Great Lives

BBC Radio 4
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Great Lives

Biographical series in which guests choose someone who has inspired their lives.

  1. 1 DAY AGO

    Dr Hannah Critchlow picks Professor Colin Blakemore

    Professor Colin Blakemore was a famous communicator of science, the youngest ever Reith lecturer on the BBC. He was also targeted by members of the animal rights movement, which sent bombs and letters lined with razor blades to his home address. Born in 1944 and brought up in Coventry, Colin Blakemore was committed to brain research and the connection between vision and early development of the brain. Nominating him is the author and neuroscientist Dr Hannah Critchlow, who knew him before he died in 2022. The programme includes contributions from his friends and colleagues, including Professor Barbara Sahakian and David Nutt; plus moving archive of his daughter, Professor Sarah-Jayne Blakemore and reports from the animal rights campaigners who protested outside his Oxford house. Dr Hannah Critchlow is the author of Joined Up Thinking and The Science of Fate. She's based at Cambridge University. Presented by Matthew Parris and produced for BBC Studios Audio by Miles Warde

    28 min

  2. 6 JAN

    Doug Allan on Captain Jacques Cousteau

    Captain Jacques-Yves Cousteau was an oceanographer, filmmaker and explorer who made the seas a subject of fascination for millions. During his time in the French Navy, Cousteau co-invented the Aqua-Lung: the first self-contained kit that allowed a diver to breathe underwater. This and his fascination with capturing images of the subaquatic world paved the way for a career filming the first underwater documentaries. Travelling the seas with his trusty crew on their boat, the Calypso, Captain Cousteau in his trademark knitted red cap became a household name; thanks to shows including his TV series ‘The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau’. He came across as a charming and eloquent showman - but his life wasn't without its tragedies and controversies... Nominating Cousteau is wildlife cameraman and and trained biologist Doug Allan, whose career filming animals, primarily in polar regions and underwater, was hugely inspired by the Frenchman. Doug says: "There's a mischievousness about him that he carried thorugh his whole life... I think he was just a really powerful, charismatic character." The presenter is Matthew Parris and the producer for BBC Studios Audio is Lucy Taylor.

    28 min

  3. 23/09/2024

    Ekow Eshun on the first openly gay footballer, Justin Fashanu

    In 1981 Brian Clough paid £1 million pounds to bring Justin Fashanu to Nottingham Forest. It was the climax of a meteoric career, but within months the goals had dried up, he'd been going to gay nightclubs, and Fashanu had also become become a born again Christian. Four decades later Justin Fashanu remains top flight English football's only openly gay player. From his beginnings in care with brother John as Barnardo's boys, via adoption, boxing, football and failed pop star, this is an extraordinary life, beautifully highlighted by his nominator, Ekow Eshun. "He was a pioneer - he broke ground. He was a prominent black footballer at a time when to be black and a footballer was fraught territory, when players were barracked from the terraces for no other reason than the colour of their skin." Ekow Eshun Also in studio is Richard Williams of the Guardian, who saw Fashanu play on the way and on the way down. Plus there is moving archive of Fashanu himself, and also from his niece, Amal Fashanu, talking at the time of the release of her documentary, Britain's Gay Footballers. The producer for BBC Studios Audio is Miles Warde

    28 min

  4. 16/09/2024

    Anneka Rice picks the largely forgotten Jane Morris, muse to Rossetti and wife of William Morris

    The biography show where famous guests picks someone they admire or love. Jane Morris was the wife of William Morris and muse of Gabriel Dante Rossetti. Anneka Rice believes her contribution to 19th-Century art and culture has been largely overlooked. "I'm not a big fan of needle point," she says, "but we cannot ignore what she brings to art history". Plus she comes from absolutely NOWHERE to marry Morris and have an affair with Rossetti. Joining Anneka in the discussion is Suzanne Fagence Cooper, the author of How We Might Live: At Home with Jane and William Morris. The presenter is Matthew Parris.

    28 min

  5. 02/09/2024

    The surgeon Henry Marsh picks 'the saviour of mothers' Dr Semmelweis

    The biography show where famous guests pick someone from history they admire or they love. Our only rule is they must be dead. Today neurosurgeon Dr Henry Marsh chooses “the saviour of mothers” Dr Ignaz Semmelweis The Hungarian doctor discovered the link between childbirth and puerperal fever in 19th century Vienna but he was ridiculed, ignored and demoted as his discovery challenged the medical orthodoxy. Post-mortems at the time were carried out by doctors before they practised on wards, with no hygiene step between the two. Semmelweis recommended handwashing for doctors, and gathered statistics to prove his theory. Despite the evidence, the medical establishment was resistant to change and Semmelweis became increasingly traumatised, frustrated and angry. In his final months, he seems to have also developed an organic brain disorder which led to his friends and wife having him restrained and sectioned in a mental asylum where he subsequently died from injuries. Nominator Dr Henry Marsh is the author of Do No Harm: Stories of Life, Death and Brain Surgery. With the playwright Stephen Brown who cowrote Dr Semmelweis with Sir Mark Rylance. Presented by Matthew Parris and produced for BBC Studios Audio by Ellie Richold

    28 min

  6. 26/08/2024

    The Roman Emperor Nero

    An unexpected choice for Great Lives, the Roman Emperor Nero has a reputation for debauchery and murder. He was also surprisingly popular, at least during the early years of his reign, and the writer Conn Iggulden argues he may be a victim of bad press. The Christians decided he was the anti-christ some three centuries after he died, and the three main sources are no more positive about his achievements and life. But a recent exhibition at the British Museum - entitled the man behind the myth - worked hard to soften Nero's terrible reputation. So is there more to Nero than we think? Joining Conn Iggulden in studio is Dr Shushma Malik of Cambridge University. Matthew Parris presents. Conn Iggulden is co-author of The Dangerous Book for Boys and the best-selling historical fiction about Nero with the strapline, "Rome wasn't burned in a day." The producer in Bristol is Miles Warde

    28 min

  7. 19/08/2024

    Film director Julien Temple on Elizabethan bad boy Christopher Marlowe

    Julien Temple, director of The Great Rock n Roll Swindle, Glastonbury and Absolute Beginners, chooses Christopher Marlowe, writer of brilliant plays including Doctor Faustus and Tamburlaine the Great. "I'm excited to talk about him," he says, "because I've known him for more than 50 years." The link? An attempt as a student to summon up Marlowe in his old college cellar room. Christopher Marlowe was born in 1564 - the same year as Shakespeare. He was a spy, a writer, a counterfeiter .. and he famously died in a bar room brawl in Deptford in 1593. Was it an accident, or was he killed deliberately? Helping us negotiate the mythic moments of Marlowe's life is Professor of Shakespeare studies Emma Smith. Julien Temple's film credits include The Filth and the Fury, Pandaemonium, Earth Girls are Easy and Joe Strummer: The Futureis Unwritten The presenter is Matthew Parris, the producer in Bristol for BBC Studios is Miles Warde

    28 min

  8. 13/08/2024

    Zing Tsjeng on Swedish painter Hilma af Klint

    Hilma af Klint (1862-1944) was barely known during her lifetime but an exhibition of her work at the Guggenheim Museum in 2018 shattered attendance records. it was called Paintings for the Future, and the giant abstract work astounded visitors who had not heard of her before. Joining journalist Zing Tsjeng in the studio to discuss her life is Jennifer Higgie, who wrote in her book, The Other Side: A Journey into Women, Art and The Spirit World, "For Hilma af Klint, the very air throbbed with unseen energies. The question was - how to interpret them? How to give them shape?" The artist often used seances for inspiration. If curious about where creativity begins, this is a story you may want to hear. Zing Tsjeng is a former editor-in-chief of Vice UK and presenter of Good Bad Billionaire. She is author of the Forgotten Women series of books. The producer for BBC Studios Audio in Bristol is Miles Warde Future programmes include Anneka Rice on Jane Morris, wife of William Morris; Jo Brand on blues singer, Bessie Smith; and Conn Iggulden on the emperor Nero.

    28 min
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About

Biographical series in which guests choose someone who has inspired their lives.

Information

  • Creator
    BBC Radio 4
  • Years Active
    2007 - 2025
  • Episodes
    363
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © (C) BBC 2025
  • Show Website
    Great Lives

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