Great Lives

Latest Episodes:

Sir Ben Kingsley on Elie Wiesel Dec 14, 2016

Show notes

Actor Sir Ben Kingsley tells Matthew Parris why he regards Elie Wiesel as his great life.

A writer, a Nobel laureate, a holocaust survivor, Elie had to endure the worst horrors of mankind and survive the darkest of crimes.

In the Holocaust he lost his mother, his father and his youngest sister. He once said: “To forget the dead would be to akin to killing them again a second time”.

Sir Ben Kingsley regards Wiesel as was one the great voices of the holocaust and says he should never be forgotten. This was a promise he made to Wiesel.

To help tell Elie’s story, the expert witness is Robert Eaglestone, Professor of Contemporary Literature and Thought and an expert in Holocaust Literature at Royal Holloway, University of London.

Producer: Perminder Khatkar

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in December 2016.

Cary Grant Dec 02, 2016

Show notes

Comedian and writer Lucy Porter champions Cary Grant as her Great Life finding that, despite his troubled relationships with women off screen, his on screen charm and generosity towards his female co-stars redeems him.

With Grant's biographer, Geoffrey Wansell, who discusses the troubled screen icon's humble beginnings in Bristol and the following glamour and wealth of Los Angeles.

Presenter: Matthew Parris

Producer: Maggie Ayre

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in December 2016.

Cyrus Todiwala on Dadabhai Naoroji Sep 27, 2016

Show notes

Chef Cyrus Todiwala chooses Dadabhai Naoroji, the 'Grand Old Man of India' who in 1892 became Britain's first Asian MP for Finsbury Central.

He later returned to India and petitioned for the country to be self-governing. Gandhi, who was Dadabhai's mentee, would later refer to him as the Father of the Nation.

Matthew Parris presents and Zerbanoo Gifford is the expert.

Producer: Toby Field

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in September 2016.

AA Gill on Arthur Neville Chamberlain Sep 20, 2016

Show notes

The writer and critic AA Gill nominates Neville Chamberlain as his great life.

But his choice is someone who is regarded as one of the worst Prime Ministers Britain has ever had. Chamberlain is someone entrenched in popular legend, as the man who failed to stand up to Hitler.

So will AA Gill’s choice stand up to the scrutiny and will he be able to convince presenter Matthew Parris that this was a great life?

To help tell the story of Arthur Neville Chamberlain they are joined by Stuart Ball, Professor of Modern British History at the University of Leicester.

Producer: Perminder Khatkar

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in September 2016.

Eliza Carthy on Caroline Norton Sep 13, 2016

Show notes

Eliza Carthy chooses the life of 19th-century poet and campaigner Caroline Norton to discuss with Matthew Parris.

Following separation from her controlling husband, Norton fought to gain access to her three children. She campaigned for 30 years resulting in changes to English Law that gave women a separate legal identity for the first time.

Eliza first discovered Caroline Norton when she was researching broadside ballads and came across Norton's verse ' Love not! love not! ye hopeless sons of clay'. It stood out, becoming the inspiration for her track 'Fade and Fall' and sparking an interest in Norton and her extraordinary life.

The expert is Dr Diane Atkinson, author of 'The Criminal Conversation of Mrs Norton'.

Producer: Toby Field

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in September 2016.

Maureen Lipman on Dame Cicely Saunders Sep 07, 2016

Show notes

Actress and writer Maureen Lipman chooses the end-of-life care campaigner, Dame Cicely Saunders.

Dame Cicely Saunders was known as ‘the woman who changed the face of death’. At almost 6 foot tall, she could be intimidating, tiresome and relentless as she devoted her life to ensuring that terminally ill people could die with dignity and without pain.

Championing the life of Cicely Saunders as her great life is the actress and writer Maureen Lipman.

The expert witness is, Professor David Clark, from the University of Glasgow.

Presenter: Matthew Parris

Producer: Perminder Khatkar.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in September 2016.

Tony Hawks on Marshall Rosenberg Aug 30, 2016

Show notes

Marshall Rosenberg was the stern-faced creator of nonviolent communication, a man who spent his life finding ways to eradicate hate.

Often armed only with his trademark giraffe and jackal puppets, Rosenberg toured the world teaching a new way of speaking. Language was key, but to discover the meaning of the puppets you'll have to tune in.

Championing Marshall Rosenberg is comedian and author, Tony Hawks.

A sceptical Matthew Parris presents while David Baker of the London School of Life fills in the biographical gaps.

Produced at BBC Bristol by Miles Warde

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in August 2016.

Dag Hammarskjold Aug 26, 2016

Show notes

Sometime around midnight of September 17 1961, a plane approached an airstrip near Ndola in what was then northern Rhodesia.

The plane was a DC6, and on board the second ever secretary general of the United Nations, an aristocratic Swede called Dag Hammarskjold. He was on his way to try and mediate a war in the Congo, but the plane crashed and Hammarskjold was killed.

Was it an accident? The debate continues to this day.

Joining Matthew Parris to discuss the life and death of Hammarskjold are the journalist Georgina Godwin and the academic Susan Williams, author of Who Killed Hammarskjold? A dramatic and detailed discussion focuses on the events surrounding his death.

Producer: Miles Warde

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in August 2016.

Sara Pascoe on Virginia Woolf Aug 16, 2016

Show notes

Comedian Sara Pascoe champions the life of Virginia Woolf, author of 'Mrs Dalloway' and 'A Room of One's Own', describing her as a sensible feminist.

Sara explains why she thinks if she were alive today, Woolf would be a comedian, and how through her diaries and letters she's discovered the witty, manic and egotistical Virginia.

Presenter Matthew Parris confesses to struggling with her work.

Professor Alexandra Harris is the expert.

Producer: Toby Field

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in August 2016.

Alex Salmond on Thomas Muir Aug 09, 2016

Show notes

Alex Salmond chooses Thomas Muir for Great Lives, whom he describes as the Father of Scottish Democracy.

"I have devoted myself to the cause of The People. It is a good cause - it shall ultimately prevail - it shall finally triumph." (Thomas Muir)

Born in 1765, Thomas Muir trained as a lawyer and spent much of his early years advocating political reform and greater representation. These views brought him to the attention of the authorities who tried and convicted him of "unconscious sedition". Sentenced to fourteen years transportation to Australia, he eventually escaped and embarked on an epic voyage back to Europe during which he was almost killed.

Alex Salmond argues that it was his treatment by the state that turned Muir from reformer to radical and then revolutionary, and he believes the democratic reform he sought has still not occurred. He says the word to describe Muir is "thrawn", a Scottish word meaning beyond stubborn, as he came up against unreasonable opposition time and time again and shifted his position each time.

Debating the issues is Muir expert Murray Armstrong, author of 'The Liberty Tree'. Matthew Parris presents.

Producer: Toby Field.

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