Dr Sian Williams nominates Anna Freud
Matthew Parris invites a fellow Radio 4 presenter into the studio to nominate a Great Life. Dr Sian Williams, who as well as a broadcaster is a counselling psychologist chooses Anna Freud, daughter of...
23 Feb 27min
Pianist and broadcaster Keelan Carew nominates Russian composer Nicolai Medtner
Matthew Paris is joined by the pianist and broadcaster Keelan Carew, who nominates the Great Life of the early 20th century composer Nicolai Medtner.It’s often the case that in a world of strong conte...
16 Feb 27min
Comedian Helen Lederer on Joan Rivers
Born Joan Molinsky in 1933, Joan Rivers shot to fame on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, who she later infuriated by hosting a late night chat show of her own. Comedian and writer Helen Lederer, a...
10 Feb 27min
John Cooper Clarke on Johnny Green, road manager of The Clash
Johnny Green was a hippy, a driver, a writer, a father and the road manager of The Clash. He wrote about this experience in a memorable book, A Riot of Our Own. Then he found a new passion, cycling, a...
10 Feb 27min
Helen Carr picks Christine de Pizan at the Gloucester history festival
Christine de Pizan was born in Italy but most of her life was spent in Paris, where her father was astrologer to the King of France. After her husband died she was left alone to bring up her three ch...
28 Jan 27min
Alex Wheatle, the Bard of Brixton
After a childhood in care in Surrey, Alex Wheatle was moved to a hostel in Brixton aged fourteen. Later he was involved in the riots and given a prison sentence, events which were covered in one of th...
19 Jan 27min
Spitfire pilot Jeffrey Quill picked by astronaut Tim Peake
"It was brilliant to read some of the old techniques the Spitfire test pilots were using, and in some respects test pilot flying isn't that different today, but we don't have to do everything by noteb...
12 Jan 27min
Oliver Postgate
"Postgate's work is deep inside me and I think that's true for so many of my generation...His work represents nothing less than a touchstone for our national imagination and in that sense it's profoun...
3 Nov 202527min
