The Surprise Lives
"Step one: invite notable guest. Step two: get them to talk about someone else."After nearly 500 episodes, Great Lives feels like a stable series, but there have been surprises along the way. From Ber...
3 Jun 202127min
Rosie Millard on Edward III
Edward III should be much better known, Rosie tells Matthew Parris. He not only won great battles like Crecy in 1346. He also championed the flourishing of Perpendicular architecture; he understood ...
25 Mai 202127min
Ben Miller on William Hazlitt
Actor, comedian and Author Ben Miller discusses the colourful, complicated and uncompromising life of William Hazlitt.Born in 1778 William Hazlitt is considered one of the greatest critics and essayis...
18 Mai 202127min
Arlo Parks on Elliott Smith
Singer-songwriter Arlo Parks has been nominated for three Brit Awards at just 20 years old. Her inspiration for her debut studio album is drawn from American singer-songwriter Elliott Smith. Matthew P...
12 Mai 202127min
Jonathan Dimbleby on Harry Hopkins
On May 10 1940, the Germans invaded the Low Countries, Winston Churchill became prime minister, and Harry Hopkins moved in to the White House. This remarkable man was President Roosevelt's closest con...
6 Mai 202127min
KT Tunstall on Ivor Cutler
Ivor Cutler is hard to categorise. Whimsical and uncompromising, depressive yet joyful, childlike and curmudgeonly, an 'outsider', championed by insiders like Paul McCartney, he's perhaps best known f...
27 Apr 202127min
Black and British pioneer Kenny Lynch
Kenny Lynch was born in Stepney, East London in 1938. He toured with the Beatles, wrote best-selling songs, was a champion boxer in the army, and a regular face on British TV. He was also - at the sta...
20 Apr 202127min
Chinua Achebe, Nigerian novelist
Yasmin Alibhai-Brown picks Nigerian novelist, Chinua Achebe, the author of Things Fall Apart. With archive contributions from Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and Chinua Achebe himself. He was born in Nigeria...
15 Apr 202127min
