"I am a German American, a pure one, dating back to when German Americans were still marrying each other." Kurt Vonnegut was born in Indianapolis in 1922, but the most important event in his life happened in Dresden in 1945. He was a POW and underground in a meat locker during the firebombing. When he emerged he found the city totally destroyed. It took him another two decades to work out how to write his book, Slaughterhouse-Five. Nominating Vonnegut is the comedian Josie Long, who says that fi...
Jan 10, 2020•28 min•Transcript available on Metacast From Kansas City to New York, young Charlie Parker conquered the world of jazz.. He was famous during his life, and even more famous after he died aged 34. He's nominated here by former health minister, home secretary and chancellor of the exchequer, Kenneth Clarke. Together with Richard Williams and Val Wilmer, Ken recounts what made Bird great, and why he died so very young. "If you look at the street scenes of Harlem in 1940, it was a squalid place. Club life in New York was probably a smart ...
Jan 03, 2020•30 min•Transcript available on Metacast Bill Bailey has not just travelled in naturalist Alfred Russell Wallace's footsteps, he's crazy about him too. "I love him, I really do." Wallace is best known for what used to be known as the Wallace-Darwin theory of evolution. When he died in 1913, the New York Times called him the last of the 'giants belonging to that wonderful group of intellectuals ... whose daring investigations revolutionised and evolutionised the thought of the century." Born in 1823, Wallace was a collector, a writer, a...
Dec 24, 2019•28 min•Transcript available on Metacast Janice Turner recently wrote a sweet, sensitive article about packing up the contents of her parent’s house. “The experience was almost unbearable,” she began. Among the items passed down from the attic, “my entire childhood,” were a heavy sledge, Twinkle and Jackie annuals, “and a heavy trunk of 60 Enid Blytons.” 60 Enid Blytons - imagine that! Janice Turner aka @victoriapeckham and winner of press interviewer of the year, is nominating Enid Blyton in a programme filled scandal, racism and love...
Dec 24, 2019•28 min•Transcript available on Metacast What makes a brilliant politician? What should motivate them? Does having a faith help? Broadcaster and writer Jeremy Paxman chooses the seventh earl of Shaftesbury, Anthony Ashley-Cooper. a Victorian politician whose numerous and wide-ranging social reforms transformed working and living conditions for impoverished children, miners and chimney-sweeps alike. Joining Matthew Parris and Jeremy Paxman is Lord Shaftesbury's great-great-grandson, the twelfth earl, Nick Ashley-Cooper. The three discov...
Dec 17, 2019•28 min•Transcript available on Metacast In the early summer of 1945, Lee Miller sent a telegram back to London about what she had seen in the Nazi death camps. “I implore you to believe this is true,” she wrote. Her employers were Vogue magazine. How did a famous beauty like Miller end up covering the war? Her extraordinary life and the images she left, most famously posing in Hitler's bath, are explored here by Lindsey Hilsum of Channel 4 News. She is joined by Miller's son, Antony Penrose. Lee Miller was American, born in 1907, but ...
Dec 10, 2019•28 min•Transcript available on Metacast "It's absolutely joyous, one of the highlights of my career!" Peter Oborne on being joined by Martin Jarvis, the man who brings Just William to life. Journalist Oborne is nominating both William Brown and his creator, Richmal Crompton. She wrote 39 multi-million selling books, and her delight in William is clear to hear in the archive. Other contributors include her biographer, Mary Cadogan, and her niece, Richmal Ashbee. But it's the brilliance of Martin Jarvis's impersonations of William, Ging...
Dec 03, 2019•29 min•Transcript available on Metacast The author Chibundu Onuzo nominates the first elected female in Africa, Constance Agatha Cummings-John. Chibundu discovered the remarkable story of Constance while studying for her PhD. Born into the Sierra Leonean Krios elite in 1918, Constance was brought up in colonial Freetown, with a lifestyle which most resembled English gentility. But everything changed for her when she travelled to England and America as a teenager. She experienced racism and segregation for the first time, and returned ...
Oct 07, 2019•28 min•Transcript available on Metacast Comedian Sindhu Vee has loved Prince ever since she was a young girl in India - when her sister gave her illicit cassettes recorded from US radio. A pop polymath and global superstar, Prince was also a man of extreme contradictions and multiple personas. Hearing his music changed Sindhu's life forever, and seeing him perform influenced her career as a comedian. Sindhu is joined by BAFTA-winning investigative journalist Mobeen Azhar (who saw Prince live 54 times) and presenter Matthew Parris, to ...
Sep 17, 2019•29 min•Transcript available on Metacast Fiona Shaw - BAFTA award-winning star of BBC TV's Killing Eve - explores the life of one of history's most remarkable and forgotten actresses, Eleonora Duse. The 19th-century performer inspired Stanislavski's 'method', changed Chekhov's mind about acting, and took Chaplin's breath away, Kirsten Shepherd-Barr - professor of English and Theatre Studies at St Catherine's College, Oxford - helps Fiona and presenter Matthew Parris to uncover the drama of Duse's life, both on and off the stage. Produc...
Sep 12, 2019•28 min•Transcript available on Metacast Psychotherapist Philippa Perry nominates the Italian educator and doctor Maria Montessori, who revolutionised children's education. Montessori schools exist today in over 170 countries. They are defined by a child-centred approach to learning, nurturing independence and individuality in children as young as three years old. In Philippa Perry’s work as a psychotherapist, she finds deep connections with Montessori’s philosophy, which is about believing the person has the power to develop within th...
Sep 03, 2019•29 min•Transcript available on Metacast Ramsay MacDonald, Labour's first Prime Minister, is chosen by Shaun Ley. In 1931 Ramsay MacDonald went to see the king in order to resign. George V persuaded him to stay, and a story of party betrayal began. Broadcaster Shaun Ley and journalist Anne Perkins pick through events that have a contemporary ring as the political class of the thirties struggled to cope with fast moving events. MacDonald's own story and background is remarkable too - illegitimate son, born in Lossiemouth in Scotland, he...
Aug 27, 2019•24 min•Transcript available on Metacast From acting in TV's Men Behaving Badly and Jonathan Creek to restoring dozens of period properties and touring India for TV, Caroline Quentin loves variety. When she discovered the life of the playwright and architect Sir John Vanbrugh, she had found a kindred spirit. Caroline appeared in an RSC production of The Provoked Wife by Vanbrugh - who also designed Blenheim Palace and Castle Howard. Architectural critic and broadcaster, Jonathan Glancey, joins Caroline and presenter Matthew Parris, to ...
Aug 20, 2019•27 min•Transcript available on Metacast Laura Marling nominates the first female psychoanalyst, Lou Andreas-Salomé. Folk singer-songwriter, Laura has been unravelling the mysteries of Russian-born Lou Andreas-Salomé ever since she came across her name in the biography of the poet, Rainer Maria Rilke. She'd never heard of Salomé's name but discovered she was Rilke's literary mentor for years. As well as this, she was the only woman allowed in Sigmund Freud's Inner Psychoanalytic Circle, and was proposed to by Friedrich Nietzsche, who c...
Aug 13, 2019•28 min•Transcript available on Metacast Was Robinson Crusoe real? According to the book it was 'written by himself'. To establish the facts, Matthew Parris is joined by two notable desert island survivors to discuss Crusoe’s life and strange adventures, during 28 years on an uninhabited island near the mouth of the Great River of Oroonoque. Crusoe's nominator is Lucy Irvine, who spent a year on Tuin Island with a man called Gerald. Her exploits resulted in a book and a film called ‘Castaway’. The second guest is journalist Martin Popp...
Aug 13, 2019•25 min•Transcript available on Metacast Former Member of Parliament Ed Balls chooses the 20th-century English composer, organist and teacher, Herbert Howells. With the biographer of Herbert Howells, Paul Spicer. Presented by Matthew Parris Producer: Polly Weston First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in August 2019.
Aug 12, 2019•28 min•Transcript available on Metacast Kamila Shamsie champions the life of the Pakistani human rights lawyer Asma Jahangir. Author of award-winning novel 'Home Fire', Kamila says she was only ten years old, growing up in Karachi, when Asma became her hero even before she really knew her name. She remembers her mother and her aunts all talking about this amazing woman lawyer and social activist who was standing up against many of the laws that Pakistan's President General Zia ul Haq had introduced in the 1980s. Jahangir was always ma...
May 28, 2019•28 min•Transcript available on Metacast The prolific and most significant of American song-hunters - Alan Lomax - is the choice of English folk singer Shirley Collins. She's joined by singer-songwriter and activist Billy Bragg. Lomax did whatever was necessary to preserve traditional music and take it to a wider audience. He was the first to record towering figures like Lead Belly, Muddy Waters and Woody Guthrie. He was instrumental in the revival of U.S. and UK folk. Shirley Collins met Lomax in 1954, after he'd moved to England to a...
May 21, 2019•28 min•Transcript available on Metacast Turner Prize Winner Jeremy Deller believes the music entrepreneur and The Beatles' manager Brian Epstein, has never been properly credited for his role within popular culture. He's arguing that if Brian hadn't have lived, The Beatles might never have left Liverpool. Jeremy and presenter Matthew Parris are joined by The Beatles' historian Mark Lewisohn, author of 'Tune In’, to discuss the deeply turbulent - but highly successful life of Brian Epstein, who died aged just 32. Producer: Eliza Lomas ...
May 15, 2019•27 min•Transcript available on Metacast In 2013, Caroline Criado-Perez successfully campaigned for a woman to be featured on a banknote. The Bank of England chose Jane Austen. Caroline joins Matthew Parris and Dr Paula Byrne, author of three books about the novelist, to challenge some of the myths which surround the life of one of history's most famous writers. Matthew discovers how Jane Austen's teenage writings shocked and entertained her family and learns about her grit and determination to be published. He finds out whether there ...
May 07, 2019•28 min•Transcript available on Metacast Pianist Kirill Gerstein chooses the conductor and composer Ferruccio Busoni. Matthew Parris presents. When Busoni died in Berlin in 1924, his pupil Kurt Weill said, "We did not lose a human being but a value." Unravelling exactly what this means is the pianist Kirill Gerstein, a great admirer of Busoni and also a performer of his work. Busoni was a thinker as well as a composer. His book from 1907, Sketch of a New Esthetic of Music, has influenced generations of musicians. With contributions fro...
May 01, 2019•27 min•Transcript available on Metacast Matthew Parris meets the poet Ian McMillan to find out about the life of his literary hero Malcolm Lowry. Ian first discovered this 20th century writer's work as a young sixth former searching for literary inspiration. He stumbled by chance upon the writer's most famous novel, Under the Volcano, and Lowry's lyrical lines have remained with Ian ever since. Joining Matthew and Ian to discuss the life of this Merseyside writer is the artistic director of Liverpool's Bluecoat Theatre, Bryan Biggs. T...
Apr 23, 2019•28 min•Transcript available on Metacast Journalist Helen Lewis rehabilitates the reputation of the ‘Black Queen’ of France, Catherine de Medici. Helen and presenter Matthew Parris are joined by Dr Estelle Paranque, history lecturer at the New College of Humanities and author of a book on the relationship between Catherine and Elizabeth I. Catherine’s life is a remarkable story of female resilience in the face of adversity. Born and immediately orphaned in Florence, Catherine’s Medici name meant she was married off to the French King’s...
Apr 18, 2019•28 min•Transcript available on Metacast She's the most influential woman that English history forgot, says Tom Holland - Aethelflaed, Lady of the Mercians, daughter of Alfred the Great. Living and ruling at a time when the Anglo-Saxons were fighting back against the Vikings, Aethelflaed became a key figure in the construction of what we know today as England. But how much do we actually know? Joining Tom and Matthew Parris in the studio is Sarah Foot, the Regius Professor of Ecclesiastical history. Together they pick though the life o...
Apr 16, 2019•32 min•Transcript available on Metacast Comedian and author Shappi Khorsandi has been desperate to tell the story of Emma, Lady Hamilton as she’s quite simply one of her greatest fans. Everyone knows Emma Hamilton as simply the seducer of Admiral Horatio Nelson but according to Shappi she was more than that; history has simply palmed her off as a prostitute, a mistress, without looking at the deeper story of what she suffered and endured. In this programme Shappi, with help from Professor Kate Williams, author of ‘England’s Mistress’,...
Apr 02, 2019•28 min•Transcript available on Metacast Matt Lucas champions Freddie Mercury of the band, Queen. To what extent can a troubled childhood contribute to an adult's need to perform? Farrokh Bulsara was born in Zanzibar, sent to school in India, and fled revolution in Zanzibar to Feltham, Middlesex, aged 18. His family were Parsees and Freddie, as he became better known, was brought up as a Zoroastrian. He also became one of the greatest singer songwriters in British rock history. Matt Lucas - of Little Britain, Shooting Stars and Doctor ...
Jan 22, 2019•31 min•Transcript available on Metacast The arrival of Lotus shook up motor sport in 1960s and 70s. In Formula One, Colin Chapman made his cars lighter and quicker than anyone else, often challenging the rules. But not everything he designed was safe. On the roads, Lotus sports cars are an icon of the era. To discuss this colourful and controversial life, Matthew Parris is joined by the entrepreneur Rohan Silva and motor racing journalist, Maurice Hamilton. Producer: Chris Ledgard First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in January 2019....
Jan 15, 2019•27 min•Transcript available on Metacast Matthew Parris meets Suzanne O'Sullivan to discuss her medical and literary hero, Oliver Sacks. She first came across his work on a beach in Thailand, reading his famous collection of case studies, The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat. Joining the discussion is Sacks' partner, the writer and photographer Bill Hayes. Together they discuss the career of a gifted medic and writer who also loved motorbikes and wild swimming. Sacks wrote another extraordinary book, Awakenings, which was made into a...
Jan 08, 2019•28 min•Transcript available on Metacast Ghulam Mohammad, or the Great Gama Pehlwan as he was more commonly known, was a Muslim wrestler born into a Kashmir family in India in 1878. When writer Nikesh Shukla first came across him in a book at the airport, he thought he must be a fictional character- the stories seemed so far-fetched. Gama reportedly drank 10 litres of milk and ate six chickens every day. He also grappled with 40 wrestlers a day and did 5000 squats. Surely this was an action hero figure and not a real man? But Gama was ...
Jan 01, 2019•27 min•Transcript available on Metacast Author and Journalist Sathnam Sanghera nominates a Great Life; a man dismissed as a fantasist and a liar in his own lifetime. Alexander Gardner was a Scottish-American soldier, a traveller, an explorer and adventurer - a white man with a tartan turban, who ended up in India in a Maharaja's Sikh Army in the 19th Century, just before the British Raj took over. Possibly a plagiarist and touted as a scoundrel, yet Sathnam claims he's worthy of a bigger place in history. If just a tiny portion of wha...
Dec 28, 2018•28 min•Transcript available on Metacast 
