Matthew Parris discovers that Edith Hall, Professor of Classics at King’s College, London, has a surprising nomination for a Great Life. She's chosen Lucille Ball, the vivacious redhead, who in the 1950s and 1960s was one of the best-known and best-loved actresses on TV, both in the United States and here. What makes a professor of Greek and Roman writing such a great fan of a zany American actress? What was Lucy like behind the TV persona? Matthew finds out in the company of Carole Cook, Lucy’s...
Oct 02, 2014•28 min
Matthew Parris hears from Labour peer Lord Adonis why Joseph Bazalgette, the Victorian engineer, has his nomination as a Great Life. Bazalgette, the grandson of a French immigrant who made a fortune lending money to the Hanoverian royal family, is one of the most important of the great Victorian engineers. He not only built a sewage system for London which wiped out cholera in the city, he also built the famous Embankments, laid out several of the main thoroughfares and built or improved many of...
Oct 02, 2014•28 min
Dame Stella Rimington, former director of MI5 and a celebrated crime writer herself, nominates for a Great Life that of Dorothy L Sayers. Sayers' first Lord Peter Wimsey novel was published in the 1920s, the Golden Age of crime fiction, and he is still very much with us, appearing often on BBC Radio 4 Extra. She went on to enjoy a huge popularity with her crime novels and then turned to writing Christian essays and plays, most notably the series for the BBC on the life of Christ – which stirred ...
Sep 10, 2014•28 min
Singer-songwriter Labi Siffre discusses the life and work of Arthur Ransome. Siffre says that the Swallows and Amazons books taught him responsibility for his own actions and also a morality that has influenced and shaped him throughout his life. Series in which Matthew Parris invites his guests to nominate the person who they feel is a great life. Producer: Maggie Ayre First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in September 2014.
Sep 09, 2014•28 min
Dr Tom Shakespeare is a lecturer at the Medical School in the University of East Anglia and prominent campaigner for the rights of the disabled. He explains to Matthew Parris why the life and work of the Italian left-wing revolutionary Antonio Gramsci means a great deal to him personally. They're joined in the studio by Professor Anne Sassoon. Producer: Christine Hal First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in September 2014.l
Sep 02, 2014•28 min
The life of Erwin Rommel, for a time Hitler's favourite general is nominated by Ray Mears. Matthew Parris hears why this German soldier was a "great life". They are also joined by Dr Niall Barr, Reader in Military History, Defence Studies Department at Kings College, London. Producer: Perminder Khatkar. First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2014.
Aug 26, 2014•28 min
Matthew Parris leads a discussion on Ida B. Wells the African American civil rights and women's rights activist who was a political trailblazer. She is the great life chosen by Baroness Oona King. Throughout her life, Wells was militant in her demands for equality and justice for black Americans and she encouraged the African American community to fight for positive change through their own efforts. She was an investigative journalist who highlighted the practice of lynching in the United States...
Aug 19, 2014•28 min
Soul II Soul’s Jazzie B tells Matthew Parris why he nominates James Brown, the “Godfather of Soul”, for this series. Jazzie B, who was awarded a CBE for services to black British music, spent time latterly with James Brown and he became “like a big brother.” He shares personal reflections on Mr Brown’s life and legacy, with help from the music journalist Charles Shaar Murray. Producer: Maggie Ayre First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in August 2014.
Aug 12, 2014•28 min
Writer Jonathan Meades nominates the English artist Edward Burra, who died in 1976, for "great life" status, arguing that he deserves to be better known. Burra painted sailors, drinkers and prostitutes in Toulon; jazz musicians in Harlem; surreal wartime pictures of soldiers in terrifying bird masks; and, in his later years, landscapes in which anthropomorphic and malevolent machines bite chunks out of the countryside. Disabled with rheumatoid arthritis from an early age, Burra barely went to sc...
Aug 05, 2014•28 min
Michael Palin first came across his Great Life when he was studying for school exams, and his love of Ernest Hemingway has never gone away. He, along with expert Naomi Wood, tells Matthew Parris why this twentieth century legend is a Great Life. Producer: Perminder Khatkar.
May 27, 2014•28 min
Countryfile presenter John Craven proposes Victorian Engineer, Isambard Kingdom Brunel, as a great life. He's joined by engineering historian Julia Elton and presenter Matthew Parris. And where better to discuss Brunel's achievements than by the harbour in Bristol in the shadow of his magnificent steam ship the SS Great Britain. But should his creator of great machines himself be considered a great man or is finest achievement the engineering of his own reputation? Recorded at the Food Connectio...
May 13, 2014•28 min
Jake Thackray hated being known as the north country Noel Coward, but at the height of his fame the description stuck. His songs are very British, but his influences were European - Georges Brassens and Jacques Brel. Nominating Jake Thackray is Isy Suttie, Dobby from Peep Show and star of the A-Z of Mrs P. The presenter is Matthew Parris and the producer Miles Warde. First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2014.
May 06, 2014•28 min
Soprano Emma Kirkby discusses the life of English composer Henry Purcell with Matthew Parris. Despite dying at the age of 36, Purcell was arguably the first composer to become a national figure, as shown by his funeral at Westminster Abbey. Living through turbulent times, and through the reign of three monarchs, Purcell had to cope with shifting Catholic and Protestant regimes while producing a steady output of religious music. But he also did some of his most memorable and enduring work for the...
May 06, 2014•24 min
Novelist and screenwriter, Deborah Moggach, nominates the Potteries writer Arnold Bennett, whose work she thinks has been wrongly overlooked, as he was considered as being too popular. Moggach believes that because he was a working writer who earned his living writing both serious and light fiction, he was not taken seriously until after his death in 1931, despite his books being hugely popular during his lifetime. Bennett wrote many novels including ‘Anna of the Five Towns’ and ‘The Old Wives T...
Apr 29, 2014•28 min
Mathematician Marcus de Sautoy champions the blind Argentinian writer Jorge Luis Borges. He is fascinated by the connection between the creator of 'The Library of Babel' and science - did Borges really understand notions of infinity and space? Biographer Jason Wilson adds colourful detail to the life of a great writer whom he insists was just being impish when it came to the weighty matters that have excited more than one mathematician over the years. The programme includes beautiful recordings ...
Apr 22, 2014•28 min
Sir Mark Walport, the government's Chief Scientific Advisor champions the life of Sir Hans Sloane, founder of the British Museum. Along with expert Marjorie Caygill they tell Matthew Parris why they think Sloane is the mother and father of all collectors. Producer : Perminder Khatkar.
Apr 15, 2014•28 min
Series of biographical discussions with Matthew Parris. Poet Simon Armitage nominates Joy Division singer Ian Curtis, who took his own life in 1980 at the age of 23. Curtis's fellow band member Peter Hook remembers his friend.
Apr 09, 2014•28 min
"Whenever I have too much to drink, I bang on about Dante ...." Sarah Vine makes a choice from the heart - the great Italian writer Dante Alighieri, father of the Italian language and author of the Divine Comedy. "I'm not an expert," she says, "mine is more of a romantic infatuation." As well as the outspoken Daily Mail columnist, Matthew Parris is joined by Claire Honess, professor of Italian studies at Leeds University. Together they piece together an extraordinary life. Includes extracts from...
Apr 08, 2014•28 min
Solo percussionist, Evelyn Glennie explains her admiration for cellist, Jacqueline Du Pre. Presented by Matthew Parris. With music writer and broadcaster, Stephen Johnson. Producer: Perminder Khatkar First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in April 2014.
Apr 01, 2014•28 min
The DJ Sara Cox nominates Lisa 'Left Eye' Lopes, a hip hop artist and rapper who performed with the band TLC. She burned her lover's house down and TLC went bankrupt. Lisa died in a car accident aged 30, during a documentary shoot. The expert witness is music journalist Jacqueline Springer and the presenter is Matthew Parris. Assistant Producer: Milly Chowles Producer: Perminder Khatkar First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in January 2014.
Jan 28, 2014•28 min
Businessman Mark Constantine chooses Lebanese-American author of ‘The Prophet’, Khalil Gibran. With Matthew Parris. Snubbed and practically ignored by the literary establishment in the West, but regarded by millions as a world-class poet his work, The Prophet, published in 1923, has never been out of print and next to the bible is the biggest selling book in America. Businessman Mark Constantine champions the poet and together with the actor Nadim Sawalha. Matthew Parris is the presenter. Produc...
Jan 23, 2014•28 min
At home in Edinburgh Isabella Bird was the very picture of the ailing Victorian spinster but the moment her tiny feet hit the gangway of a steamer or squeezed into the stirrups of a horse she was transformed. Taking a doctor's advice to travel for the sake of her health Isabella headed for Australia, Japan, Korea and Hawaii before finding her spiritual home amongst the most rotten scoundrels of America's West. In 'Great Lives' the award-winning author of novels including 'How I Live Now' and 'Th...
Jan 23, 2014•28 min
Comedian Dave Allen is chosen by Adil Ray, creator and star of Citizen Khan. He explains to Matthew Parris how the legendary Irish comic helped shape his own career. Producer: Perminder Khatkar. First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in January 2014.
Jan 14, 2014•28 min
Writer and comedian David Baddiel chooses the American novelist, John Updike. With Matthew Parris and Justin Cartwright. His novels perfectly captured the shifting moral codes of middle America in the 1970s and 80s but do John Updike's novels still have something important to tell us today? The writer and comedian David Baddiel makes the case for Updike in conversation with Matthew Parris and the novelist and Updike expert, Justin Cartwright. First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in January 2014....
Jan 08, 2014•28 min
Pioneer of Modern architecture, Le Corbusier, chosen by award winning architect Sir David Chipperfield. Le Corbusier aimed to build a better world through radical buildings and the controversial reshaping of whole cities. Flora Samuel, Professor of Architecture at the University of Sheffield, joins Matthew Parris to unpick the life of a man who considered himself a herioc figure, fighting battles to improve the world. Presenter: Matthew Parris. Producer: Melvin Rickarby
Dec 31, 2013•28 min
Matthew Parris is joined by Michael Horovitz who nominates fellow poet and founder of the 'Beat Generation', Allen Ginsberg, as his Great Life. Ginsberg's friend and biographer Barry Miles provides biographical detail of this colourful and controversial writer, who through his battle for free expression inspired American counter culture. Producer: Melvin Rickarby First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in December 2013.
Dec 17, 2013•28 min
The life of the 'Hillbilly Shakespeare' Hank Williams is the choice of Deacon Blue singer Ricky Ross. Williams is regarded as being the prototype rock star and continues to be hugely influential on musicians today despite a short recording career of just six years before he died at the age of 29. Matthew Parris presents. With Nick Barraclough as the expert witness. Producer: Maggie Ayre First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in December 2013.
Dec 10, 2013•28 min
The chanteuse, pianist, composer and civil rights activist Nina Simone is the choice of another female musician who has made a career of defying convention; Joanna Macgregor. Presented by Matthew Parris.
Nov 27, 2013•29 min
Grace Dent nominates Nancy Mitford for her wit, and for the way in which she showed women that it was possible to live your life fully and unconventionally. Nancy Mitford's greatest success came with the novels The Pursuit of Love (1945) and Love in a Cold Climate (1949). Matthew Parris asks what else it is about Nancy that so inspires Grace, with the aid of Mitford biographer Lisa Hilton. Grace Dent is a TV and restaurant critic, newspaper columnist, author, and broadcaster. Producer Beth O'Dea...
Oct 02, 2013•28 min
"In defeat, unbeatable; in victory, unbearable" – so said Winston Churchill on this week's Great Live, Field Marshal Bernard Law Montgomery. Many would argue that he was Britain's greatest field commander since Wellington - arrogant, hard to like but undeniably successful – one of the most, perhaps the most, conspicuously successful British commander of the Second World War. He was a national celebrity. In this edition of Great Lives - Al Murray - comedian and TV personality best known for his c...
Oct 01, 2013•28 min
