Last Word BBC Radio 4

Matthew Bannister on Anne Dagg, the Canadian biologist known as The Woman Who Loves Giraffes for her lifelong study of the animals.
Professor Ross Anderson, the computer scientist who was a leading expert on data protection and online security.
Reverend Cecil Murray, the pastor of the First African Methodist Episcopal Church in Los Angeles who played a pivotal role during the riots of 1992.
Kris Hellenga, who was diagnosed with breast cancer aged 23 and set up the charity Coppafeel to encourage other young women to check their breasts.
Producer: Ed Prendeville
Archive used:
Archive of Anne Dagg, The Woman who loves Giraffes, Pursuing Giraffe Adventures Inc, 2018; Newsnight, BBC Two, 01/07/1992; Newsnight, BBC Two, 11/02/2010; Ross Anderson Interviewed by Elisabetta Mori, Archives of IT, YouTube Upload, 20/03/2024; Digitalize in Stockholm ’22, DigitalFuturesHub, YouTube Upload, 28/10/22; USC Center for Religion and Civic Culture, YouTube Upload 22/02/2021; BBC Radio Cornwall, 12/10/2021;

Matthew Bannister on an author, a campaigner, an Olympic medallist, a conductor

Matthew Bannister on
The American journalist Terry Anderson who was held captive in Lebanon for almost seven years. In an emotional interview, his daughter Sulome tells us how she followed in his footsteps as she tried to connect with a father she met for the first time when she was seven years old.
Lord Field who, the Labour MP Frank Field who campaigned tirelessly for welfare reform.
Trina Robbins the feminist cartoonist and writer who was the first woman to illustrate the Wonder Woman comics.
Ann Trevenen Jenkin the first woman Grand Bard of Cornwall and a founding member of the Cornish nationalist party Mebyon Kernow.
Interviewee: Sulome Anderson
Interviewee: Ellin Stein
Interviewee: Liam Halligan
Interviewee: Loveday Jenkin
Producer: Gareth Nelson-Davies
Archive Used:
Sulome Anderson writes a letter to her father on his birthday, BBC News, 07/10/1991; Terry Anderson release, Live press conference, BBC News, 04/12/1991; Terry Anderson interview, BBC Radio 1, 01/01/2000; Terry Anderson on What It’s Like to Live as a Hezbollah Hostage, Slate. YouTube Channel uploaded, 17/11/2014; Trina Robbins, Meet Trina Robbins, the first woman to draw Wonder Woman for D.C. Comics, KTVU FOX 2 San Francisco, YouTube uploaded 30/03/2023; Frank Field MP interview, Straight Talk, BBC News, 19/06/2010; Frank Field, Profile, BBC Radio 4, 13/12/2014; Frank Field, Lent Talks, BBC Radio 4, 01/04/2009; Ann Trevenen Jenkin interviewed by Carmen Talbot for Dreadnought South West’s Rebellious Sounds Archive, 2019; Ann Trevenen Jenkin interview, Cornish March, BBC News, 21/06/1997;

Sulome Anderson first met her father – journalist Terry Anderson – at the American Embassy in Damascus. She was seven years old and he had just been released from nearly seven years as a hostage in Lebanon. She desperately wanted to build a relationship with him, even going so far as to become a war correspondent herself and tracking down and meeting one of his captors. But Terry’s traumatic experiences made the task very challenging. When she was nearly kidnapped in the Middle East herself, she became determined to break out of the “cycle of fascination with war” that had bedevilled the family. In this moving interview recorded shortly after Terry’s death she speaks candidly about the pressures they faced.

Presented by Matthew Banister
Produced by Gareth Nelson-Davies and Eirian Jones

Matthew Bannister on:
Sir Paul Fox, the respected TV executive who commissioned some of the best loved programmes of the 1960s and 70s. We have a tribute from his former colleague Sir David Attenborough.
Lynne Reid Banks, the author best known for her novel “The L Shaped Room.”
Joan Hills, the artist who played a key role in the art world of the 1960s and, with her husband and two children, was part of the Boyle Family quartet.
Amnon Weinstein, the luthier who collected and restored violins which had been played in concentration camps during the Second World War.
Interviewee: Sir David Attenborough
Interviewee: Gillon Stephenson
Interviewee: Georgia Boyle
Interviewee: Avshalom Weinstein
Interviewee: Jaap Hamburger
Producer: Gareth Nelson-Davies
Archive Used:
Sportsview, BBC Television, 27/01/1955; Roger Bannister 4 minute mile news report, BBC Archive Newsreel, 07/05/1954; Interview with Paul Fox, The Oral History of the BBC, connectedhistoriesofthebbc.org, 30/11/1984; Lynne Reid Banks interview with Rita Hayworth1956, On This Day, ITN Archive Facebook channel, uploaded 13/07/2022; L-Shaped Room, Official Trailer, 20th Century Fox, 1962, Dir: Bryan Forbes; Lynne Reid Banks interview, With Great Pleasure, BBC Radio 4, 24/09/1999; Reading extract, The Indian in the Cupboard, Episode 1, BBC Radio 4, 02/10/1986; Official Film Promo, Paramount Pictures, Dir: Frank Oz, 1995; Lynne Reid Banks talks about how her life would be different if she couldn't write, gconversations YouTube Channel, uploaded 25/10/2012; Joan Hills interview, The Boyle Family, BBC Four, 27/08/2003; Amnon Weinstein 2018, Alabama Holocaust Education Center, YouTube uploaded 02/06/2022; Violins of Hope, CBS Sunday Morning, YouTube uploaded 22/03/2024;

Matthew Bannister on

Professor Peter Higgs, the physicist who won the Nobel prize for explaining why the building blocks of the universe have mass.

Trevor Griffiths, the playwright whose stage and TV dramas focused on left wing politics and social issues. We have a tribute from the actor Jack Shepherd.

Hella Pick, the long serving Guardian foreign correspondent who enjoyed the company of many world leaders.

Margaret Tynes, the African-American soprano who sang leading operatic roles and worked with Duke Ellington.
Interviewee: Roland Pease
Interviewee: Dr Alan Walker
Interviewee: Jack Shepherd
Interviewee: Paul Allen
Interviewee: Linda Christmas
Interviewee: Michael Harper
Producer: Catherine Powell
Archive used:
BBC News at Six : 04/07/2012; BBC The Life Scientific 18/02/2014; Nobel Prize Announcement in Physics 2013, Youtube, 08/10/2013; All Good Men, Play for Today, BBC 1, 31/01/1974; Trevor Griffiths, BFI, YouTube Upload, 02/06/2017; Through the Night, Play for Today, BBC 1, 04/08/1977; Trevor Griffiths interviewed by Sir Tony Robinson, Showreel 88, BBC2, 26/12/1988; Hardtalk, BBC, 1997; Desert Island Discs, BBC Radio 4, 16/11/2018; Aida - 'Ritorna vincitor' az I. felvonásból, 08/09/1962; Macbeth - 'Una macchia e qui tuttora' a IV. felvonásból (Gran Scena del Sonnambulismo / Alvajáró jelenet) 08/09/1962; A Drum Is a Woman, Pt. 1 by Duke Ellington, Margaret Tynes, Duke Ellington & His Orchestra; "Salome" excerpt, Spoleto, 1961