Great Lives

Gertrude Bell was a British woman who arguably founded the modern state of Iraq. Explorer, mountaineer and archaeologist, this extraordinarily talented woman travelled widely across Arabia in the year...

18 Jan 201128min

In his time, Aneurin Bevan was, according to one biographer, "the most colourful and controversial, most loved and most loathed political personality in Britain".The founding father of the NHS is the ...

4 Jan 201128min

Dance and actor Lionel Blair chooses his friend and dancing partner Sammy Davis Jr.Sammy described himself as a 'one-eyed black Jew' - and he was described by others as one of the greatest all-round e...

28 Dec 201027min

Business guru Sir Gerry Robinson was born in Ireland but moved to England in his teens, and he chooses Samuel Beckett, another Irishman who lived away for much of his life - in Paris. Gerry, a late co...

21 Dec 201028min

DH Lawrence was, in the words of Geoff Dyer, a man with thin wrists and thick trousers. He was also the author of Women in Love, Sons and Lovers and Lady Chatterley's Lover. But poet and performer Joh...

14 Dec 201027min

Malcolm McLaren was the great rock'n'roll swindler, who died in April 2010, aged 64. 'I've been called many things,' McLaren wrote as advance publicity for his one man show, 'a charlatan, a con man, o...

7 Dec 201028min

Satirical cartoonist Gerald Scarfe nominates Walt Disney. He joins Matthew Parris to discuss the life of a complex cultural icon.With guest experts Brian Sibley and Richard Williams, creator of Roger ...

28 Sep 201028min

Michel de Montaigne is one of the most influential writers of the French Renaissance. He is known for popularising the essay as a literary genre and became famous for his ability to fuse intellectua...

21 Sep 201027min