Great Lives

Latest Episodes:

Novelist Enid Blyton Dec 24, 2019

Show notes

Janice Turner recently wrote a sweet, sensitive article about packing up the contents of her parent’s house. “The experience was almost unbearable,” she began. Among the items passed down from the attic, “my entire childhood,” were a heavy sledge, Twinkle and Jackie annuals, “and a heavy trunk of 60 Enid Blytons.”

60 Enid Blytons - imagine that!

Janice Turner aka @victoriapeckham and winner of press interviewer of the year, is nominating Enid Blyton in a programme filled scandal, racism and lovely archive. Blyton was rejected in 2019 from a commemorative coin because of the controversy that continues to swirl around her work .... which include The Famous Five, the Secret Seven, and 24 books about Noddy. The programme includes the biographer Nadia Cohen, the presenter Matthew Parris, and the producer Miles Warde.

Jeremy Paxman nominates Lord Shaftesbury Dec 17, 2019

Show notes

What makes a brilliant politician? What should motivate them? Does having a faith help?

Broadcaster and writer Jeremy Paxman chooses the seventh earl of Shaftesbury, Anthony Ashley-Cooper. a Victorian politician whose numerous and wide-ranging social reforms transformed working and living conditions for impoverished children, miners and chimney-sweeps alike.

Joining Matthew Parris and Jeremy Paxman is Lord Shaftesbury's great-great-grandson, the twelfth earl, Nick Ashley-Cooper. The three discover more about the Ashley-Cooper dynasty, ponder what makes a good earl and explore how aristocratic life has changed between then and now.

Producer: Camellia Sinclair

Lee Miller, war photographer and model Dec 10, 2019

Show notes

In the early summer of 1945, Lee Miller sent a telegram back to London about what she had seen in the Nazi death camps. “I implore you to believe this is true,” she wrote. Her employers were Vogue magazine. How did a famous beauty like Miller end up covering the war?

Her extraordinary life and the images she left, most famously posing in Hitler's bath, are explored here by Lindsey Hilsum of Channel 4 News. She is joined by Miller's son, Antony Penrose. Lee Miller was American, born in 1907, but lived in Paris and Cairo and then London during the blitz. Her lovers included Man Ray, she knew Cocteau and Picasso, and was an important surrealist. But it was her work in world war two that leads Lindsey Hilsum to claim her as Marie Colvin's spiritual ancestor. The producer in Bristol is Miles Warde.

Photo copyright www.leemiller.co.uk

Just William / Richmal Crompton proposed by Peter Oborne with Martin Jarvis Dec 03, 2019

Show notes

"It's absolutely joyous, one of the highlights of my career!" Peter Oborne on being joined by Martin Jarvis, the man who brings Just William to life.

Journalist Oborne is nominating both William Brown and his creator, Richmal Crompton. She wrote 39 multi-million selling books, and her delight in William is clear to hear in the archive. Other contributors include her biographer, Mary Cadogan, and her niece, Richmal Ashbee. But it's the brilliance of Martin Jarvis's impersonations of William, Ginger and the gang that brings this programme to life. Plus the interplay between Peter Oborne and Matthew Parris.

"Do you think William would have been Brexit?" "I don't think there's any evidence."

Producer: Miles Warde

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2019.

Constance Agatha Cummings-John Oct 07, 2019

Show notes

The author Chibundu Onuzo nominates the first elected female in Africa, Constance Agatha Cummings-John.

Chibundu discovered the remarkable story of Constance while studying for her PhD. Born into the Sierra Leonean Krios elite in 1918, Constance was brought up in colonial Freetown, with a lifestyle which most resembled English gentility.

But everything changed for her when she travelled to England and America as a teenager. She experienced racism and segregation for the first time, and returned to Sierra Leone determined to fight the colonial rule of the British.

At just 20 years old she became the first female elected councillor in Africa, and later the mayor of Freetown. But following independence, she would find herself in exile in London.

Matthew Parris is joined by Chibundu and Constance's grandson, Dennis Cummings-John, to discuss prejudice, class and colonialism, through the inspirational story of a woman ahead of her time.

Producer: Polly Weston

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in September 2019.

Comedian Sindhu Vee on Prince Sep 17, 2019

Show notes

Comedian Sindhu Vee has loved Prince ever since she was a young girl in India - when her sister gave her illicit cassettes recorded from US radio.

A pop polymath and global superstar, Prince was also a man of extreme contradictions and multiple personas.

Hearing his music changed Sindhu's life forever, and seeing him perform influenced her career as a comedian.

Sindhu discusses the life of Prince Rogers Nelson with Matthew Parris.

They’re joined by BAFTA-winning investigative journalist Mobeen Azhar (who saw Prince live 54 times!)

Produced at BBC Bristol by Eliza Lomas.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in September 2019.

Fiona Shaw nominates the actress Eleonora Duse Sep 12, 2019

Show notes

Fiona Shaw - BAFTA award-winning star of BBC TV's Killing Eve - explores the life of one of history's most remarkable and forgotten actresses, Eleonora Duse.

The 19th-century performer inspired Stanislavski's 'method', changed Chekhov's mind about acting, and took Chaplin's breath away,

Kirsten Shepherd-Barr - professor of English and Theatre Studies at St Catherine's College, Oxford - helps Fiona and presenter Matthew Parris to uncover the drama of Duse's life, both on and off the stage.

Producer: Camellia Sinclair

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in September 2019.

Philippa Perry on the Italian educator Maria Montessori Sep 03, 2019

Show notes

Psychotherapist Philippa Perry nominates the Italian educator and doctor Maria Montessori, who revolutionised children's education.

Montessori schools exist today in over 170 countries. They are defined by a child-centred approach to learning, nurturing independence and individuality in children as young as three years old.

In Philippa Perry’s work as a psychotherapist, she finds deep connections with Montessori’s philosophy, which is about believing the person has the power to develop within them.

Philippa is joined by the executive director of Association Montessori International Lynne Lawrence.

Matthew Parris is the presenter.

Producer: Eliza Lomas

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in September 2019.

First Labour Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald Aug 27, 2019

Show notes

Ramsay MacDonald, Labour's first Prime Minister, is chosen by Shaun Ley.

In 1931 Ramsay MacDonald went to see the king in order to resign. George V persuaded him to stay, and a story of party betrayal began.

Broadcaster Shaun Ley and journalist Anne Perkins pick through events that have a contemporary ring as the political class of the thirties struggled to cope with fast moving events.

MacDonald's own story and background is remarkable too - illegitimate son, born in Lossiemouth in Scotland, he is remembered as one of the early founding fathers of the Labour party, and a man who bravely spoke out against the First World War.

Presenter: Mathew Parris

Producer: Miles Warde

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in August 2019.

Caroline Quentin nominates Sir John Vanbrugh Aug 20, 2019

Show notes

4 Extra broadcast to mark the 300th Anniversary of the death of Sir John Vanbrugh.

From acting in TV's Men Behaving Badly and Jonathan Creek to restoring dozens of period properties and touring India for TV, Caroline Quentin loves variety.

When she discovered the life of the playwright and architect Sir John Vanbrugh, she had found a kindred spirit.

Caroline appeared in an RSC production of The Provoked Wife by Vanbrugh - who also designed Blenheim Palace and Castle Howard.

Architectural critic and broadcaster, Jonathan Glancey, joins Caroline and presenter Matthew Parris, to explore the full and meandering life of this flamboyant figure.

Producer Camellia Sinclair

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in August 2019.

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