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 person's 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.
Programmes
Series 0, August–November 2001 Guest NomineePresenterTim Waterstone, founder of bookshop chainClement Attlee, former Prime Minister of the United KingdomJoan BakewellRosie Boycott, journalistSir Ernest Shackleton, polar explorerTerence Conran, food and design entrepreneurAndré and Édouard Michelin, French inventors of the detachable pneumatic tyre and the travel guideRalph Steadman, cartoonist and caricaturistFriedrich Nietzsche, German philosopherBarbara Castle, Labour politician and former Cabinet MinisterSylvia Pankhurst, suffragetteFrank Delaney, writer and broadcasterHenri Matisse, French artistJonathan Miller, theatre and opera director, physicianMarshall McLuhan, communication theorist and philosopherFay Weldon, writerH. G. Wells, visionary authorRabbi Lionel Blue, rabbi and broadcasterSwami Vivekananda, 19th-century Hindu missionaryJackie Stewart, racing driverKing Hussein of JordanJoan Littlewood, theatre directorBrendan Behan, Irish writerLord Tebbit, Conservative politician and former Cabinet MinisterKing Alfred the Great, 9th-century King of Wessex
Series 1, May–August 2002 Guest NomineePresenterNed Sherrin, broadcaster, television producer and stage directorSir Donald Wolfit, actor-managerHumphrey CarpenterElizabeth Filkin, former Parliamentary Commissioner for StandardsGeorge Eliot, novelistSteven Isserlis, cellistFranz Schubert, Austrian composerLord Carrington, Conservative politician and former Foreign SecretaryField Marshal Viscount Slim, military leaderFrederic Raphael, author and screenwriterAlexander the GreatJanet Street-Porter, journalist and media executiveMarquis de Sade, French philosopher, revolutionary politician and libertineChris Barber, jazz trombonist and bandleaderLouis Armstrong, American jazz trumpeter and singerSue Limb, writer and broadcasterLord Byron, poetFrank Keating, sports writerTom Spring, 19th-century bare-knuckle boxerKirsty Young, broadcasterKatharine Graham, American newspaper publisher
Series 2, October–December 2002 Guest NomineePresenterBernard Manning, comedianMother Teresa of Calcutta, Albanian Roman Catholic nunHumphrey CarpenterSir Paul Nurse, geneticist and cell biologistErasmus Darwin, 18th century physicianDarcus Howe, writer and broadcasterC. L. R. James, Caribbean revolutionary and cricket writerBea Campbell, journalist and author Rachel Carson, marine biologist and conservationistMuriel Gray, journalist and broadcasterM. R. James, writer of ghost storiesAhdaf Soueif, novelist and cultural commentatorUmm Kulthum, Egyptian singer, songwriter and actressProfessor Sir Harry Kroto, chemistSpinoza, Portuguese philosopherSteve Bell, political cartoonistJames Gillray, 18th-century caricaturistTam Dalyell, Labour politicianRichard Crossman, Labour politician and former Cabinet MinisterGreg Dyke, media executiveCaptain James Cook, explorer
Series 3, April–June 2003 Guest NomineePresenterBeryl Bainbridge, novelistRobert Falcon Scott, polar explorerHumphrey CarpenterLeonard Slatkin, conductor and composer Sergei Rachmaninoff, Russian-American composerJohn Sergeant, journalist and broadcasterArthur Ransome, author and journalistBenjamin Zephaniah, writer and poetBob Marley, Jamaican reggae musicianSteve Jones, geneticistJames Hogg, poet and novelistRichard Ingrams, journalist and satiristG. K. Chesterton, writerStacey Kent, jazz singer, Powell and Pressburger, film-makersRichard Holmes, military historianthe Man in the Iron Mask, mysterious French prisoner in the BastilleTanni Grey-Thompson, Welsh athlete and broadcaster, David Lloyd George, former Prime Minister of the United KingdomEsther Rantzen, journalist and broadcaster, Queen Elizabeth I, Queen of England and Ireland
Series 4, October–December 2003 Guest NomineePresenterPeter Bazalgette, television executiveNoël Coward, playwright, composer, director, actor and singerHumphrey CarpenterKit Wright, writerSamuel Johnson, author and lexicographerKate Adie, war reporterFlora Sandes, pioneer female soldierJenny Eclair, comedianSarah Bernhardt, French actressBrian Keenan, writerBernardo O'Higgins, Chilean independence leaderBrenda Dean, trade unionist ad Labour peerOctavia Hill, co-founder of the National TrustClement Freud, broadcaster, writer, politician and chefTommy Cooper, comedian and magicianArmando Iannucci, comedian and writerCharles Dickens, novelistLinda Smith, comedianIan Dury, singerAnn Leslie, journalistMary Kingsley, writer and explorer
Series 5, April–June 2004 Guest NomineePresenterLord Alistair McAlpine, Conservative politicianMachiavelliHumphrey CarpenterDenis Healey, Labour politician, former Chancellor of the ExchequerErnest Bevin, Labour politician, former Foreign SecretaryRuth Lea, economistPyotr Tchaikovsky, composerGeorge Monbiot, journalist, environmental activist and writerThomas Paine, American author and revolutionaryBenedict Allen, explorerHoratio Nelson, naval heroCharles Wheeler, journalist and broadcasterLyndon B. Johnson, 36th President of the United StatesKimberley Fortier Edith Wharton, writerRichard Eyre, theatre directorAnton Chekhov, Russian dramatistKenneth Clarke, Conservative politician, former Chancellor of the ExchequerBenjamin Disraeli, 19th century Conservative Prime MinisterLord May, scientistJoseph Banks, naturalist and botanist
Series 6, October–December 2004 Guest NomineePresenterDillie Keane, actress, singer and comedianGilbert & Sullivan, librettist and composer of comic operettas 1Humphrey CarpenterBaroness Jay, former Labour Leader of the House of LordsVice-Admiral Robert FitzRoy RN, captain of HMS BeagleChristina Gorna, barristerVivien Leigh, actressJilly Goolden, wine expertLeonard Woolf, writer, publisher and political thinkerGerry Anderson, broadcasterBurt Lancaster, American actorTim Marlow, art historian and broadcasterMarvin Gaye, soul singerShami Chakrabarti, civil-rights campaignerGeorge Orwell, author and journalistMarjorie Wallace, writer and charity chief executiveSir Edward Elgar, composerDavid Puttnam, film-makerMichael Collins, Irish nationalist leader (repeat of Programme 1?)Lucinda Lambton, writer and broadcasterCaptain Henry Morgan, privateer 1The programme originally scheduled was by the guest film-maker David Puttnam (who nominated the Irish nationalist leader Michael Collins). It was withdrawn due to "production quality".Great Lives at radiolistings.co.uk
Hogmanay Special, 31 December 2004 Guest NomineePresenterEddi Reader, Scottish singer-songwriterRobert Burns, Scottish poetHumphrey Carpenter1 Carpenter died on 4 January 2005, this was his last Great Lives programme 1
Series 7, April–June 2005 Guest NomineePresenterJoe Queenan, humorist, critic and authorGenghis Khan, founder of the Mongol EmpireFrancine StockMary Kenny, authorGeorge Sand, writerValerie Grove, journalistCharles M. Schulz, the Peanuts cartoonistDouglas Dunn, poetRobert Louis Stevenson, writerMichael Morpurgo, Children's LaureateWolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Austrian composer Martin Smith, Chairman of English National OperaJohn D. Rockefeller, American industrialist, investor and philanthropistYvonne Brown, lawyerMarcus Garvey, Pan-Africanist leaderAmanda Vickery, historianElizabeth Gaskell, novelistLord PowellRonald Reagan, 40th President of the United StatesFrederick Forsyth, novelistthe 1st Duke of Wellington, soldier and statesman
Series 8, October 2005 – February 2006 Guest NomineePresenterKathy Lette, writerMae West, Hollywood actressFrancine StockCarole Stone, author and broadcasterR. D. Laing, psychiatristHoward Goodall, composerSamuel Coleridge-Taylor, composerAntony Beevor, historian, and Gillian Slovo, novelistVasily Grossman, Soviet writerRobert Thomson, journalistZhao Ziyang, Chinese premier Derek Wilson, historian and authorThomas Cromwell, 16th century politicianFiona Reynolds, Director-General of the National TrustBeatrix Potter, writerAdam Hart-Davis, historian and broadcasterNevil Shute, novelist and aeronautical engineerHelen Lederer, writer and actressDorothy Parker, writer and poetAnnie Nightingale, radio broadcasterMarty Feldman, comedian and actor
Series 9, April–June 2006 Guest NomineePresenterPenelope Keith, actressMorecambe and Wise, comedy double actMatthew ParrisJeff Randall, journalistAndrew Carnegie, Scottish-American industrialist and philanthropistJulian Clary, comedianNoël Coward, playwright, composer, director, actor and singer1 Craig Brown, critic and satiristSigmund Freud, Austrian neurologist and psychotherapistIvan Massow, entrepreneurElla Fitzgerald, jazz singerDuncan Goodhew, athleteJohnny Weissmuller, American athlete-turned Tarzan actorFrances Cairncross, economist, journalist and academicIgnaz Semmelweis, Hungarian physician and pioneer of antiseptic proceduresAnna Raeburn, broadcaster and agony auntTamara Karsavina, Russian ballerinaPiers Morgan, journalist and broadcasterW. G. Grace, English cricketerKrishnan Guru-Murthy, journalist and broadcasterRobin Day, broadcaster and political interviewer 1Coward was previously nominated by Peter Bazalgette in Series 4 Programme 1
Series 10, August–September 2006 Guest NomineePresenterChristopher Hitchens, author and journalistLeon Trotsky, Russian revolutionaryMatthew ParrisGarry Bushell, newspaper columnistMax Miller, comedianHelena Kennedy, civil liberties lawyerEleanor Roosevelt, First Lady of the United States Jeremy Vine, broadcaster and journalistW. H. Auden, poetElaine Showalter, feminist literary criticJulia Ward Howe, 19th-century American abolitionist, social activist and poetLord John Biffen, Conservative politician and former MinisterStanley Baldwin, Conservative Prime MinisterJoanna MacGregor, pianistNina Simone, singer and civil rights activistAdair Turner, businessman and academicCharles Darwin, naturalist and evolutionary scientist
Series 11, December 2006 – January 2007 Guest NomineePresenterJoe Boyd, record producerJohn H. Hammond, record producerMatthew ParrisLesley Abdela, feminist campaignerMillicent Garrett Fawcett, suffragistKathy Sykes, scientist and broadcasterAlbert Einstein, German-American physicistVictor Spinetti, actorJoan Littlewood, theatre directorAlan Davies, actor and comedianRichard Beckinsale, actorCamilla Wright, journalistMartha Gellhorn, American war reporterAnne Fine, authorWilliam Beveridge, economist and social reformerAnn Widdecombe, former Conservative MP and former government ministerPope John Paul II
Series 12, April–May 2007 Guest NomineePresenterPhill Jupitus, comedianJoe Strummer, frontman of The ClashMatthew ParrisNick Danziger, photographerTintin, fictional Belgian reporterWilliam Boyd, authorAnton Chekhov, Russian playwrightPallab Ghosh, BBC science correspondentMarie Curie, Polish chemist and physicistPauline Black, singer and actorBillie Holiday, American jazz singerFiona Bruce, television presenter and newsreaderMata Hari, Dutch accused spyYvonne Brewster, theatre director, actress and writerClaude McKay, poetBarry Cunliffe, archaeologistJulius Caesar, Roman EmperorPhil Hammond, broadcaster, physician and comedian George Bernard Shaw, Irish dramatist and Fabian Society pamphleteer
Series 13, August–October 2007