Doug Allan on Captain Jacques Cousteau
Captain Jacques-Yves Cousteau was an oceanographer, filmmaker and explorer who made the seas a subject of fascination for millions.During his time in the French Navy, Cousteau co-invented the Aqua-Lun...
6 Jan 202528min
Ekow Eshun on the first openly gay footballer, Justin Fashanu
In 1981 Brian Clough paid £1 million pounds to bring Justin Fashanu to Nottingham Forest. It was the climax of a meteoric career, but within months the goals had dried up, he'd been going to gay night...
23 Sep 202427min
Anneka Rice picks the largely forgotten Jane Morris, muse to Rossetti and wife of William Morris
The biography show where famous guests picks someone they admire or love. Jane Morris was the wife of William Morris and muse of Gabriel Dante Rossetti. Anneka Rice believes her contribution to 19th-C...
16 Sep 202427min
The surgeon Henry Marsh picks 'the saviour of mothers' Dr Semmelweis
The biography show where famous guests pick someone from history they admire or they love. Our only rule is they must be dead. Today neurosurgeon Dr Henry Marsh chooses “the saviour of mothers” Dr Ign...
2 Sep 202427min
The Roman Emperor Nero
An unexpected choice for Great Lives, the Roman Emperor Nero has a reputation for debauchery and murder. He was also surprisingly popular, at least during the early years of his reign, and the writer ...
26 Aug 202427min
Film director Julien Temple on Elizabethan bad boy Christopher Marlowe
Julien Temple, director of The Great Rock n Roll Swindle, Glastonbury and Absolute Beginners, chooses Christopher Marlowe, writer of brilliant plays including Doctor Faustus and Tamburlaine the Great....
19 Aug 202427min
Zing Tsjeng on Swedish painter Hilma af Klint
Hilma af Klint (1862-1944) was barely known during her lifetime but an exhibition of her work at the Guggenheim Museum in 2018 shattered attendance records. it was called Paintings for the Future, and...
13 Aug 202427min
Miriam Margolyes on Charles Dickens
The great Miriam Margolyes chooses Charles Dickens, author of Oliver Twist and A Christmas Carol."He's the man in my life. He's tugged me into his world and never let me go. He writes better prose tha...
5 Aug 202427min
