JRR Tolkien, creator of The Hobbit
John Ronald Reuel Tolkien was born in Bloemfontein in 1892. Orphaned before he was a teenager, he fought at the Somme in the First World War before going on to become one of the best-selling authors o...
7 Dec 202127min
Ruth Rogers on James Baldwin
The chef and co-founder of The River Cafe, Ruth Rogers, picks the life of the writer and activist James Baldwin.A writer, poet, playwright and activist, Baldwin was known as a trailblazing explorer of...
28 Sep 202127min
Yanis Varoufakis on Hypatia
The Greek politician and economist Yanis Varoufakis takes us back to ancient Alexandria and the life of the first woman to make her name as a mathematician. But Hypatia is best known now for being br...
21 Sep 202127min
Dorothy Byrne on Catherine of Siena
The president of Murray Edwards College, Cambridge and former Channel 4 editor champions the life of a 14th-century mystic. Like Dorothy Byrne, famous for her scathing attacks on broadcasting executi...
14 Sep 202127min
Peggy Seeger on her husband Ewan MacColl
Ewan MacColl sang "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" to Peggy Seeger down the phone.When they met, Peggy says, he was in the grip of his midlife crisis. "I'm fond of saying the poor boy didn't stan...
7 Sep 202136min
Josiah Wedgwood
When Josiah Wedgwood had part of an injured leg amputed, he encouraged his workers to celebrate the anniversary as St Amputation Day. This remarkable man from Stoke on Trent built a pottery empire tha...
1 Sep 202127min
Frantz Fanon
Born and raised in Martinique, Frantz Fanon fought for the Free French Forces against the Nazis, and then devoted his life to the liberation of Algeria from France. Fanon was a psychiatrist and autho...
24 Aug 202127min
Althea Gibson
Althea Gibson made sporting history in 1957 - the first black tennis player to win a Wimbledon title. She also won the US Open and the French Open. Raised on the streets of Harlem, her story is rema...
17 Aug 202127min
