Great Lives is a BBC Radio 4 biography series, produced in Bristol . It has been presented by Joan Bakewell , Humphrey Carpenter , Francine Stock and currently (since April 2006) Matthew Parris . A distinguished guest is asked to nominate the person they feel is truly deserving of the title "Great Life". The presenter and a recognised expert (a biographer, family member or fellow practitioner) are on hand to discuss the life. The programmes are 28 minutes long, originally broadcast on Fridays at 23:00, more recently at 16:30 on Tuesday with a repeat at 23:00 on Friday.
Contents
1 Table of nominators and subjects
1.1 Series 0, August – November 2001
1.2 Series 1, May – August 2002
1.3 Series 2, October – December 2002
1.4 Series 3, April – June 2003
1.5 Series 4, October – December 2003
1.6 Series 5, April – June 2004
1.7 Series 6, October – December 2004
1.8 Hogmanay Special, 31 December 2004
1.9 Series 7, April – June 2005
1.10 Series 8, October 2005 – February 2006
1.11 Series 9, April – June 2006
1.12 Series 10, August – September 2006
1.13 Series 11, December 2006 – January 2007
1.14 Series 12, April – May 2007
1.15 Series 13, August – October 2007
1.16 Series 14, December 2007 – January 2008
1.17 Series 15, April – May 2008
1.18 Series 16, August – September 2008
1.19 Series 17, December 2008 – February 2009
1.20 Series 18, April – May 2009
1.21 Series 19, August – September 2009
1.22 Series 20, December 2009 – February 2010
1.23 Series 21, April – May 2010
1.24 Series 22, August – September 2010
1.25 Series 23, November 2010 – January 2011
1.26 Series 24, April – May 2011
1.27 Series 25, August – September 2011
1.28 Series 26, December 2011 – January 2012
1.29 Series 27, April – May 2012
1.30 Series 28, July – September 2012
1.31 Series 29, December 2012 – January 2013
1.32 Series 30, April – May 2013
1.33 Series 31, August - October 2013
1.34 Series 32, December 2013 - January 2014
1.35 Series 33, April - May 2014
1.36 Series 34, August - October 2014
1.37 Series 35, December 2014 - January 2015
1.38 Series 36, April - June 2015
1.39 Series 37, April - June 2015
1.40 Series 38, August 2015 - January 2016
1.41 Series 39, April 2016 - present
1.42 Series 40, August 2016 - present
2 References
3 External links
Table of nominators and subjects [ edit ]
Series 0, August – November 2001 [ edit ]
Guest
Nominee
Presenter
Tim Waterstone , bookshop owner
Clement Attlee former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
Joan Bakewell
Rosie Boycott , journalist
Sir Ernest Shackleton , polar explorer
Terence Conran , food and design entrepreneur
André and Édouard Michelin , inventors of the detachable pneumatic tyre and the travel guide
Ralph Steadman , cartoonist and caricaturist
Friedrich Nietzsche , philosopher
Barbara Castle , Labour politician
Sylvia Pankhurst , suffragette
Frank Delaney , writer and broadcaster
Henri Matisse , artist
Jonathan Miller , theatre and opera director
Marshall McLuhan , communication theorist and philosopher
Fay Weldon , writer
H. G. Wells , visionary author
Rabbi Lionel Blue , journalist and broadcaster
Swami Vivekananda , 19th-century Hindu missionary
Jackie Stewart , racing driver
King Hussein of Jordan
Joan Littlewood , theatre director
Brendan Behan , Irish writer
Lord Tebbit , Conservative politician
King Alfred the Great , 9th-century King of Wessex
Series 1, May – August 2002 [ edit ]
Guest
Nominee
Presenter
Ned Sherrin , broadcaster, author and stage director
Sir Donald Wolfit , actor-manager
Humphrey Carpenter
Elizabeth Filkin , former Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards
George Eliot , novelist
Steven Isserlis , cellist
Franz Schubert , composer
Lord Carrington , conservative politician
Field Marshal Viscount Slim , military leader
Frederic Raphael , author and screenwriter
Alexander the Great
Janet Street-Porter , journalist and media executive
Marquis de Sade , philosopher, revolutionary politician and libertine
Chris Barber , jazz trombonist and bandleader
Louis Armstrong , jazz trumpeter and singer
Sue Limb , writer and broadcaster
Lord Byron , poet
Frank Keating , sports writer
Tom Spring , 19th-century bare-knuckle boxer
Kirsty Young , broadcaster
Katharine Graham , newspaper publisher
Series 2, October – December 2002 [ edit ]
Guest
Nominee
Presenter
Bernard Manning , comedian,
Mother Teresa of Calcutta , Roman Catholic nun
Humphrey Carpenter
Sir Paul Nurse , geneticist and cell biologist,
Erasmus Darwin , 18th century physician
Darcus Howe , writer and broadcaster,
C. L. R. James , sportsman and revolutionary
Bea Campbell , journalist and author,
Rachel Carson , marine biologist and conservationist
Muriel Gray , journalist and broadcaster,
M. R. James , writer of ghost stories
Ahdaf Soueif , novelist and cultural commentator,
Umm Kulthum , Egyptian singer, songwriter and actress
Professor Sir Harry Kroto , chemist,
Spinoza , philosopher
Steve Bell , political cartoonist,
James Gillray , 18th-century caricaturist
Tam Dalyell , Labour politician,
Richard Crossman , Labour politician
Greg Dyke , media executive,
Captain James Cook , explorer
Series 3, April – June 2003 [ edit ]
Guest
Nominee
Presenter
Beryl Bainbridge , novelist
Robert Falcon Scott , polar explorer
Humphrey Carpenter
Leonard Slatkin , conductor and composer
Sergei Rachmaninoff , composer
John Sergeant , journalist and broadcaster
Arthur Ransome , author and journalist
Benjamin Zephaniah , writer and poet
Bob Marley , reggae musician
Steve Jones , geneticist
James Hogg , poet and novelist
Richard Ingrams , journalist and satirist
G. K. Chesterton , writer
Stacey Kent , jazz singer,
Powell and Pressburger , film-makers
Richard Holmes , military historian
the Man in the Iron Mask , mysterious prisoner in the Bastille
Tanni Grey-Thompson , Welsh athlete and broadcaster,
David Lloyd George , Welsh politician
Esther Rantzen , journalist and broadcaster,
Queen Elizabeth I , Queen of England and Ireland
Series 4, October – December 2003 [ edit ]
Guest
Nominee
Presenter
Peter Bazalgette , television executive
Noël Coward , playwright, composer, director, actor and singer
Humphrey Carpenter
Kit Wright , writer
Samuel Johnson , author and lexicographer
Kate Adie , war reporter
Flora Sandes , pioneer female soldier
Jenny Eclair , comedian
Sarah Bernhardt , actress
Brian Keenan , writer
Bernardo O'Higgins , Chilean independence leader
Brenda Dean , trade unionist and politician
Octavia Hill , co-founder of the National Trust
Clement Freud , broadcaster, writer, politician and chef
Tommy Cooper , comedian and magician
Armando Iannucci , comedian and writer
Charles Dickens , novelist
Linda Smith , comedian
Ian Dury , singer
Ann Leslie , journalist
Mary Kingsley , writer and explorer
Series 5, April – June 2004 [ edit ]
Humphrey Carpenter)
Guest
Nominee
Presenter
Lord Alistair McAlpine , Conservative politician
Machiavelli
Humphrey Carpenter
Denis Healey , Labour politician
Ernest Bevin , Labour politician
Ruth Lea , economist
Pyotr Tchaikovsky , composer
George Monbiot , environmental activist and writer
Tom Paine , author and revolutionary
Benedict Allen , explorer
Horatio Nelson , naval hero
Charles Wheeler , journalist and broadcaster
Lyndon B. Johnson , 36th President of the United States
Kimberley Fortier
Edith Wharton , writer
Richard Eyre , theatre director
Anton Chekhov , dramatist
Kenneth Clarke , Conservative politician
Benjamin Disraeli , 19th century Conservative Prime Minister
Lord May , scientist
Joseph Banks , naturalist and botanist
Series 6, October – December 2004 [ edit ]
Guest
Nominee
Presenter
Dillie Keane , actress, singer and comedian
Gilbert and Sullivan , librettist and composer of comic operettas 1
Humphrey Carpenter
Baroness Jay , former Leader of the House of Lords
Vice-Admiral Robert FitzRoy RN , captain of HMS Beagle
Christina Gorna, barrister
Vivien Leigh , actress
Jilly Goolden , wine expert
Leonard Woolf , writer and political thinker
Gerry Anderson , broadcaster
Burt Lancaster , actor
Tim Marlow , art historian and broadcaster
Marvin Gaye , soul singer
Shami Chakrabarti , civil-rights campaigner
George Orwell , author and journalist
Marjorie Wallace , writer and charity worker
Sir Edward Elgar , composer
David Puttnam , film-maker
Michael Collins , Irish nationalist leader (repeat of Programme 1?)
Lucinda Lambton , writer and broadcaster
Captain Henry Morgan , privateer
1 The programme originally scheduled by wtih the guest film-maker David Puttnam who nominated the Michael Collins , Irish nationalist leader) was withdrawn due to "production quality".[1]
Hogmanay Special, 31 December 2004 [ edit ]
Carpenter died on 4 January 2005, this was he's last Great Lives programme 1
Series 7, April – June 2005 [ edit ]
Guest
Nominee
Presenter
Joe Queenan , humorist, critic and author
Genghis Khan , founder of the Mongol Empire
Francine Stock
Mary Kenny , author
George Sand , writer
Valerie Grove , journalist
Charles M. Schulz , the Peanuts cartoonist
Douglas Dunn , poet
Robert Louis Stevenson , writer
Michael Morpurgo , Children's Laureate
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , composer
Martin Smith, Chairman of English National Opera
John D. Rockefeller , industrialist, investor and philanthropist
Yvonne Brown , lawyer
Marcus Garvey , Pan-Africanist leader
Amanda Vickery , historian
Elizabeth Gaskell , novelist
Lord Powell
Ronald Reagan , 40th President of the United States
Frederick Forsyth , novelist
the 1st Duke of Wellington , soldier and statesman
Series 8, October 2005 – February 2006 [ edit ]
Guest
Nominee
Presenter
Kathy Lette , writer
Mae West , Hollywood actress
Francine Stock
Carole Stone , author and broadcaster
R. D. Laing , psychiatrist
Howard Goodall , composer
Samuel Coleridge-Taylor , composer
Antony Beevor , historian, and Gillian Slovo , novelist
Vasily Grossman , Soviet writer
Robert Thomson , journalist
Zhao Ziyang , Chinese premier
Derek Wilson, historian and author
Thomas Cromwell , 16th century politician
Fiona Reynolds , Director-General of the National Trust
Beatrix Potter , writer
Annie Nightingale , radio broadcaster
Marty Feldman , comedian and actor
Adam Hart-Davis , historian and broadcaster
Nevil Shute , novelist and aeronautical engineer
Helen Lederer , writer and actress
Dorothy Parker , writer and poet
Series 9, April – June 2006 [ edit ]
Guest
Nominee
Presenter
Penelope Keith , actress
Morecambe and Wise , comedy double act
Matthew Parris
Jeff Randall , journalist
Andrew Carnegie , industrialist and philanthropist
Julian Clary , comedian
Noël Coward , playwright, composer, director, actor and singer; Coward was previously nominated by Peter Bazalgette in Series 4 Progamme 1
Craig Brown , critic and satirist
Sigmund Freud , neurologist and psychotherapist
Ivan Massow , entrepreneur
Ella Fitzgerald , jazz singer
Duncan Goodhew , athlete
Johnny Weissmuller , athlete-turned Tarzan actor
Frances Cairncross , economist, journalist and academic
Ignaz Semmelweis , physician and pioneer of antiseptic procedures
Anna Raeburn , broadcaster and agony aunt
Tamara Karsavina , ballerina
Piers Morgan , journallist and broadcaster
W. G. Grace , English cricketer
Krishnan Guru-Murthy , journalist and broadcaster
Robin Day , broadcaster and political interviewer
Series 10, August – September 2006 [ edit ]
Guest
Nominee
Presenter
Christopher Hitchens , author and journalist
Leon Trotsky , Marxist revolutionary
Matthew Parris
Garry Bushell , newspaper columnist
Max Miller , comedian
Helena Kennedy , civil liberties lawyer
Eleanor Roosevelt , First Lady of the United States
Jeremy Vine , journalist and broadcaster
W. H. Auden , poet
Elaine Showalter , feminist literary critic
Julia Ward Howe , 19th-century American abolitionist, social activist and poet
Lord John Biffen , Conservative politician
Stanley Baldwin , Conservative Prime Minister
Joanna MacGregor , pianist
Nina Simone , singer and civil rights activist
Adair Turner , businessman and academic
Charles Darwin , naturallist
Series 11, December 2006 – January 2007 [ edit ]
Guest
Nominee
Presenter
Joe Boyd , record producer
John H. Hammond , record producer
Matthew Parris
Lesley Abdela , feminist campaigner
Millicent Garrett Fawcett , suffragette
Kathy Sykes , scientist and broadcaster
Albert Einstein , physicist
Victor Spinetti , actor
Joan Littlewood , theatre director
Alan Davies , actor and comedian
Richard Beckinsale , actor
Camilla Wright , journalist
Martha Gellhorn , war reporter
Anne Fine , author
William Beveridge , economist and social reformer
Ann Widdecombe , former Conservative MP
Pope John Paul II
Series 12, April – May 2007 [ edit ]
Guest
Nominee
Presenter
Phill Jupitus , comedian
Joe Strummer , frontman of The Clash
Matthew Parris
Nick Danziger , photographer
Tintin , fictional Belgian reporter
William Boyd , author
Anton Chekhov , playwright
Pallab Ghosh , BBC science correspondent
Marie Curie , chemist & physicist
Pauline Black , singer & actor
Billie Holiday , jazz singer
Fiona Bruce , television presenter & newsreader
Mata Hari , accused spy
Yvonne Brewster , theatre director, actress and writer
Claude McKay , poet
Barry Cunliffe , archaeologist
Julius Caesar , Roman Emperor
Phil Hammond , comedian & broadcaster
George Bernard Shaw , writer & activist
Series 13, August – October 2007 [ edit ]
Guest
Nominee
Presenter
Jude Kelly , theatre director and producer
Lilian Baylis , theatrical producer and manager
Matthew Parris
David Trimble , politician
Elvis Presley , singer
Maggi Hambling , painter and sculptor
Rembrandt , artist
The Earl of Snowdon , photographer, and Alex Moulton , engineer
Alec Issigonis , car designer
Michael Craig-Martin , conceptual artist
John Cage , avant-garde composer
David Rowntree , drummer with Blur and political activist
Lord Denning , judge
John Motson , football commentator
Brian Clough , football manager
Prue Leith , restaurateur
Elizabeth David , food writer
General Sir Michael Rose , British Army officer
George Washington , first President of the United States
Series 14, December 2007 – January 2008 [ edit ]
Guest
Nominee
Presenter
Jan Ravens , impressionist
Thora Hird , actress
Matthew Parris
Quentin Blake , illustrator
George Cruikshank , caricaturist
Redmond O'Hanlon , travel writer
Alfred Russel Wallace , naturalist
Sir Richard Sykes , biochemist
Howard Florey , pharmacologist and pathologist
Roger Graef , documentary maker
Groucho Marx , comedian and film star
Jacqueline Wilson , author of children's literature
Katherine Mansfield , writer
Joe Simpson , mountaineer
Hermann Buhl , mountaineer
Series 15, April – May 2008 [ edit ]
Guest
Nominee
Presenter
Mark Gatiss , actor and writer
Peter Cushing , actor
Matthew Parris
Rhona Cameron , comedian
Charles Bukowski , novelist and poet
Steve Cram , former athlete
Paavo Nurmi , runner
Stirling Moss , racing car driver
Juan Manuel Fangio , racing car driver
Anna Ford , TV newsreader
Paul Robeson , black singer, actor and civil rights activist
Simon Armitage , poet
Ian Curtis , lead singer with Joy Division
Nicholas Parsons , actor and radio & TV presenter
Edward Lear , painter and poet
Arabella Weir , comedian, actress and writer
Joyce Grenfell , actress, comedian and singer-songwriter
Colin Dexter , crime writer
A. E. Housman , scholar and poet
Series 16, August – September 2008 [ edit ]
Guest
Nominee
Presenter
Jon Snow , journalist and broadcaster
Lord Longford , politician and social reformer
Matthew Parris
David Lammy , politician
Richard Pryor , comedian
David Attenborough , naturalist and broadcaster
Robert Hooke , 17th century scientist
Bob Harris , radio presenter
Alan Freed , disc jockey
George Osborne , then shadow chancellor
Henry VII , king
Lesley Riddoch , broadcaster
David Ervine , Northern Ireland politician
Mike Jackson , army general
Bill Slim , second world war Field Marshal
Deborah Meaden , businesswoman
Lady Hester Stanhope , traveller, diplomat and spy
Ian Hislop , editor of Private Eye
William Hogarth , painter and satirist
Series 17, December 2008 – February 2009 [ edit ]
Guest
Nominee
Presenter
Harvey Goldsmith , performing arts promoter
Luciano Pavarotti , Italian operatic tenor
Matthew Parris
Michael Grade , broadcasting executive
Billy Marsh , theatrical agent
Raymond Briggs , illustrator and writer
Beachcomber , columnist
David Soul , actor
Dietrich Bonhoeffer , German theologian and Resistance figure
Tracy-Ann Oberman , actress
Bette Davis , American film actress
Pam Ayres , poet
Tony Hancock , comedian and actor
Redmond O'Hanlon , travel writer
Alfred Russel Wallace , naturalist
Rachel De Thame , horticulturalist
Margot Fonteyn , ballerina
Ken Livingstone , former Mayor of London
Robert Kennedy , American politician and brother of president John F. Kennedy
Series 18, April – May 2009 [ edit ]
Guest
Nominee
Presenter
Stuart Hall , broadcaster
Napoleon Bonaparte , French historical figure
Matthew Parris
Polly Toynbee , journalist
Roy Jenkins , Labour politician
David Mellor , politician
Thomas Beecham , conductor
Ruby Wax , American comedian
Carl Jung , Swiss founder of analytical psychology
Colin Murray , broadcaster
Frank Sinatra , American singer
Andy Sheppard , saxophonist
John Coltrane , saxophonist
Michael O'Donnell , doctor and broadcaster
Fred Astaire , dancer and actor
Misha Glenny , journalist
Giovanni Falcone , Italian magistrate and anti-Mafia campaigner
Series 19, August – September 2009 [ edit ]
Guest
Nominee
Presenter
Andrew Motion , Poet Laureate
Alfred, Lord Tennyson , Poet Laureate
Matthew Parris
David Miliband , Member of Parliament and Minister
Joe Slovo , South African ANC leader
George Galloway , Member of Parliament
John Cornford , poet and activist
Dervla Murphy , travel writer
Freya Stark , travel writer
Rolf Harris , Australian musician and artist
Kyffin Williams , Welsh artist
Boris Johnson , the Mayor of London
Samuel Johnson , writer of the great dictionary
Kate Humble , TV presenter
Miriam Makeba , South African singer and anti-apartheid activist
Paul Daniels , magician
Harry Houdini , escapologist
John Major , former British Prime Minister
Rudyard Kipling , author and poet
Series 20, December 2009 – February 2010 [ edit ]
Guest
Nominee
Presenter
Sir Ranulph Fiennes , explorer
Henry V , King of England
Matthew Parris
Rich Hall , stand-up comedian
Tennessee Williams , playwright
Neil Innes , musician and performer
Vivian Stanshall , musician and comic writer
Munira Mirza , London Mayoral advisor on arts and culture
Hannah Arendt , political philosopher
Christopher Biggins , acto
Nero , Roman Emperor
Jenny Agutter , actress
Lise Meitner , Austrian physicist
David Bailey , photographer
Pablo Picasso , artist
John Williams , composer
Agustin Barrios Mangore , Paraguayan guitarist
Richard Dawkins , ethologist and evolutionary biologist
Bill Hamilton , evolutionary theorist
Series 21, April – May 2010 [ edit ]
Guest
Nominee
Presenter
John Godber , playwright
Bertolt Brecht , writer and theatre director
Matthew Parris
Clive Stafford Smith , human rights lawyer
Robin Hood , folklore hero
Peter White , broadcaster
Douglas Jardine , England cricket captain
John Lloyd , comedy writer and television producer
Richard Buckminster Fuller , architect and futurist
Stuart Rose , chairman of Marks and Spencer
Matthew Flinders , cartographer
Baroness Sarah Hogg , economist and journalist
Charlotte Guest , polymath and businesswoman
Brian Cox , physicist
Carl Sagan , astronomer and astrophysicist
Viv Anderson , England footballer
Arthur Wharton , athlete and football player
Series 22, August – September 2010 [ edit ]
Guest
Nominee
Presenter
John Harris , journalist and author
John Lennon , musician
Matthew Parris
Bettany Hughes , historian
Sappho , poet
Dominic Sandbrook , historian
Richard Nixon , 37th President of the United States
Camila Batmanghelidjh , founder of Kids Company
Mary Carpenter , educational and social reformer
Eleanor Bron , actress
Simone Weil , French philosopher and mystic
Edwina Currie , former MP
Golda Meir , former Prime Minister of Israel
Digby Jones , former director of the CBI
Winston Churchill , former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
Series 23, November 2010 – January 2011 [ edit ]
Guest
Nominee
Presenter
Mark Borkowski , PR man
Malcolm McLaren , the rock & roll swindler
Matthew Parris
John Hegley , poet
DH Lawrence , writer
Gerry Robinson , business guru
Samuel Beckett , Irish playwright
Lionel Blair , dancer & TV celebrity
Sammy Davis Jr , dancer, singer & entertainer
Neil Kinnock , former MP
Aneurin Bevan , founder of the NHS
Barry Cryer , comedian
J. B. Priestley , novelist & playwright
Jim Al-Khalili , Iraqi-born physicist
Gertrude Bell , writer, traveller, politician & administrator
Katherine Whitehorn , journalist
Mary Stott , campaigning journalist
Kwame Kwei-Armah , playwright & actor
Marcus Garvey , inspirational black leader 1
Garvey was previously nominated by Yvonne Brown in Series 7 Programme 7 1
Series 24, April – May 2011 [ edit ]
Guest
Nominee
Presenter
Clive Sinclair , British inventor
Thomas Edison , American inventor
Matthew Parris
Charles Hazlewood , conductor
Leonard Bernstein , conductor and composer
Diana Quick , actress
Simone de Beauvoir , philosopher
Sue MacGregor , broadcaster
Kathleen Ferrier , contralto singer
Lynne Truss , writer and journalist
Lewis Carroll , mathematician and author of Alice in Wonderland
Caroline Lucas , British Green MP
Petra Kelly , German Green politician
Matthew Syed , sports journalist
Jack Johnson , "the Galveston Giant", boxer
Diane Abbott , Member of Parliament
Harold Pinter , playwright
Series 25, August – September 2011 [ edit ]
Guest
Nominee
Presenter
Tim Butcher , journalist
Graham Greene , author, playwright and critic
Matthew Parris
Janice Long , broadcaster
Kirsty MacColl , singer-songwriter
Gwyneth Lewis , poet
Emily Dickinson , American poet
Antonio Carluccio , Italian restaurateur
Eduardo Paolozzi , artist
Daisy Goodwin , broadcaster and poetry curator
William Shakespeare , poet and playwright
Simon Day , comedian
Hans Fallada , German writer
Simon Jenkins , journalist
Edwin Lutyens , architect
Cerys Matthews , musician
Hildegard of Bingen , German mystic
Graeme le Saux , former England footballer
Gerald Durrell , author and conservationist
Series 26, December 2011 – January 2012 [ edit ]
Guest
Nominee
Presenter
Michael Sheen , actor
Philip K. Dick , science fiction writer
Matthew Parris
Raymond Tallis , philosopher
Ludwig Wittgenstein , philosopher
Steven Pinker , psychologist and cognitive scientist
Thomas Hobbes , philosopher
Brian Sewell , art critic
Ludwig II of Bavaria
Jim Carter , actor
Lonnie Donegan , skiffle musician
Martin Rees , astrophysicist
Joseph Rotblat , physicist and campaigner against nuclear weapons
Emma Kennedy , actress
Gracie Allen , comedian
Clare Gerada , doctors' leader
Vera Brittain , writer, feminist and pacifist .
Baroness Warsi , Conservative politician
Razia Sultana , 13th-century Indian princess
Series 27, April – May 2012 [ edit ]
Guest
Nominee
Presenter
Owen Sheers , Welsh poet
Dylan Thomas , Welsh poet
Matthew Parris
Will Self , journalist and novelist
Oscar Wilde , writer and poet
Erin Pizzey , writer and campaigner
Gertrude Stein , writer and art collector
Tom Robinson , singer and leader of the Tom Robinson Band
George Lyward , educationalist, teacher and psychotherapist who worked at Finchden Manor
Alexei Sayle , comedian
Edward Said , Palestinian-American literary theorist and campaigner for Palestinian rights
Eric Pickles , politician
John Ford , American film director
Diana Athill , British novelist, memoirist and diarist
Francisco Goya , Spanish painter
Lynn Barber , British journalist
Sebastian Walker , founder of Walker Books, a publishing house for children
Series 28, July – September 2012 [ edit ]
Guest
Nominee
Presenter
Des Lynam , sports commentator
Henry Cooper , English heavyweight boxer
Matthew Parris
Janine di Giovanni , author and foreign correspondent
Josephine Bonaparte , wife of Napoleon Bonaparte
Rory Stewart , Tory Member of Parliament, author and adventurer
Sir Walter Scott , distinguished author
Bill Paterson , actor
Leonard Maguire , Scottish actor
Natalie Haynes , comedian
Juvenal , Roman poet
Ken Dodd , comedian
Stan Laurel , film actor and one half of the duo Laurel and Hardy
Stephen Frears , film director
Karel Reisz , film director
Alan Johnson , politician and former home secretary
George Orwell , writer
Naomi Wolf , commentator and author of The Beauty Myth
Edith Wharton , novelist, wit and feminist
Series 29, December 2012 – January 2013 [ edit ]
Guest
Nominee
Presenter
Martin Broughton , chairman of British Airways and the British Horse Racing Board
Dick Francis , crime novelist and former jockey
Matthew Parris
Francesca Simon , children's writer and author of the Horrid Henry books
Jean Cocteau , French writer and film director
Lemn Sissay , author and broadcaster
Prince Alemayehu , favourite prince of Queen Victoria
Stuart Maconie , radio presenter and music critic
Ralph Vaughan Williams , composer and folk music collector
Richard Herring , comedian
Grigori Rasputin , Russian Orthodox mystic
Max Mosley , former president of the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA)
John Stuart Mill , philosopher
Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen , interior designer
Aubrey Beardsley , artist of the Aesthetic movement
Grace Dent , journalist
Nancy Mitford , novelist and biographer
Carol Klein , gardening expert
William Robinson , Irish-born journalist and gardener
Series 30, April – May 2013 [ edit ]
Guest
Nominee
Presenter
Peter Hitchens , author and columnist
George Bell , Anglican theologian
Matthew Parris
Bobby Friction , DJ and presenter
Galileo Galilei , pioneer astronomer
Chris Tarrant , DJ and former television presenter
Kenny Everett , comedian and former disc jockey
John Blashford-Snell , explorer
David Livingstone , explorer
Gyles Brandreth , writer and broadcaster
Arthur Conan Doyle , author
Justine Roberts , founder of Mumsnet , a website for parents
Bill Shankly , football manager
John Cooper Clarke , poet
Salvador Dalí , surrealist painter
Edmund de Waal , ceramicist and writer
Primo Levi , chemist and Holocaust writer
Dr Lucy Worsley , Chief Curator at Historic Royal Palaces
Florence Nightingale , nurse, health administrator and statistician
Series 31, August - October 2013 [ edit ]
Guest
Nominee
Presenter
Russell Grant , astrologer and broadcaster
Ivor Novello , composer and actor
Matthew Parris
Gabriel Gbadamosi , playwright
Fela Kuti , Nigerian musician
Tanika Gupta
Rabindranath Tagore , Bengali polymath
Julie Burchill , writer
Ava Gardner , film star
Paul Mason , journalist and broadcaster
Louise Michel , 19th century French anarchist
Peter Bowles , actor
George Devine , theatre director
Konnie Huq , television presenter and writer
Ada Lovelace , computing pioneer
Brendan Barber , trade unionist
John Steinbeck , novelist
Al Murray , comedian
Bernard Montgomery , WW2 British General
Series 32, December 2013 - January 2014 [ edit ]
Guest
Nominee
Presenter
Ricky Ross , singer with Deacon Blue
Hank Williams , singer-songwriter
Matthew Parris
Michael Horovitz , poet
Allen Ginsberg , Beat poet
Meg Rosoff , novelist
Isabella Bird , Victorian traveller
David Chipperfield , architect
Le Corbusier , architect
David Baddiel , comedian
John Updike , novelist
Adil Ray , actor and TV personality
Dave Allen , comedian
Mark Constantine , businessman and founder of Lush cosmetics
Kahlil Gibran , poet
Sara Cox , radio presenter
Lisa 'Left Eye' Lopes , hip-hop artist
Series 33, April - May 2014 [ edit ]
Guest
Nominee
Presenter
Evelyn Glennie , percussionist
Jacqueline du Pré , cellist
Matthew Parris
Sarah Vine , newspaper columnist
Dante Alighieri , 12th-13th century Italian poet
Mark Walport , Chief Scientific Adviser
Hans Sloane , art collector and benefactor of the British Museum
Marcus du Sautoy , mathematician
Jorge Luis Borges , Argentinian writer
Deborah Moggach , novelist
Arnold Bennett , 19th-century novelist
Isy Suttie , comedian, musician and actor
Jake Thackray , singer-songwriter
John Craven , journalist and TV presenter
Isambard Kingdom Brunel , 19th-century engineer
Emma Kirkby , soprano singer
Henry Purcell , 17th-century composer
Michael Palin , Python , writer and broadcaster
Ernest Hemingway , American writer
Series 34, August - October 2014 [ edit ]
Guest
Nominee
Presenter
Jonathan Meades , writer and broadcaster
Edward Burra , artist
Matthew Parris
Jazzie B , DJ and music entrepreneur
James Brown , American singer
Oona King , politician
Ida B. Wells , American journalist and civil rights leader
Ray Mears , woodsman and TV presenter
Rommel , German field marshal of World War II
Tom Shakespeare , sociologist
Gramsci , Italian Marxist politician
Labi Siffre , poet and singer-songwriter
Arthur Ransome , author and journalist
Stella Rimington , writer and former Director General of MI5
Dorothy L. Sayers , crime writer
Andrew Adonis , politician and academic
Joseph Bazalgette , Victorian engineer responsible for London's main sewers
Edith Hall , classicist
Lucille Ball , American actress and comedian
Series 35, December 2014 - January 2015 [ edit ]
Guest
Nominee
Presenter
Arthur Smith , comedian
Emil Zátopek , Czechoslovak distance runner
Matthew Parris
Laura Bates , feminist writer
Louisa May Alcott , 19th century American author of Little Women
Brian Eno , musician
Michael Young , sociologist and politician
Philippa Langley , historian
Richard III , 15th -century King of England
Tom Solomon , neurologist
Roald Dahl , children's writer
Michael Dobbs , politician and novelist
Guy Burgess , spy
Eve Pollard , journalist and editor
Nora Ephron , American screenwriter
Mervyn King , former Governor of the Bank of England
Risto Ryti , Governor of Bank of Finland and Prime Minister and President of Finland during World War II
Series 36, April - June 2015 [ edit ]
Guest
Nominee
Presenter
Trevor McDonald , news presenter
Learie Constantine , Trinidadian cricketer and politician
Matthew Parris
Rachel Johnson , author and journalist
Lady Ottoline Morrell , literary hostess and associate of the Bloomsbury Group
Kulvinder Ghir , comedian and actor
Zoran Mušič , Slovene artist and survivor of Dachau
Helen Ghosh , Director General of the National Trust
James Lees-Milne , writer and expert on country houses
Wendy Cope , poet
John Clare , 19th-century poet
Antonia Quirke, film critic
Marlon Brando , American actor
Matthew Barzun , American ambassador
John Gil Winant , American ambassador to UK 1941-46
David Blunkett , blind politician
Louis Braille , 18th-century French inventor of Braille
Val McDermid , crime writer
P. D. James , crime writer
Series 37, April - June 2015 [ edit ]
Guest
Nominee
Presenter
Ian McKellen , actor
Edmund Hillary , mountaineer and explorer
Matthew Parris
Vicky Pryce , Greek-born former British Government economist
Melina Mercouri , Greek actress, singer and politician
Michael Howard , Conservative politician
Queen Elizabeth I , English monarch
Ade Adepitan , television personality and Paralympian
George Washington Williams , American Civil War veteran and historian
Monica Ali , novelist
Richard Francis Burton , explorer and adventurer
Frances Crook , prison reformist
Barbara Castle , Labour Party politician
Hannah Rothschild , philanthropist and documentary filmmaker
Thelonious Monk , jazz musician
Nick Stadlen , former High Court judge
Bram Fischer , South African lawyer and anti-apartheid activist
Toyah Willcox , singer and actress
Katharine Hepburn , Hollywood actress
Series 38, August 2015 - January 2016 [ edit ]
Guest
Nominee
Presenter
Dickie Bird , cricket umpire
Sir Leonard Hutton , England Test cricker
Matthew Parris
Roger Saul, founder of the Mulberry fashion label
Gertrude Jekyll , garden designer
Alvin Hall , financial journalist
James Baldwin , African American writer
Precious Lunga , epidemiologist
Wangari Maathai , Kenyan environmental and political activist
Martin Jennings , sculptor
Charles Sargeant Jagger , sculptor of British World War One war memorials
Susan Calman , Scottish comedian
Molly Weir , Scottish actress
Nitin Sawhney , musician and producer
Jeff Buckley , singer-songwriter
Eliza Manningham-Buller , former Director General of MI5
Abraham Lincoln ,16th President of the United States
Series 39, April 2016 - present [ edit ]
Guest
Nominee
Presenter
Anthony Horowitz , novelist and screenwriter
Alfred Hitchcock , film director
Matthew Parris
Nancy Dell'Olio , lawyer
Lucrezia Borgia , Italian princesses
Ray Peacock ,Comedian
Lenny Bruce ,Comedian
Sudha Bhuchar , actress
Zohra Sehgal , Indian actress
Graeme Lamb , SAS commando
Christine Granville , spy
Timmy Mallett , TV presenter
Richard the Lionheart , King
Charles Moore , journalist
Gordon Hamilton-Fairley , medical oncology
Ann Limb , chair of the Scout Association
George Fox , founder of the Quaker
Frank Turner , folk singer
Joseph Grimaldi , comedian
Series 40, August 2016 - present [ edit ]
References [ edit ]
External links [ edit ]