Great Lives

BBC Radio 4

4.2 (465)
DOCUMENTARY
UPDATED BIMONTHLY

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

6H AGO

Spitfire pilot Jeffrey Quill picked by astronaut Tim Peake

"It was brilliant to read some of the old techniques the Spitfire test pilots were using, and in some respects test pilot flying isn't that different today, but we don't have to do everything by notebook and pencil and stopwatch." Tim Peake Jeffrey Quill was born in 1913, and flew the Spitfire prototype in 1936. Tim Peake was born in 1972 and was launched into space exactly ten years ago, on December 15 2015. Joining him in studio is the aviation historian Dr Victoria Taylor. The story of Jeffrey Quill's inspiring life includes archive of Raymond Baxter and Quill himself. This is series 67 of Great Lives and future programmes focus on Joan Rivers, Marcus Agrippa, and Johnny Green, road manager with The Clash. Presented by Matthew Parris and produced in Bristol by Miles Warde

28 min
11/03/2025

Oliver Postgate

"Postgate's work is deep inside me and I think that's true for so many of my generation...His work represents nothing less than a touchstone for our national imagination and in that sense it's profoundly important" Andrew Davenport, writer, composer, and creator of Teletubbies and In the Night Garden, nominates Oliver Postgate, who, along with his Smallfilms business partner, the artist Peter Firmin, invented the children's television shows Ivor the Engine, The Clangers and, perhaps most loved of all, Bagpuss. Postgate was a late bloomer. Following Dartington school (which he hated) a stint in jail and working the land, several odd jobs and even odder inventions, he eventually discovered a love of stop-motion animation and created some of the most enduring worlds and best-loved characters in television, all from a cowshed in Kent. Including clips of his programmes, contributions from singer and musician Sandra Kerr. and archive from Postgate's 2007 Desert Island Discs interview. With cultural historian Matthew Sweet. Produced by Ellie Richold. Presented by Matthew Parris.

28 min
10/27/2025

Sylvia Plath

Lucy Jones, author of Matrescence, chooses the writer Sylvia Plath. Sylvia Plath was a precocious, prize-winning child,. Her mother had high expectations for her. Her father had died when she was 8 (but could have been saved if only he'd gone to see a doctor). When she was well, Plath was energetic, fun, bright, attractive, funny and incredibly smart. Her first depressive episode at the age of 20, was 'treated' with botched electric shock therapy. She was awake throughout the ordeal, which left her terrified and traumatised. Lucy Jones believes that Plath has an unfair reputation as a depressing writer, because of the shadow that her suicide casts backwards over her life. But Jones finds Plath's poetry incredibly alive, brave, comforting and inspiring. "I don't think I would have been able to write Matrescence without Plath's work" Both Lucy Jones and Plath's biographer, Heather Clark, believe that at the end of her life, recently separated and struggling through a particularly bad winter with two very small children, she may have been suffering from post-natal depression. With archive recordings of Sylvia Plath reading her poems Daddy and Mushrooms, as well as being interviewed with Ted Hughes. Produced in Bristol by Ellie Richold and presented by Matthew Parris

27 min
10/20/2025

Elizabeth Day on Hatshepsut

"One of the things that she claimed was that her mother had been impregnated by the sun god Amon-Ra." Elizabeth Day's interest in the female pharaoh Hatshepsut was sparked by a trip to Egypt less than a year ago. What intrigued her was how this woman survived and thrived as ruler in a traditionally male role. Joining her in discussion is Professor Joyce Tyldesley, recent winner of archaeologist of the year. She says that Hatshepsut changed her life when she wrote her biography. Matthew Parris presents. Elizabeth Day is the author of six novels and host of How to Fail. The producer for BBC Studios in Bristol is Miles Warde

28 min
10/13/2025

Comedian Stewart Lee on Derek Bailey

"The area I mostly work in is generally known as free - the free music area. And free is one of those four letter words, like rock or jazz or punk maybe. It started out meaning something." Derek Bailey Born in 1930 in Sheffield, Bailey worked as a session musician in dance bands and orchestras before turning his back on that world. Free improvisation was where he made his name, and he took inspiration from whatever he heard. Stewart Lee first heard him in the 1990s and spoke at his funeral in 2005. "Are there any parallels between his approach and yours?" "There probably are ... in that I've copied him." Also contains the voices of Ian Greaves and Tim Fletcher, a brief clip of Mastermind, and a recording of Derek Bailey's collaborator in the Joseph Holbrooke Trio, Gavin Bryars. Stewart Lee is a comedian and writer, the presenter is Matthew Parris and the producer for BBC Studios is Miles Warde. We regret that this description barely scrapes the surface of the wonder of this episode - the ideas, the music, the archive, the brief row.

31 min
10/06/2025

Jock Stein, first British football manager to win the European Cup

Jock Stein, first British football manager to win the European Cup, picked by composer Sir James MacMillan and aided by Jock Stein’s biographer, Archie MacPherson. Jock Stein was manager of Celtic FC when they won the European Cup in Lisbon in 1967. He later died while managing Scotland in a world cup qualifier against Wales – the date, September 1985, exactly forty years ago. "I saw in my grandfather and my father certain characteristics that I saw in Jock Stein." Sir James MacMillan Includes archive of Jock Stein, Gordon Strachan and Billy Connolly, a big fan of the European Cup winning Celtic team. Archie MacPherson is the author of Jock Stein: The Definitive Autobiography, and a familiar face to viewers of Scottish football in the eighties and nineties and beyond. The presenter is Matthew Parris and the producer for BBC Studios is Miles Warde

28 min
09/29/2025

Benjamin Franklin

Matthew Parris heads to the house where Benjamin Franklin lived for almost 17 years to meet banker and philanthropist John Studzinski. Franklin was born in Boston when it was still a part of the British empire, ran away to Philadelphia and lodged near Charing Cross at 36 Craven Street in London for over a decade. He was an agent for the Pennsylvania assembly, and also an ambassador to Paris where he helped persuade the French to join the breakaway American states in their war against the British. His nominator John Studzinski is chair of the board that runs the Benjamin Franklin House in London and says that he would have loved to have been the great man's apprentice. Joining the conversation is Professor Kathleen Burk who admires Franklin the enlightened writer but is less sure about his treatment of his wife. Kathleen Burk is author of Old World, New World: Great Britain and America from the Beginning. The producer for BBC Studios Audio in Bristol is Miles Warde

27 min
09/22/2025

Miles Jupp on JL Carr, author of A Month in the Country

"I find his novels extraordinarily beautiful .. and they're an excellent length." Miles Jupp picks an author he loves, but knows little about. JL Carr was born in Yorkshire and was a teacher, mapmaker, and an eccentric. Joining the comedian in studio to discuss Carr is a man who knew him well - DJ Taylor - who paints a picture of a man who hated London literary parties and knew how to have fun with anyone sent to interview him. A delightful episode that includes archive of Carr himself, plus Kenneth Branagh reading from his biography, God's Englishman by Byron Rogers. Carr's novel - A Month in the Country - was shortlisted for the Booker and turned into a film starring Kenneth Branagh, Colin Firth and Natasha Richardson in 1987. The producer for BBC Studios in Bristol is Miles Warde

27 min

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4.2

out of 5

465 Ratings

Biographical malpractice by Suzy Klein

01/19/2022

Geoplanter

I listened to the biography of the late, great Austrian actress, Hedy Lamarr, as told by Suzy Klein. I consider it biographical malpractice that she left out the very significant fact that Hedy was born Hedwig Kiesler, to a Jewish family! Her first husband was an arms merchant, Friedrich Mandl. He was half-Jewish through his father. In addition, Mandl actually did some arms business with Mussolini and Hitler! The reason these ethnic facts are so significant is because when she came into her own an as actress, the pre-war Nazi period was her milieu. Anyway, that was quite an omission.
Appaling Episode on Nero

08/26/2024

saperlo

The Great Life episode on Nero is one of the worst rewrites of history I’ve ever heard and is almost a parody of the BBC and its agenda-led output. Apparently his was a “great life” because he was an leading thespian and was bisexual. These are things the BBC love. But his sordid, mass execution of Christians (people the BBC hate) is quickly glossed over and even thrown into doubt. When Hermann Goering was caught fleeing Nazi Germany in 1945 it was noted that his nails were coated in red varnish. He was also a particular lover of the arts. So perhaps we’ll soon have another episode on the greatly misunderstood and demonised head of the Luftwaffe. This series needs a new production team and a new presenter without an agenda.
We thought they were great lives

08/25/2023

Joey 5cents

Mixed feelings about this podcast. I appreciate the breadth of subjects and the breezy tone of the show. But it seems the goal of each episode is to lessen our appreciation & respect for the subject as they are made 'more human' and seemingly more 'relatable'. Of course these historical figures were far from perfect; I just find it irritating that we end up hearing a conversation that deconstructs their 'greatness' in a very postmodern, self-congratulatory way. I find myself thinking "well I guess 'so & so' wasn't that great after all." :(
Catherine de Medici

07/24/2023

nucuplmnjuyh

Learn how to pronounce her last name: it’s Médici, not Medìci. It’s not a matter of interpretation! One of your guests knows it and the other doesn’t.