Great Lives is a BBC Radio 4 biography series, produced in Bristol . It has been presented by Joan Bakewell , Humphrey Carpenter , Francine Stock and currently (since April 2006) Matthew Parris . A distinguished guest is asked to nominate the person they feel is truly deserving of the title "Great Life". The presenter and a recognised expert (a biographer, family member or fellow practitioner) are on hand to discuss the life. The programmes are 28 minutes long, originally broadcast on Fridays at 23:00, more recently at 16:30 on Tuesday with a repeat at 23:00 on Friday.
Contents
1 Programmes
1.1 Series 0, August – November 2001
1.2 Series 1, May – August 2002
1.3 Series 2, October – December 2002
1.4 Series 3, April – June 2003
1.5 Series 4, October – December 2003
1.6 Series 5, April – June 2004
1.7 Series 6, October – December 2004
1.8 Hogmanay Special, 31 December 2004
1.9 Series 7, April – June 2005
1.10 Series 8, October 2005 – February 2006
1.11 Series 9, April – June 2006
1.12 Series 10, August – September 2006
1.13 Series 11, December 2006 – January 2007
1.14 Series 12, April – May 2007
1.15 Series 13, August – October 2007
1.16 Series 14, December 2007 – January 2008
1.17 Series 15, April – May 2008
1.18 Series 16, August – September 2008
1.19 Series 17, December 2008 – February 2009
1.20 Series 18, April – May 2009
1.21 Series 19, August – September 2009
1.22 Series 20, December 2009 – February 2010
1.23 Series 21, April – May 2010
1.24 Series 22, August – September 2010
1.25 Series 23, November 2010 – January 2011
1.26 Series 24, April – May 2011
1.27 Series 25, August – September 2011
1.28 Series 26, December 2011 – January 2012
1.29 Series 27, April – May 2012
1.30 Series 28, July – September 2012
1.31 Series 29, December 2012 – January 2013
1.32 Series 30, April – May 2013
1.33 Series 31, August – October 2013
1.34 Series 32, December 2013 – January 2014
1.35 Series 33, April – May 2014
1.36 Series 34, August – October 2014
1.37 Series 35, December 2014 – January 2015
1.38 Series 36, April – May 2015
1.39 Series 37, August – September 2015
1.40 Series 38, December 2015 – January 2016
1.41 Series 39, April – May 2016
1.42 Series 40, August – September 2016
1.43 Series 41, December 2016 – January 2017
1.44 Series 42, April – May 2017
1.45 Series 43, August – September 2017
1.46 Series 44, December 2017
1.47 Series 45, April 2018 – May 2018
1.48 Series 46, September 2018 – December 2018
1.49 Series 47, December 2018 – January 2019
1.50 Series 48, April 2019 – May 2019
1.51 Series 49, April 2019 – May 2019
1.52 Series 50, December 2019 – January 2020
1.53 April 2020 - September 2020
2 References
3 External links
Programmes
Series 0, August – November 2001
Guest
Nominee
Presenter
Tim Waterstone , founder of bookshop chain
Clement Attlee former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
Rosie Boycott , journalist
Sir Ernest Shackleton , polar explorer
Terence Conran , food & design entrepreneur
André & Édouard Michelin , French inventors of the detachable pneumatic tyre & the travel guide
Ralph Steadman , cartoonist & caricaturist
Friedrich Nietzsche , German philosopher
Barbara Castle , Labour politician & former Cabinet Minister
Sylvia Pankhurst , suffragette
Frank Delaney , writer & broadcaster
Henri Matisse , French artist
Jonathan Miller , theatre & opera director, physician
Marshall McLuhan , communication theorist & philosopher
Fay Weldon , writer
H. G. Wells , visionary author
Rabbi Lionel Blue , rabbi & broadcaster
Swami Vivekananda , 19th-century Hindu missionary
Jackie Stewart , racing driver
King Hussein of Jordan
Joan Littlewood , theatre director
Brendan Behan , Irish writer
Lord Tebbit , Conservative politician & former Cabinet Minister
King Alfred the Great , 9th-century King of Wessex
Series 1, May – August 2002
Guest
Nominee
Presenter
Ned Sherrin , broadcaster, television producer & stage director
Sir Donald Wolfit , actor-manager
Humphrey Carpenter
Elizabeth Filkin , former Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards
George Eliot , novelist
Steven Isserlis , cellist
Franz Schubert , Austrian composer
Lord Carrington , Conservative politician & former Foreign Secretary
Field Marshal Viscount Slim , military leader
Frederic Raphael , author & screenwriter
Alexander the Great
Janet Street-Porter , journalist & media executive
Marquis de Sade , French philosopher, revolutionary politician & libertine
Chris Barber , jazz trombonist & bandleader
Louis Armstrong , American jazz trumpeter & singer
Sue Limb , writer & broadcaster
Lord Byron , poet
Frank Keating , sports writer
Tom Spring , 19th-century bare-knuckle boxer
Kirsty Young , broadcaster
Katharine Graham , American newspaper publisher
Series 2, October – December 2002
Guest
Nominee
Presenter
Bernard Manning , comedian,
Mother Teresa of Calcutta , Albanian Roman Catholic nun
Humphrey Carpenter
Sir Paul Nurse , geneticist & cell biologist,
Erasmus Darwin , 18th century physician
Darcus Howe , writer & broadcaster,
C. L. R. James , Caribbean revolutionary & cricket writer
Bea Campbell , journalist & author
Rachel Carson , marine biologist & conservationist
Muriel Gray , journalist & broadcaster,
M. R. James , writer of ghost stories
Ahdaf Soueif , novelist & cultural commentator,
Umm Kulthum , Egyptian singer, songwriter & actress
Professor Sir Harry Kroto , chemist,
Spinoza , Portuguese philosopher
Steve Bell , political cartoonist,
James Gillray , 18th-century caricaturist
Tam Dalyell , Labour politician,
Richard Crossman , Labour politician & former Cabinet Minister
Greg Dyke , media executive,
Captain James Cook , explorer
Series 3, April – June 2003
Guest
Nominee
Presenter
Beryl Bainbridge , novelist
Robert Falcon Scott , polar explorer
Humphrey Carpenter
Leonard Slatkin , conductor & composer
Sergei Rachmaninoff , Russian-American composer
John Sergeant , journalist & broadcaster
Arthur Ransome , author & journalist
Benjamin Zephaniah , writer & poet
Bob Marley , Jamaican reggae musician
Steve Jones , geneticist
James Hogg , poet & novelist
Richard Ingrams , journalist & satirist
G. K. Chesterton , writer
Stacey Kent , jazz singer,
Powell & Pressburger , film-makers
Richard Holmes , military historian
the Man in the Iron Mask , mysterious French prisoner in the Bastille
Tanni Grey-Thompson , Welsh athlete & broadcaster,
David Lloyd George , former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
Esther Rantzen , journalist & broadcaster,
Queen Elizabeth I , Queen of England & Ireland
Series 4, October – December 2003
Guest
Nominee
Presenter
Peter Bazalgette , television executive
Noël Coward , playwright, composer, director, actor & singer
Humphrey Carpenter
Kit Wright , writer
Samuel Johnson , author & lexicographer
Kate Adie , war reporter
Flora Sandes , pioneer female soldier
Jenny Eclair , comedian
Sarah Bernhardt , French actress
Brian Keenan , writer
Bernardo O'Higgins , Chilean independence leader
Brenda Dean , trade unionist & Labour peer
Octavia Hill , co-founder of the National Trust
Clement Freud , broadcaster, writer, politician & chef
Tommy Cooper , comedian & magician
Armando Iannucci , comedian & writer
Charles Dickens , novelist
Linda Smith , comedian
Ian Dury , singer
Ann Leslie , journalist
Mary Kingsley , writer & explorer
Series 5, April – June 2004
Guest
Nominee
Presenter
Lord Alistair McAlpine , Conservative politician
Machiavelli
Humphrey Carpenter
Denis Healey , Labour politician, former Chancellor of the Exchequer
Ernest Bevin , Labour politician, former Foreign Secretary
Ruth Lea , economist
Pyotr Tchaikovsky , composer
George Monbiot , journalist, environmental activist & writer
Thomas Paine , American author & revolutionary
Benedict Allen , explorer
Horatio Nelson , naval hero
Charles Wheeler , journalist & broadcaster
Lyndon B. Johnson , 36th President of the United States
Kimberley Fortier
Edith Wharton , writer
Richard Eyre , theatre director
Anton Chekhov , Russian dramatist
Kenneth Clarke , Conservative politician, former Chancellor of the Exchequer
Benjamin Disraeli , 19th century Conservative Prime Minister
Lord May , scientist
Joseph Banks , naturalist & botanist
Series 6, October – December 2004
Guest
Nominee
Presenter
Dillie Keane , actress, singer & comedian
Gilbert & Sullivan , librettist & composer of comic operettas 1
Humphrey Carpenter
Baroness Jay , former Labour Leader of the House of Lords
Vice-Admiral Robert FitzRoy RN , captain of HMS Beagle
Christina Gorna, barrister
Vivien Leigh , actress
Jilly Goolden , wine expert
Leonard Woolf , writer, publisher & political thinker
Gerry Anderson , broadcaster
Burt Lancaster , American actor
Tim Marlow , art historian & broadcaster
Marvin Gaye , soul singer
Shami Chakrabarti , civil-rights campaigner
George Orwell , author & journalist
Marjorie Wallace , writer & charity chief executive
Sir Edward Elgar , composer
David Puttnam , film-maker
Michael Collins , Irish nationalist leader (repeat of Programme 1?)
Lucinda Lambton , writer & broadcaster
Captain Henry Morgan , privateer
1 The programme originally was scheduled by the guest film-maker David Puttnam who nominated the Michael Collins , Irish nationalist leader) was withdrawn due to "production quality".[1] Hogmanay Special, 31 December 2004
Carpenter died on 4 January 2005, this was his last Great Lives programme 1 Series 7, April – June 2005
Guest
Nominee
Presenter
Joe Queenan , humorist, critic & author
Genghis Khan , founder of the Mongol Empire
Francine Stock
Mary Kenny , author
George Sand , writer
Valerie Grove , journalist
Charles M. Schulz , the Peanuts cartoonist
Douglas Dunn , poet
Robert Louis Stevenson , writer
Michael Morpurgo , Children's Laureate
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , Austrian composer
Martin Smith, Chairman of English National Opera
John D. Rockefeller , American industrialist, investor & philanthropist
Yvonne Brown , lawyer
Marcus Garvey , Pan-Africanist leader
Amanda Vickery , historian
Elizabeth Gaskell , novelist
Lord Powell
Ronald Reagan , 40th President of the United States
Frederick Forsyth , novelist
the 1st Duke of Wellington , soldier & statesman
Series 8, October 2005 – February 2006
Guest
Nominee
Presenter
Kathy Lette , writer
Mae West , Hollywood actress
Francine Stock
Carole Stone , author & broadcaster
R. D. Laing , psychiatrist
Howard Goodall , composer
Samuel Coleridge-Taylor , composer
Antony Beevor , historian, & Gillian Slovo , novelist
Vasily Grossman , Soviet writer
Robert Thomson , journalist
Zhao Ziyang , Chinese premier
Derek Wilson, historian & author
Thomas Cromwell , 16th century politician
Fiona Reynolds , Director-General of the National Trust
Beatrix Potter , writer
Annie Nightingale , radio broadcaster
Marty Feldman , comedian & actor
Adam Hart-Davis , historian & broadcaster
Nevil Shute , novelist & aeronautical engineer
Helen Lederer , writer & actress
Dorothy Parker , writer & poet
Series 9, April – June 2006
Guest
Nominee
Presenter
Penelope Keith , actress
Morecambe & Wise , comedy double act
Matthew Parris
Jeff Randall , journalist
Andrew Carnegie , Scottish-American industrialist & philanthropist
Julian Clary , comedian
Noël Coward , playwright, composer, director, actor & singer; Coward was previously nominated by Peter Bazalgette in Series 4 Programme 1
Craig Brown , critic & satirist
Sigmund Freud , Austrian neurologist & psychotherapist
Ivan Massow , entrepreneur
Ella Fitzgerald , jazz singer
Duncan Goodhew , athlete
Johnny Weissmuller , American athlete-turned Tarzan actor
Frances Cairncross , economist, journalist & academic
Ignaz Semmelweis , Hungarian physician & pioneer of antiseptic procedures
Anna Raeburn , broadcaster & agony aunt
Tamara Karsavina , Russian ballerina
Piers Morgan , journalist & broadcaster
W. G. Grace , English cricketer
Krishnan Guru-Murthy , journalist & broadcaster
Robin Day , broadcaster & political interviewer
Series 10, August – September 2006
Guest
Nominee
Presenter
Christopher Hitchens , author & journalist
Leon Trotsky , Russian revolutionary
Matthew Parris
Garry Bushell , newspaper columnist
Max Miller , comedian
Helena Kennedy , civil liberties lawyer
Eleanor Roosevelt , First Lady of the United States
Jeremy Vine , broadcaster & journalist
W. H. Auden , poet
Elaine Showalter , feminist literary critic
Julia Ward Howe , 19th-century American abolitionist, social activist & poet
Lord John Biffen , Conservative politician & former Minister
Stanley Baldwin , Conservative Prime Minister
Joanna MacGregor , pianist
Nina Simone , singer & civil rights activist
Adair Turner , businessman & academic
Charles Darwin , naturalist & evolutionary scientist
Series 11, December 2006 – January 2007
Guest
Nominee
Presenter
Joe Boyd , record producer
John H. Hammond , record producer
Matthew Parris
Lesley Abdela , feminist campaigner
Millicent Garrett Fawcett , suffragist
Kathy Sykes , scientist & broadcaster
Albert Einstein , German-American physicist
Victor Spinetti , actor
Joan Littlewood , theatre director
Alan Davies , actor & comedian
Richard Beckinsale , actor
Camilla Wright , journalist
Martha Gellhorn , American war reporter
Anne Fine , author
William Beveridge , economist & social reformer
Ann Widdecombe , former Conservative MP & former government minister
Pope John Paul II
Series 12, April – May 2007
Guest
Nominee
Presenter
Phill Jupitus , comedian
Joe Strummer , frontman of The Clash
Matthew Parris
Nick Danziger , photographer
Tintin , fictional Belgian reporter
William Boyd , author
Anton Chekhov , Russian playwright
Pallab Ghosh , BBC science correspondent
Marie Curie , Polish chemist & physicist
Pauline Black , singer & actor
Billie Holiday , American jazz singer
Fiona Bruce , television presenter & newsreader
Mata Hari , Dutch accused spy
Yvonne Brewster , theatre director, actress & writer
Claude McKay , poet
Barry Cunliffe , archaeologist
Julius Caesar , Roman Emperor
Phil Hammond , broadcaster, physician & comedian
George Bernard Shaw , Irish dramatist & Fabian Society pamphleteer
Series 13, August – October 2007
Guest
Nominee
Presenter
Jude Kelly , theatre director & producer
Lilian Baylis , theatrical producer & manager
Matthew Parris
David Trimble , politician
Elvis Presley , American singer
Maggi Hambling , painter & sculptor
Rembrandt , Dutch artist
The Earl of Snowdon , photographer & Alex Moulton , engineer
Alec Issigonis , car designer
Michael Craig-Martin , conceptual artist
John Cage , avant-garde composer
David Rowntree , drummer with Blur & political activist
Lord Denning , judge
John Motson , football commentator
Brian Clough , football manager
Prue Leith , restaurateur
Elizabeth David , food writer
General Sir Michael Rose , British Army officer
George Washington , first President of the United States
Series 14, December 2007 – January 2008
Guest
Nominee
Presenter
Jan Ravens , impressionist
Thora Hird , actress
Matthew Parris
Quentin Blake , illustrator
George Cruikshank , caricaturist
Redmond O'Hanlon , travel writer
Alfred Russel Wallace , naturalist
Sir Richard Sykes , biochemist
Howard Florey , pharmacologist & pathologist
Roger Graef , documentary maker
Groucho Marx , American comedian & film star
Jacqueline Wilson , author of children's literature
Katherine Mansfield , writer
Joe Simpson , mountaineer
Hermann Buhl , mountaineer
Series 15, April – May 2008
Guest
Nominee
Presenter
Mark Gatiss , actor & writer
Peter Cushing , actor
Matthew Parris
Rhona Cameron , comedian
Charles Bukowski , novelist & poet
Steve Cram , former athlete
Paavo Nurmi , Finnish runner
Stirling Moss , racing car driver
Juan Manuel Fangio , Argentine racing car driver
Anna Ford , TV newsreader
Paul Robeson , black singer, actor & civil rights activist
Simon Armitage , poet
Ian Curtis , lead singer with Joy Division
Nicholas Parsons , actor & radio & TV presenter
Edward Lear , painter & poet
Arabella Weir , comedian, actress & writer
Joyce Grenfell , actress, comedian & singer-songwriter
Colin Dexter , crime writer
A. E. Housman , scholar & poet
Series 16, August – September 2008
Guest
Nominee
Presenter
Jon Snow , journalist & broadcaster
Lord Longford , Labour politician & prison reformer
Matthew Parris
David Lammy , politician
Richard Pryor , comedian
David Attenborough , zoologist & broadcaster
Robert Hooke , 17th century scientist
Bob Harris , radio presenter
Alan Freed , disc jockey
George Osborne , then shadow chancellor
Henry VII , king
Lesley Riddoch , broadcaster
David Ervine , Northern Ireland politician
Mike Jackson , army general
Bill Slim , second world war Field Marshal
Deborah Meaden , businesswoman
Lady Hester Stanhope , traveller, diplomat & spy
Ian Hislop , editor of Private Eye
William Hogarth , painter, engraver & satirist
Series 17, December 2008 – February 2009
Guest
Nominee
Presenter
Harvey Goldsmith , performing arts promoter
Luciano Pavarotti , Italian operatic tenor
Matthew Parris
Michael Grade , broadcasting executive
Billy Marsh , theatrical agent
Raymond Briggs , illustrator & writer
Beachcomber , columnist
David Soul , actor
Dietrich Bonhoeffer , German theologian & Resistance figure
Tracy-Ann Oberman , actress
Bette Davis , American film actress
Pam Ayres , poet
Tony Hancock , comedian & actor
Redmond O'Hanlon , travel writer
Alfred Russel Wallace , naturalist
Rachel De Thame , horticulturalist
Margot Fonteyn , ballerina
Ken Livingstone , former Mayor of London
Robert F. Kennedy , American politician & brother of president John F. Kennedy
Series 18, April – May 2009
Guest
Nominee
Presenter
Stuart Hall , broadcaster
Napoleon Bonaparte , Emperor of France
Matthew Parris
Polly Toynbee , journalist
Roy Jenkins , Labour politician
David Mellor , politician
Thomas Beecham , conductor
Ruby Wax , American comedian
Carl Jung , Swiss founder of analytical psychology
Colin Murray , broadcaster
Frank Sinatra , American singer
Andy Sheppard , saxophonist
John Coltrane , saxophonist
Michael O'Donnell , broadcaster & physician
Fred Astaire , dancer & actor
Misha Glenny , journalist
Giovanni Falcone , Italian judge & anti-Mafia campaigner
Series 19, August – September 2009
Guest
Nominee
Presenter
Andrew Motion , Poet Laureate
Alfred, Lord Tennyson , Poet Laureate
Matthew Parris
David Miliband , Member of Parliament & (then) Foreign Secretary
Joe Slovo , South African ANC leader
George Galloway , Member of Parliament
John Cornford , poet & activist
Dervla Murphy , travel writer
Freya Stark , travel writer
Rolf Harris , Australian television presenter & artist
Kyffin Williams , Welsh artist
Boris Johnson , the Mayor of London
Samuel Johnson , writer of the great dictionary
Kate Humble , TV presenter
Miriam Makeba , South African singer & anti-apartheid activist
Paul Daniels , magician
Harry Houdini , American escapologist
John Major , former British Prime Minister
Rudyard Kipling , poet & author
Series 20, December 2009 – February 2010
Guest
Nominee
Presenter
Sir Ranulph Fiennes , explorer
Henry V , King of England
Matthew Parris
Rich Hall , stand-up comedian
Tennessee Williams , American dramatist
Neil Innes , musician & performer
Vivian Stanshall , musician & comic writer
Munira Mirza , London Mayoral advisor on arts & culture
Hannah Arendt , German-American political philosopher
Christopher Biggins , actor & television presenter
Nero , Roman Emperor
Jenny Agutter , actress
Lise Meitner , Austrian physicist
David Bailey , photographer
Pablo Picasso , Spanish artist
John Williams , composer
Agustin Barrios Mangore , Paraguayan guitarist
Richard Dawkins , ethologist & evolutionary biologist
Bill Hamilton , evolutionary theorist
Series 21, April – May 2010
Guest
Nominee
Presenter
John Godber , playwright
Bertolt Brecht , writer & theatre director
Matthew Parris
Clive Stafford Smith , human rights lawyer
Robin Hood , folklore hero
Peter White , broadcaster
Douglas Jardine , England cricket captain
John Lloyd , comedy writer & television producer
Richard Buckminster Fuller , architect & futurist
Stuart Rose , chairman of Marks & Spencer
Matthew Flinders , cartographer
Baroness Sarah Hogg , economist & journalist
Charlotte Guest , polymath & businesswoman
Brian Cox , physicist
Carl Sagan , astronomer & astrophysicist
Viv Anderson , England footballer
Arthur Wharton , athlete & football player
Series 22, August – September 2010
Guest
Nominee
Presenter
John Harris , journalist & author
John Lennon , musician
Matthew Parris
Bettany Hughes , historian
Sappho , Ancient Greek poet
Dominic Sandbrook , historian
Richard Nixon , 37th President of the United States
Camila Batmanghelidjh , founder of Kids Company
Mary Carpenter , educational & social reformer
Eleanor Bron , actress
Simone Weil , French philosopher & mystic
Edwina Currie , former Member of Parliament & government minister
Golda Meir , former Prime Minister of Israel
Digby Jones , former director of the CBI
Winston Churchill , former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
Robert Winston , surgeon, scientist, broadcaster and politician
Michel de Montaigne , writers of the French Renaissance
Gerald Scarfe , cartoonist
Walt Disney , animator
Series 23, November 2010 – January 2011
Guest
Nominee
Presenter
Mark Borkowski , public relations
Malcolm McLaren , impresario & talent manager
Matthew Parris
John Hegley , poet
D.H. Lawrence , novelist
Gerry Robinson , businessman
Samuel Beckett , Irish playwright
Lionel Blair , dancer & television personality
Sammy Davis Jr , dancer, singer & entertainer
Neil Kinnock , former Leader of the Labour Party
Aneurin Bevan , founder of the NHS & Labour Cabinet Minister
Barry Cryer , comedian
J. B. Priestley , novelist & playwright
Jim Al-Khalili , Iraqi-born physicist
Gertrude Bell , writer, traveller, politician & administrator
Katherine Whitehorn , journalist
Mary Stott , campaigning journalist
Kwame Kwei-Armah , playwright & actor
Marcus Garvey , African-American political leader 1
Garvey was previously nominated by Yvonne Brown in Series 7 Programme 7 1 Series 24, April – May 2011
Guest
Nominee
Presenter
Clive Sinclair , British inventor
Thomas Edison , American inventor
Matthew Parris
Charles Hazlewood , conductor
Leonard Bernstein , conductor & composer
Diana Quick , actress
Simone de Beauvoir , French philosopher
Sue MacGregor , broadcaster
Kathleen Ferrier , contralto singer
Lynne Truss , writer & journalist
Lewis Carroll , author of Alice in Wonderland & mathematician
Caroline Lucas , British Green MP
Petra Kelly , German Green politician
Matthew Syed , sports journalist
Jack Johnson , "the Galveston Giant", boxer
Diane Abbott , Member of Parliament
Harold Pinter , playwright
Series 25, August – September 2011
Guest
Nominee
Presenter
Tim Butcher , journalist
Graham Greene , author & critic
Matthew Parris
Janice Long , broadcaster
Kirsty MacColl , singer-songwriter
Gwyneth Lewis , poet
Emily Dickinson , American poet
Antonio Carluccio , Italian restaurateur
Eduardo Paolozzi , artist
Daisy Goodwin , broadcaster & poetry curator
William Shakespeare , poet & playwright
Simon Day , comedian & actor
Hans Fallada , German writer
Simon Jenkins , journalist
Edwin Lutyens , architect
Cerys Matthews , musician
Hildegard of Bingen , German mystic
Graeme le Saux , former England footballer
Gerald Durrell , author & conservationist
Series 26, December 2011 – January 2012
Guest
Nominee
Presenter
Michael Sheen , actor
Philip K. Dick , science fiction writer
Matthew Parris
Raymond Tallis , philosopher
Ludwig Wittgenstein , German philosopher
Steven Pinker , psychologist & cognitive scientist
Thomas Hobbes , philosopher
Brian Sewell , art critic
Ludwig II of Bavaria
Jim Carter , actor
Lonnie Donegan , skiffle musician
Martin Rees , astrophysicist
Joseph Rotblat , physicist & campaigner against nuclear weapons
Emma Kennedy , actress
Gracie Allen , comedian
Clare Gerada , doctors' leader
Vera Brittain , writer, feminist & pacifist
Baroness Warsi , Conservative politician & former government minister
Razia Sultana , 13th-century Indian princess
Series 27, April – May 2012
Guest
Nominee
Presenter
Owen Sheers , Welsh poet
Dylan Thomas , Welsh poet
Matthew Parris
Will Self , journalist & novelist
Oscar Wilde , Irish dramatist & writer
Erin Pizzey , writer & campaigner
Gertrude Stein , writer, philanthropist & art collector
Tom Robinson , singer, broadcaster & activist
George Lyward , educationalist, teacher & psychotherapist who worked at Finchden Manor
Alexei Sayle , comedian
Edward Said , Palestinian-American literary theorist & campaigner for Palestinian rights
Eric Pickles , politician
John Ford , American film director
Diana Athill , British literary editor, novelist & memoirist
Francisco Goya , Spanish painter
Lynn Barber , British journalist & interviewer
Sebastian Walker , founder of Walker Books, a publishing house for children
Series 28, July – September 2012
Guest
Nominee
Presenter
Des Lynam , sports commentator
Henry Cooper , English heavyweight boxer
Matthew Parris
Janine di Giovanni , foreign correspondent & author
Josephine Bonaparte , wife of Napoleon Bonaparte
Rory Stewart , Conservative Member of Parliament, author & adventurer
Sir Walter Scott , Scottish novelist
Bill Paterson , actor
Leonard Maguire , Scottish actor
Natalie Haynes , comedian
Juvenal , Roman poet
Ken Dodd , comedian
Stan Laurel , film actor & one half of the duo Laurel and Hardy
Stephen Frears , film director
Karel Reisz , film director
Alan Johnson , politician & former Labour Home Secretary
George Orwell , writer
Naomi Wolf , commentator & author of The Beauty Myth
Edith Wharton , novelist, wit & feminist
Series 29, December 2012 – January 2013
Guest
Nominee
Presenter
Martin Broughton , chairman of British Airways & the British Horse Racing Board
Dick Francis , crime novelist & former jockey
Matthew Parris
Francesca Simon , children's writer & author of the Horrid Henry books
Jean Cocteau , French writer, artist & film director
Lemn Sissay , author & broadcaster
Prince Alemayehu , favourite prince of Queen Victoria
Stuart Maconie , radio presenter & music critic
Ralph Vaughan Williams , composer & folk music collector
Richard Herring , comedian
Grigori Rasputin , Russian Orthodox mystic
Max Mosley , former president of the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA)
John Stuart Mill , philosopher
Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen , interior designer
Aubrey Beardsley , artist of the Aesthetic movement
Grace Dent , journalist
Nancy Mitford , novelist & biographer
Carol Klein , gardening expert
William Robinson , Irish-born journalist & gardener
Series 30, April – May 2013
Guest
Nominee
Presenter
Peter Hitchens , author & columnist
George Bell , Anglican theologian & bishop
Matthew Parris
Bobby Friction , DJ & presenter
Galileo Galilei , Italian pioneer astronomer
Chris Tarrant , television presenter
Kenny Everett , comedian and former disc jockey
John Blashford-Snell , explorer
David Livingstone , explorer
Gyles Brandreth , writer & broadcaster
Arthur Conan Doyle , author
Justine Roberts , founder of Mumsnet , a website for parents
Bill Shankly , football manager
John Cooper Clarke , poet
Salvador Dalí , Spanish surrealist painter
Edmund de Waal , ceramicist & writer
Primo Levi , Italian Holocaust survivor, writer & chemist
Dr Lucy Worsley , Chief Curator at Historic Royal Palaces
Florence Nightingale , nurse, health administrator & statistician
Series 31, August – October 2013
Guest
Nominee
Presenter
Russell Grant , astrologer & broadcaster
Ivor Novello , composer & actor
Matthew Parris
Gabriel Gbadamosi , playwright
Fela Kuti , Nigerian musician
Tanika Gupta
Rabindranath Tagore , Indian poet
Julie Burchill , writer
Ava Gardner , American film star
Paul Mason , journalist and broadcaster
Louise Michel , 19th century French anarchist
Peter Bowles , actor
George Devine , theatre director
Konnie Huq , television presenter & writer
Ada Lovelace , computing pioneer
Brendan Barber , trade unionist
John Steinbeck , American novelist
Al Murray , comedian
Bernard Montgomery , WW2 British General
Series 32, December 2013 – January 2014
Guest
Nominee
Presenter
Ricky Ross , singer with Deacon Blue
Hank Williams , singer-songwriter
Matthew Parris
Michael Horovitz , poet
Allen Ginsberg , Beat poet
Meg Rosoff , novelist
Isabella Bird , Victorian traveller
David Chipperfield , architect
Le Corbusier , Swiss-French architect
David Baddiel , comedian
John Updike , novelist
Adil Ray , actor & TV personality
Dave Allen , comedian
Mark Constantine , businessman & founder of Lush cosmetics
Kahlil Gibran , poet
Sara Cox , radio presenter
Lisa 'Left Eye' Lopes , hip-hop artist
Series 33, April – May 2014
Guest
Nominee
Presenter
Evelyn Glennie , percussionist
Jacqueline du Pré , cellist
Matthew Parris
Sarah Vine , newspaper columnist
Dante Alighieri , 12th-13th century Italian poet
Mark Walport , Chief Scientific Adviser
Hans Sloane , art collector & benefactor of the British Museum
Marcus du Sautoy , mathematician
Jorge Luis Borges , Argentinian writer
Deborah Moggach , novelist
Arnold Bennett , 19th-century novelist
Isy Suttie , comedian, musician & actor
Jake Thackray , singer-songwriter
John Craven , journalist & television presenter
Isambard Kingdom Brunel , 19th-century British engineer
Emma Kirkby , soprano singer
Henry Purcell , 17th-century composer
Michael Palin , Python , writer & broadcaster
Ernest Hemingway , American writer
Series 34, August – October 2014
Guest
Nominee
Presenter
Jonathan Meades , writer & broadcaster
Edward Burra , artist
Matthew Parris
Jazzie B , DJ & music entrepreneur
James Brown , American singer
Oona King , politician
Ida B. Wells , American journalist & civil rights leader
Ray Mears , woodsman & TV presenter
Rommel , German field marshal of World War II
Tom Shakespeare , sociologist
Gramsci , Italian Marxist politician
Labi Siffre , poet & singer-songwriter
Arthur Ransome , author & journalist
Stella Rimington , former Director General of MI5 & writer
Dorothy L. Sayers , crime writer
Andrew Adonis, Baron Adonis , politician & academic
Joseph Bazalgette , Victorian engineer responsible for London's main sewers
Edith Hall , classicist
Lucille Ball , American actress & comedian
Series 35, December 2014 – January 2015
Guest
Nominee
Presenter
Arthur Smith , comedian
Emil Zátopek , Czechoslovak distance runner
Matthew Parris
Laura Bates , feminist writer
Louisa May Alcott , 19th century American author of Little Women
Brian Eno , musician
Michael Young , sociologist & politician
Philippa Langley , historian
Richard III , 15th -century King of England
Tom Solomon , neurologist
Roald Dahl , children's writer
Michael Dobbs , politician & novelist
Guy Burgess , spy
Eve Pollard , journalist & former newspaper editor
Nora Ephron , American screenwriter
Mervyn King , former Governor of the Bank of England
Risto Ryti , Governor of Bank of Finland and Prime Minister and President of Finland during World War II
Series 36, April – May 2015
Guest
Nominee
Presenter
Trevor McDonald , news presenter
Learie Constantine , Trinidadian cricketer & politician
Matthew Parris
Rachel Johnson , author & journalist
Lady Ottoline Morrell , literary hostess & associate of the Bloomsbury Group
Kulvinder Ghir , comedian & actor
Zoran Mušič , Slovene artist & survivor of Dachau
Helen Ghosh , Director General of the National Trust
James Lees-Milne , writer & expert on country houses
Wendy Cope , poet
John Clare , 19th-century poet
Antonia Quirke , film critic
Marlon Brando , American actor
Matthew Barzun , American ambassador
John Gil Winant , American ambassador to UK 1941-46
David Blunkett , blind politician
Louis Braille , 18th-century French inventor of Braille
Val McDermid , crime writer
P. D. James , crime writer
Series 37, August – September 2015
Guest
Nominee
Presenter
Ian McKellen , actor
Edmund Hillary , mountaineer & explorer
Matthew Parris
Vicky Pryce , Greek-born former British Government economist
Melina Mercouri , Greek actress, singer & politician
Michael Howard , former Conservative Party leader
Queen Elizabeth I , English monarch
Ade Adepitan , television personality & Paralympian
George Washington Williams , American Civil War veteran & historian
Monica Ali , novelist
Richard Francis Burton , explorer & adventurer
Frances Crook , prison reformist
Barbara Castle , Labour Party politician & former Cabinet Minister
Hannah Rothschild , philanthropist & documentary filmmaker
Thelonious Monk , jazz musician
Nick Stadlen , former High Court judge
Bram Fischer , South African lawyer & anti-apartheid activist
Toyah Willcox , singer & actress
Katharine Hepburn , Hollywood actress
Series 38, December 2015 – January 2016
Guest
Nominee
Presenter
Dickie Bird , cricket umpire
Sir Leonard Hutton , English cricketer
Matthew Parris
Roger Saul , founder of the Mulberry fashion label
Gertrude Jekyll , garden designer
Alvin Hall , financial journalist
James Baldwin , African American writer
Precious Lunga , epidemiologist
Wangari Maathai , Kenyan environmental and political activist
Martin Jennings , sculptor
Charles Sargeant Jagger , sculptor of British World War One war memorials
Susan Calman , Scottish comedian
Molly Weir , Scottish actress
Nitin Sawhney , musician & producer
Jeff Buckley , singer-songwriter
Eliza Manningham-Buller , former Director General of MI5
Abraham Lincoln , 16th President of the United States
Series 39, April – May 2016
Guest
Nominee
Presenter
Anthony Horowitz , novelist & screenwriter
Alfred Hitchcock , film director
Matthew Parris
Nancy Dell'Olio , lawyer
Lucrezia Borgia , Italian princesses
Ray Peacock , Comedian
Lenny Bruce , Comedian
Sudha Bhuchar , actress
Zohra Sehgal , Indian actress
Graeme Lamb , SAS commando
Christine Granville , spy
Timmy Mallett , TV presenter
Richard the Lionheart , King
Charles Moore , journalist
Gordon Hamilton-Fairley , medical oncology
Ann Limb , chair of the Scout Association
George Fox , founder of the Quaker
Frank Turner , folk singer
Joseph Grimaldi , comedian
Series 40, August – September 2016
Guest
Nominee
Presenter
Hilary Devey , television personality
Gracie Fields , actress
Matthew Parris
Alex Salmond , Scottish former First Minister
Thomas Muir , Father of Scottish Democracy.
Sara Pascoe , stand-up comedian
Virginia Woolf , writer
Georgina Godwin , journalist
Dag Hammarskjöld , Secretary General of the United Nations
Tony Hawks , comedian
Marshall Rosenberg , psychologist
Maureen Lipman , actress
Cicely Saunders , nurse
Eliza Carthy , folk musician
Caroline Norton , poet
A. A. Gill , writer
Neville Chamberlain , former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
Cyrus Todiwala , chef
Dadabhai Naoroji , first British Indian MP
Series 41, December 2016 – January 2017
Guest
Nominee
Presenter
Lucy Porter , comedian
Cary Grant , American actor
Matthew Parris
Ben Kingsley , actor
Elie Wiesel , Romanian-born, American Jewish Nobel laureate
Orlando Murrin , food writer
Dinu Lipatti , Romanian pianist
Ruth Holdaway , sports personality
Helen Rollason , sports journalist
Suzannah Lipscomb , historian
C. S. Lewis , novelist
Akram Khan , choreographer
Srinivasa Ramanujan , mathematician
Len Goodman , dancer
Lionel Bart , composer
Chris Patten , Chancellor of the University of Oxford
Pope John XXIII , pope
Series 42, April – May 2017
Guest
Nominee
Presenter
Gary Kemp , songwriter
Edward William Godwin , architect
Matthew Parris
Germaine Greer , feminist writer
Dame Elizabeth Frink , sculptor
Ermonela Jaho , soprano
Mother Teresa , nun
Anton du Beke , dancer
Arnold Palmer , golfer
Peaches Golding , consultant
Shirley Chisholm , Member of U.S. Congress (Dem )
Steven Knight , screenwriter
Sitting Bull , Lakota chief
Sue Cameron , columnist
Emma of Normandy , queen consort
Peter Williams , businessman
Steve Jobs , co-founder of Apple Inc
Series 43, August – September 2017
Guest
Nominee
Presenter
Maxine Peake , actor
Ellen Wilkinson , Labour MP & Cabinet Minister
Matthew Parris
Stephen Fry , comedian, actor & writer
P.G. Wodehouse , writer, creator of Jeeves
Sathnam Sanghera , journalist & author
Alexander Gardner , explorer
Don McCullin , photojournalist
Norman Lewis , travel writer
Tracy Chevalier , novelist
Mary Anning , fossil collector & working class woman from Lyme Regis
Helen Sharman , first British in space
Elsie Widdowson , dietitian
Nicholas Stern , Economist
Muhammad Ali , boxer & civil rights activist
Andrea Catherwood , presenter & journalist
Constance Markievicz , Irish politician & suffragette
Helena Morrissey , City boss
Rachael Heyhoe Flint , cricketer & businesswoman
Series 44, December 2017
Guest
Nominee
Presenter
Will Gregory , musician
Flann O'Brien , novelist
Matthew Parris
Cornelia Parker , sculptor
Marcel Duchamp , French painter
Louise Richardson , political scientist
Daniel O'Connell , Barrister
Nazir Afzal , Chief Crown Prosecutor
Mahatma Gandhi , Indian independence leader
Gisela Stuart , Labour MP
Joseph Chamberlain , Labour MP
Helen Arney , presenter
Hertha Ayrton , physicist, and suffragette
Justin Marozzi , historian
Herodotus , Ancient Greek historian
Liza Tarbuck , actress
Nikola Tesla , Serbian inventor
Gisela Stuart , Labour MP
Joseph Chamberlain , Secretary of State
Series 45, April 2018 – May 2018
Guest
Nominee
Presenter
Vic Reeves , comedian, actor and artist
Captain Beefheart , American musician
Matthew Parris
Adrian Utley , musician
Miles Davis , American jazz musician
Laura Serrant , professor
Audre Lorde , American poet and activist
Tej Lalvani , businessman
Richard Feynman , American theoretical physicist,
Ayesha Hazarika , comedian and political commentator
Jayaben Desai , trade unionist
Simon Callow , actor
Orson Welles , American actor
Mica Paris , soul singer
Josephine Baker , American Vaudeville performer
Suzy Klein , TV and Radio presentator
Hedy Lamarr , actress
Barbara Stocking , former head of Oxfam
Catherine the Great , Empress of Russia
Series 46, September 2018 – December 2018
Guest
Nominee
Presenter
Hanif Kureishi , writer
David Bowie , musician
Matthew Parris
Erica Wagner , former literary editor of The Times
Roald Amundsen , Norwegian polar explorer
Simon Evans , comedian
John Stuart Mill , philosopher
Patricia Greene , actor
Elizabeth, Countess of Shrewsbury
Helen Glover , Olympic rower
Alison Hargreaves , mountaineer
Greg Jenner , historian
Gene Kelly , American dancer
Cherie Blair , barrister
Rose Heilbron , England's first woman judge.
Mark Carwardine , zoologist
Douglas Adams , writer
Christina Lamb , author and correspondent
Benazir Bhutto , former Prime Minister of Pakistan
Series 47, December 2018 – January 2019
Guest
Nominee
Presenter
Samira Ahmed , freelance journalist,
Laura Ingalls Wilder , American writer
Matthew Parris
Russell Kane , writer, comedian
Evelyn Waugh , English writer
Tim Smit , businessman
Humphrey Jennings , English documentary filmmaker
Frank Cottrell Boyce , screenwriter
Tove Jansson , Finnish-Swedish author and creator of the Moomins
Mark Steel , comedian
Charlie Chaplin , actor and comedian
Nikesh Shukla , author
Ghulam Mohammad, Great Gama , Pakistani wrestler
Suzanne O'Sullivan , neurologist
Oliver Sacks , neurologist and author
Rohan Silva , entrepreneur, columnist, former policy advisor to David Cameron and George Osborne
Colin Chapman , creator of Lotus Cars
Matt Lucas , comedian, screenwriter, actor
Freddie Mercury , musician, songwriter, lead vocalist of Queen
Series 48, April 2019 – May 2019
Guest
Nominee
Presenter
Shappi Khorsandi , comedian
Emma, Lady Hamilton , spouse of Lord Nelson
Matthew Parris
Helen Lewis , journalist
Catherine de' Medici , Queen consort of France
Tom Holland , historian
Aethelflaed , Lady of the Mercians
Ian McMillan , poet
Malcolm Lowry , writer
Kirill Gerstein , Russian American pianist
Ferruccio Busoni , composer
Caroline Criado-Perez , feminist campaigner
Jane Austen , writer
Jeremy Deller , artist
Brian Epstein , The Beatles' manager
Shirley Collins , folk singer
Alan Lomax , American song-hunter
Kamila Shamsie , writer
Asma Jahangir , human rights lawyer
Series 49, April 2019 – May 2019
Guest
Nominee
Presenter
Lucy Irvine , adventurer and author.
Robinson Crusoe , fictional characters
Matthew Parris
Ed Balls , British Labour and Co-operative politician
Herbert Howells , composer
Laura Marling , folk singer-songwriter
Lou Andreas-Salome , first woman psychoanalyst
Caroline Quentin , actress
Sir John Vanbrugh , playwright and architect
Shaun Ley , Broadcaster
Ramsay MacDonald , First UK Labour Prime Minister
Philippa Perry , psychotherapist
Maria Montessori , Italian educator
Fiona Shaw , actress
Eleonora Duse , actress
Sindhu Vee , comedian
Prince Rogers Nelson
Chibundu Onuzo , author
Constance Cummings-John , Sierra Leonean educationist
Jessie Ware , singer
Donna Summer , American singer
Frances O'Grady , trade uninionist
Ernie Bevin , trade uninionist
Series 50, December 2019 – January 2020
Guest
Nominee
Presenter
Peter Oborne , journalist
William Brown and his creator, Richmal Crompton
Matthew Parris
Lindsey Hilsum , Channel 4 News reporter
Lee Miller , War photographer and model
Jeremy Paxman , broadcaster
Nicholas Ashley-Cooper, 12th Earl of Shaftesbury , Victorian era politician
Janice Turner , journalist
Enid Blyton , novelist
Bill Bailey , comedian
Alfred Russel Wallace ,naturalist
Ken Clarke , politician
Charlie Parker , Jazz sax player
Josie Long , comedian
Kurt Vonnegut , American author
Andi Oliver , chef
Toni Morrison , American Nobel Prize-winning author
April 2020 - September 2020
Guest
Nominee
Presenter
Rick Stein ,chef
Jim Morrison , rock singer
Matthew Parris
Frank Cottrell Boyce , script writer
Tove Jansson , creator of Moomin
Kate Stables , musician
Ursula Le Guin , American author
Olivette Otele , historian
Maya Angelou , African-American writer
Daniel Rigby , TV author
Victoria Wood , comedian
Sally Phillips , comedian
Myrna Loy , American film acrtress
Anand Menon , political scientist
Billy Bremner , footballer
Sara Wheeler , author
Sybille Bedford , author
Dolly Alderton , author
Doris Day , American actress
Margaret MacMillan , Canadian historian
Benito Mussolini , Italian fascist dictator
Jessie Burton , author
Frida Kahlo , Mexican painter
Peter Frankopan , historian
Konstantin Tsiolkovsky , Soviet rocket scientist
Jessie Ware , English singer
Donna Summer , American singer
Frances O'Grady , trade unionist
Ernest Bevin , Labour politician and trade unionist
Tom Allen , comedian
Kenneth Williams , English actor
David Adjaye , Ghanaian-British architect
Okwui Enwezor , Nigerian curator
James Graham , playwright
John Maynard Keynes , economist
Michael Wood , historian
Xuanzang , Chinese monk and traveller
Philippa Gregory , novelist
Katherine Parr , sixth wife of Henry VIII
David Spiegelhalter , professor
Frank Ramsey , mathematician
Diane Morgan , comedian
Hugh Dowding ,Air Chief Marshal
Rob Rinder , barrister
Jessica Mitford , civil rights activist and investigative journalist
David Jonsson , actor
Jean Michel Basquiat , American artist
Caroline Catz , actor
Delia Derbyshire , composer
Cori Crider , human rights lawyer
Cesar Chavez , Rights activist
References
External links