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 s…
Great Lives
Some voices become so familiar they feel like companions, and the conversations on Great Lives from BBC Radio 4 have that quality. It’s less a formal history lesson and more a series of intimate, revealing portraits, shaped by the personal choices of a different guest each time. These guests-ranging from acclaimed artists and scientists to politicians and writers-bring forward the figure who has profoundly shaped their own path, whether that’s a towering historical icon or a quieter, overlooked genius. What you’ll hear is a genuine discussion, often surprising and always deeply human, as host and guest piece together a life from the facts, the myths, and the enduring legacy. The magic of this podcast lies in that dual perspective: you learn about an extraordinary subject, but you also get a glimpse into what moves the person choosing them. It’s a documentary series that lives in the specific details of individual experience, connecting the personal to the historical. Tune in for thoughtful, well-researched conversations that explore how a single life can ripple through culture, society, and the individuals who come after, reminding us that biography is never just about the past.
Episodes
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 in…
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 BaileyBorn in 1930 in She…
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 Eu…
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 t…
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. J…
Helen Castor on Richard II
Today's great life is possibly more famous as a Shakespearean character - King Richard II who was deposed by his cousin Henry Bolingbroke in 1399. He's been chosen by historian Helen Castor, author of The Eagle and the H…
DJ Deb Grant on John Prine
DJ Deb Grant picks US mailman turned country-folk singer John Prine, whose beautiful songs captured the world in which he lived. Bob Harris, who first met him on the Old Grey Whistle Test, adds to the conversation."I cam…
Sir Seretse Khama, first president of Botswana
Seretse Khama was born in 1921 in Bechuanaland when it was still a British Protectorate. In 1966 he became Botswana's first president. In between he married a white Londoner, Ruth Williamson, was exiled by the British, a…
Emily Williamson, co-founder of the RSPB
For over a hundred years no one thought too much about the origins of the RSPB, but among its founders was a woman in Didsbury opposed to the use of feathers in fashionable hats. Emily Williamson was outraged by the wide…
