

Chi-chi Nwanoku on Jessye Norman

19 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

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...

Ninette de Valois

05 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

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 o...

Sophie Scott on Hattie Jacques

15 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

She was born Josephine Edwina Jacques in 1922.Hattie Jacques’ career began in music hall before graduating onto 1950s BBC radio comedies such as ‘...

Stamford Raffles, founder of Singapore and London Zoo

08 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

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...

Susie Dent on Thomas Mann

01 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

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 'De...

Tony Benn

01 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

"It's the complicated ones I enjoy the most." Matthew ParrisTony Benn, MP from 1950 to 2001, packed so much into a long career. He renounced the peera...

Jon Ronson picks Terry Hall of The Specials

16 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

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 fantastical...

Sir Edward Coke, prosecutor of Guy Fawkes

10 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Sir 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 En...

Kofi Annan

02 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

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 r...

Frank Zappa

25 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

"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. Co...

Frederick the Great of Prussia

11 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

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 - p...

Arthur Ashe

04 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Broadcaster Qasa Alom chooses the first African-American tennis player to win the US Open and Wimbledon, Arthur Ashe. Arthur was born in Richmond, Vir...

Astrid Lindgren, creator of Pippi Longstocking

20 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The best-selling author of How to Train Your Dragon, Cressida Cowell, explains her love for the Swedish author, Astrid Lindgren. Born in 1907, Lindgre...

Adjoa Andoh on Zora Neale Hurston

24 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Actor Adjoa Andoh has a list of TV, theatre and film credits as long as your arm. She's best known worldwide as Bridgerton's Lady Danbury, and is due ...

Comedian Chris McCausland on Kurt Cobain

17 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

"‘For me, it’s all about his authenticity’. Chris McCausland Kurt Cobain, lead singer, guitarist and songwriter of the band Nirvana became the v...

Roger Deakin, wild swimmer and author of Waterlogged

09 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Matthew Parris travels along the Thames to meet Nick Hayes - illustrator and author of The Book of Trespass - to discuss the life of Roger Deakin. The...

Minette Batters on Henry Plumb

03 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

"I was born an Englishman but I'll die a European." Those are the words of Henry Plumb, Lord Plumb, a farmer who was President of the National Farmer...

Bob Harris on Sir Matt Busby, Manchester United manager

27 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The voice behind The Old Grey Whistle Test and Radio 2’s country music show, Bob Harris, tells us why Manchester United Football Club manager Sir Ma...

Noddy Holder on Chuck Berry

20 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In 1972 Chucky Berry was onstage in Coventry. Seeking some audience participation Chuck launched into a cover of an unusual novelty record called 'My...

Olivia Laing on Christopher Lloyd, Gardener and Writer

13 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Known to his friends as Christo, Lloyd spent his whole life, from childhood until his death aged 85, at work in the same garden: Great Dixter in East ...

Olia Hercules on Alla Horska, Ukrainian painter

09 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

"Cooking is like therapy to us. I grew up where my big extended family would come together in summer under the walnut tree. The adults would drink and...

Bonnie Greer on the Women of the Morant Bay Rebellion

28 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Bonnie Greer OBE, playwright and critic, joins Matthew Parris to make a case for seven women from Jamaica who were hung or shot in 1865 after the Mora...

George Lascelles, 7th Earl of Harewood nominated by Lesley Garrett

13 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

As Grandson of George V, George Lascelles was a first cousin to Queen Elizabeth II and with his distinguished beard and Nero style jackets, he was the...

Romy Gill on poet Amrita Pritam

06 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Chef Romy Gill remembers her Mother reading Amrita Pritam's poems to her when she was growing up. Romy was drawn to Amrita's fierce independent spirit...

Rosalind Franklin picked by Kate Bingham, former head of the UK government's vaccine taskforce

30 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Rosalind Franklin was born in 1920 and studied Natural Sciences. After working in Paris at the Laboratoire Central - where she became an x-ray crystal...

Dame Kathleen Ollerenshaw, Educationalist

23 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Dame Kathleen Ollerenshaw was born Kathleen Timpson in 1912. Deaf from an early age, she went on to have a brilliant career and is best known for her ...

Ravi Shankar, India's famous sitar player

16 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Ravi Shankar was born in India in 1920 and came to prominence just as India gained independence from Britain in 1947. He was initially a dancer and th...

Holly Walsh on BS Johnson

10 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

BS Johnson was born in Hammersmith in 1933. A wartime evacuee, he never quite shook a sense of dislocation for the rest of his life. Holly's favourite...

Pat Nevin on Johan Cruyff

02 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Pat Nevin chooses Johan Cruyff who was part of the Dutch revolution of the 1970s. He burst onto the international stage at the 1974 World Cup with an ...

Judy Garland

31 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Susie Boyt picks Judy Garland, the child star who became one of the most famous entertainers of the twentieth century. June 2022 will be the centenary...

Joan Rhodes, strongest woman in the world

24 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Joan Rhodes picked by Anna Maxwell Martin, star of Line of Duty and Motherland. Her choice is a lovely surprise, a strongwoman who could rip up phone...

Rob Newman on Franklin D Roosevelt

17 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Comedian and writer Rob Newman is a long-time fan of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who "saved the United States, just in time for the United States...

Mr Manchester Tony Wilson nominated by Terry Christian

10 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

He was a broadcaster, music mogul, social activist, local celebrity, publicity seeker, loud mouth, surreal politician, showman and, according to Paul ...

Gil Scott-Heron

03 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Described by those who knew him as a 'Revolutionary Man of Peace' Gil Scott-Heron transformed the musical landscape of the 1970's. In 2021 he was post...

Lolita Chakrabarti on actor Ira Aldridge

26 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Award-winning playwright and actor Lolita Chakrabarti celebrates the life of Ira Aldridge, an icon of theatre who rose to fame at the height of the mo...

Janet Ellis on Puffin editor Kaye Webb

19 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Writer, broadcaster and Blue Peter presenter Janet Ellis champions the life of Kaye Webb, who burst on to the children's publishing scene in 1961 and ...