Gary Kemp on EW Godwin
Gary Kemp, songwriter and guitarist with hit 1980s band Spandau Ballet, chooses the architect and designer Edward William Godwin as his great life. Gary began collecting pieces of Godwin's work as soo...
4 Apr 201727min
Chris Patten on Pope John XXIII
Chris Patten, Lord Patten of Barnes, nominates a great life who was born a peasant and became a Pope. Pope John XXIII did well at school but was no star. He wasn't a striking figure of a man and strug...
24 Jan 201727min
Len Goodman on Lionel Bart
Len Goodman's great life was one of the biggest figures in creating British musicals and pop music in the 1960's. The writer and lyricist behind the hit musical Oliver, knew everybody who was anybody,...
17 Jan 201727min
Akram Khan on Srinivasa Ramanujan
In 1914, a self-taught Mathematics student named Ramanujan left India for Trinity College Cambridge.Here, alongside the celebrated English mathematician GH Hardy, he completed some extraordinary work ...
10 Jan 201727min
Suzannah Lipscomb on CS Lewis
Step though the wardrobe - as historian Suzannah Lipscomb selects the creator of the Narnia Chronicles, CS Lewis. The writer was a fascinating and extremely complicated man. Born in Northern Ireland, ...
3 Jan 201727min
Ruth Holdaway on Helen Rollason
Ruth Holdaway - the former Chief Executive of Women in Sport - picks pioneering sports broadcaster Helen Rollason. Helen trained as a teacher, but after stints in community and local radio, moved to t...
3 Jan 201727min
Orlando Murrin on Dinu Lipatti
For many piano music lovers, Dinu Lipatti [1917-1950], the Romanian concert pianist, stands head and shoulders above others. Dinu lived during a time of great turbulence, leaving his native Romania fo...
20 Des 201627min
Sir Ben Kingsley on Elie Wiesel
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 ...
14 Des 201627min
