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Lyt når som helst, hvor som helst 

BBC Radio 4

Last Word

Playwright and critic Bonnie Greer was a frequent panellist on programmes such as Newsnight and Question Time where she took part in one of its most contentious episodes. Kirsty spoke to Judith Antell who was Bonnie's agent and friend for over 20 years. They discuss how Bonnie's father being stationed in the UK during World War 2 shaped her view on the country; the surprising backlash Bonnie faced after appearing on a 2009 edition of Question Time with the then leader of the British National Party, they also discuss the project Bonnie was most proud of in her later career. 

Jeremy Thomas was a film producer whose 80 plus films ranged from the Oscar Award-winning The Last Emperor to the hugely controversial 'Crash'. He also produced wartime drama Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence, the gangster thriller Sexy Beast and the adaptation of William S. Burroughs' Naked Lunch. Mark Cousins wrote and directed “The Storms of Jeremy Thomas” which documented his eclectic career. He tells Kirsty how through his films Jeremy "wanted to dig deeper into human life, his films are about the biggest questions". (Please note: In the introduction to this item we incorrectly stated that Mark was the producer of 'The Storms of Jeremy Thomas'. Mark was the writer and director.) 

Wendell Berry, the Kentucky farmer and environmental campaigner who warned for many years of the excesses of industrial society. As a writer, he published hundreds of essays, poems and more than forty books. Wendell argued for most of his life that small-scale agriculture was essential to the preservation of the land and culture. Writer Paul Kingsnorth has been reading Wendell's work since the 90s and recently worked with him to compile a series of his essays into a book. He discusses Wendell's philosophy to farming, the environment, the wider community and how they are all intrinsically linked together. Wendell famously never owned a computer and only wrote with a pencil, which presented challenges, and unexpected joys, for Paul when editing the book. 

Frances Stonor Saunders was a historian who exposed secret CIA attempts to manipulate public opinion through popular culture during the cold war. Her 1999 book 'Who Paid the Piper' was hugely successful and groundbreaking in its work. It was said that it "single-handedly established a new branch of sub-history" and is to be republished in 2026. Frances' brother Alexander Stonor Saunders explains how she was able to uncover the range of CIA activities, they included the production of an animated version of George Orwell's Animal Farm.

Presenter: Kirsty Lang
Producer: Ed Prendeville
Assistant Producer: Ribika Moktan
Researcher: Jesse Edwards

ARCHIVE:
Conversation Piece, BBC Radio 4, 01/12/1988; Start the Week, BBC Radio 4, 28/06/1999; The Food Programme, BBC Radio 4, 25/08/2002; Fast Food Nation, BBC Film Network, 03/05/2007; Question Time, BBC One, 22/10/2009; Front Row, BBC Radio 4, 09/12/2010; Belief, BBC Radio 4, 31/12/2010; GMT, BBC News / World News, 21/11/2011; The Film Programme, BBC Radio 4, 16/10/2014; My Food Hero: Ella McSweeney Meets Wendell Berry, BBC Radio 4, 24/08/2015; Front Row, BBC Radio 4, 29/07/2024; Era of Reclamation (Ep. 1: In Search of Black History), British Museum

“A powerful wordsmith and artist” – remembering the playwright and cultural critic Bonnie Greer

The pioneering feminist leader, Gloria Steinem, moved the dial on critical issues regarding women’s health and reproductive rights as well as equal pay. But, she was first and foremost a journalist who started out, in her words, “as a girl reporter” forced to do light fluffy magazine features, a role she resented. She went on to write serious investigative pieces before co-founding Ms Magazine, the first magazine owned and run by women. Amy Richards, co-founder of Gloria’s Foundation, remembers her.

With his top hat, big smile and pack of cards, Juan Tamariz, was an instantly recognisable magician, known in his home country of Spain as "The Maestro". He studied physics and film at university, two disciplines which he wove into his magic, and was also fascinated by psychology and philosophy. He was a funny and charismatic performer who appeared regularly on TV in Spain and here in the UK. His former student, and fellow magician, Jorge Blass shares his memories.

Sir Andrew Nicol was a British barrister and judge who defended the rights of journalists and broadcasters in several high-profile cases – such as his defence of journalists from the New Statesman who were held in contempt of court for interviewing jurors in the infamous Jeremy Thorpe trial. He later went on to cowrite the first book on Media Law, alongside fellow KC Geoffrey Robertson, with whom he also founded the internationally renowned Doughty Street Chambers. 

The ballerina Pauline Clayden began her career amid the destruction of the Second World War with the internationally renowned Sadler’s Wells Ballet - know known as the Royal Ballet. She was thought of as one of the most talented performers of her time, but perhaps unfortunately for her, she shared the stage with Margot Fonteyn, and thus never became a principal ballerina. Her friend and critic Alastair Macaulay shares her life in dance - her passion until her death at 103.

Presenter: Kirsty Lang
Producer: Ben Mitchell
Assistant Producer: Alice McKee
Researcher: Jesse Edwards
Editors: Andrea Kennedy and Glyn Tansley

Archive:
BBC World Service, Witness History, 02/12/2024; BBC Radio 2, John Dunn Show, 02/04/1984; BBC Radio 4, Desert Island Discs, 25/03/2016; BBC News, 100 Women, 03/12/2023; BBC One, Paul Daniel’s Secrets, 06/12/1995; BBC One, Paul Daniel’s Secrets, 10/01/1996; BBC Radio 4, PM, 22/06/1979; BBC One, News, 02/11/2020

Gloria Steinem: The journalist and activist who rewrote the rules for women

The work of Japanese avant-garde artist Yayoi Kusama is famed for its use of dots and inspired the likes of Andy Warhol. She was a work of art herself, often photographed wearing a bright orange wig and technicolour clothes covered in her signature polka dots. But, behind the canvas Yayoi was suffering with her mental health and spent almost five decades living in a psychiatric hospital. Frances Morris, the former Director of Tate Modern, now chair of the Gallery Climate Coalition, curated a retrospective exhibition of Kusama’s work. 

The Bosnian Serb General Ratko Mladić was jailed for life in 2017 for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity. He was known as the "Butcher of Bosnia" and infamously ordered the death of thousands of men and boys in the town of Srebrenica in July 1995. The author and journalist Tim Judah met and interviewed Ratko Mladić and tells his story.

When the actor Tim Curry slapped on full make up, donned fishnet stockings and corset and let loose his uniquely powerful voice, no one in the audience was ever going to forget meeting the Rocky Horror Show's Frank N Furter. Curry was born in Warrington in 1946 and his first acting job came after university in the original London production of the equally groundbreaking rock musical “Hair” in 1968. He was known also as the original Pennywise from Stephen King's "It”, the naturalist Nigel Thornberry in the much-loved children’s series “The Wild Thornberrys”, and Long John Silver in the 1996 film “Muppet Treasure Island” alongside a young Kevin Bishop who recalls his experience of working with Tim Curry.

Violet Hensley has died at the astonishing age of 109. She was one of the last surviving links back to depression-era America, she was also a luthier, or instrument maker, and a fine fiddle player. Her instruments were of such high quality that she became known as the “Stradivarius of the Ozarks”. Violet made her first instrument when she was 14, but four years later she got married and stopped performing and making fiddles while she raised nine children. After a thirty-year break, she started making music again. Her daughter Sandra Flagg remembers her.

Presenter: Matthew Bannister
Producer: Ben Mitchell
Assistant Producers: Lowri Morgan and Alice McKee
Researcher: Jesse Edwards
Editor: Andrea Kennedy

Archive:
BBC One, Newsnight, 01/02/2012; BBC Radio 4, Front Row, 09/02/2012; BBC One, News, 26/05/2011; BBC World Service, Witness History, 29/10/2025; BBC One, News, 04/11/2011; BBC, Film Week, 26/07/1975; “Muppet Treasure Island”, directed by Brian Henson, produced by The Jim Henson Company and The Walt Disney Company, 24/05/1996 (UK release)

Yayoi Kusama: The artist who painted infinity

Dolly Parton broke the mould for country music over a seven-decade career, winning 10 Grammy awards, selling more than 100 million records worldwide, and writing in excess of 3,000 songs. Born in the Smokey Mountains of Tennessee, her childhood was one of poverty, put gave back after finding fame aiding children's literacy and health care through the Dollywood Foundation. Country Music Hall of Fame curator Allison Moorer and Glastonbury Festival organiser Emily Eavis pay tribute.

Deirdre McSharry was a pioneering figure in magazine journalism and became editor of Cosmopolitan in the UK during the publication’s golden era in the 1970s. Whilst working as the fashion editor at the Daily Express she made famous the schoolgirl Lesley Lawson, who went onto become known the world over…as Twiggy! The writer Hettie Judah, and Twiggy herself, share their memories of her.

Professor Pat Easterling was a respected classicist, best known for her pioneering work on Greek tragedy. She became President of the Classical Association in 1989, was elected a Fellow of the British Academy, and was appointed the Regius Professor of Greek at the University of Cambridge – the first, and so far only, woman to hold that position. It was there that she met a young student called Mary Beard, now an eminent classicist and broadcaster herself, who recalls her impact on academia.

In 2025 Sir Billy Boston became the first rugby league player ever to be given a knighthood. Despite showing promise playing rugby union as a schoolboy he wasn't selected for his local club in Cardiff and made the then controversial decision to switch codes and join rugby league side Wigan. A decision that brought with it great rewards, but which cost him his dream of ever playing for Wales. BBC Rugby League correspondent, Matt Newsum, tells his story.

Presenter: Matthew Bannister
Producer: Ben Mitchell
Assistant Producer: Lowri Morgan
Researcher: Jesse Edwards
Editor: Glyn Tansley

Archive:
BBC One, Glastonbury, 29/06/2014; BBC One, Wogan, 26/03/1983; BBC One, Parkinson, 17/02/2001; BBC Radio 2, John Dunn Show, 11/08/1982; Great Britain Vs Australia, 1960, British Pathe; BBC Radio Wales, Jacko’s Sporting Almanac, 19/11/2017;

Dolly Parton: From the Smoky Mountains to Glastonbury Legend

Former Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji spearheaded the explosive growth of the country’s economy in the 1990s. He had been previously removed from the Chinese Communist Party twice after criticising Mao Zedong. But by 1991 was charged with China's economy, securing its entry into the World Trade Organisation. Kerry Brown, former First Secretary at the British Embassy, witnessed Zhu Rongji in action.

Professor Paul Veys was a paediatric specialist who became Director of the Bone Marrow Transplant unit at Great Ormond Steet Hospital in 1994. He was recognised internationally for his pioneering treatment practices which helped make procedures safer and more efficient for the children in his care. Claudia Fisher, whose daughter benefitted from his treatment, and Dr Robert Wynn remember him.

Hayden Panettiere's life in the public eye began before her first birthday. As a child star she had roles in Pixar's A Bugs Life and appeared alongside Denzel Washington in Remember the Titans. Later TV series, like Heroes and Nashville brought her wider fame and fortune – but beneath the surface of her success Hayden was suffering from addiction and postnatal depression. Jane Mulkerrins, Times Radio presenter and Associate Editor of the Times Magazine, looks back on her life and career.

Rosemary Parslow devoted much of her life as conservationist on the Isles of Scilly. She became the authority on the flora of the unique islands, collecting native specimens for the Natural History Museum. So great was her love of the Isles of Scilly that she even named her three children after its islands. Her daughter Helen recalls their childhood on the island and her mother's passion for plants.

Presenter: Shahidha Bari
Producer: Ben Mitchell
Assistant Producer: Catherine Powell
Researcher: Jesse Edwards
Editor: Colin Paterson

Archive
BBC Radio 4, News, 22/09/1997; BBC Radio 4, News, 10/11/2001; BBC One, News, 06/10/1998; NPR, All Things Considered, 15/05/2026; BBC Two, NBC, Tailwind Productions, Heroes, Series One - Episode One: Genesis, 25/07/2007; BBC One, Breakfast, 06/06/2013; BBC One, The Isles of Scilly, 13/05/1983; Interview by Lucy Lapwing and Leif Bersweden for: “FUTURES: 2025”, Universities of Bristol, Bath, Exeter, Plymouth and Bath Spa, and funded by UKRI, September 2025.

Zhu Rongji: The reformist Chinese Premier who ordered 100 coffins

William Orbit, the pioneering DJ and music producer, through his work with synthesizers and new studio technology he combined electronic dance music with pop, to create chart toppers. He grew up surrounded by classical music. His epiphany came when he discovered Tonto's Expanding Head Band, an electronic duo and so began his passion for electronic music. The DJ and A&R executive Pete Tong tells us his story.

Wang Quanying was believed to be the last surviving female participant in China’s Long March, one of the most significant events in modern Chinese history. The historian and film maker Shuyun Sun learned about the Long March at school and many years later walked the 6,000 mile route herself, where she met women like Wang who told her they’d tie a belt around their stomachs so they wouldn’t feel hunger.

Lady Hornby was the broadcast journalist who championed women’s rights. After hitting her own glass ceiling at work she set about making sure other women had an easier path to the top. As a founding member of the 300 Group, she promoted women’s participation in politics and public life. And, as a reporter working for Woman’s Hour, she took on the then Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, as her daughter Victoria Hornby explains.

“A good trainer can hear a horse speak to him. A great trainer can hear him whisper.” The words of Monty Roberts, the Californian horse psychologist who used gentle persuasion rather than harsh punishment to get the best out of his horses. His autobiography “The Man Who Listens to Horses” sold six million copies and he became a close adviser to Queen Elizabeth II. As his friend and fellow horse behaviourist Kelly Marks told Matthew, when he first began promoting his techniques, he was met with widespread scepticism.

Presenter: Matthew Bannister
Producer: Ribika Moktan
Assistant Producer: Catherine Powell
Researcher: Jesse Edwards
Editor: Andrea Kennedy

ARCHIVE:
The First Time With..., BBC 6 Music, 26/02/2023; Front Row, Radio 4, 11/08/2010; Spotlight, BBC Archive, 29/09/1966; Assignment, China's Long March, 04/09/2000; Women's Hour, Radio 4, 11/12/1986; Women's Hour, Radio 4, 23/09/1976; Monty Roberts, Q.E.D.: Talking Horses, BBC One, 01/08/1995; Monty Roberts, Lowri, BBC Two, 09/09/1999.

William Orbit: The pioneering DJ who reinvented Madonna

Rod Liddle was a columnist and broadcaster who strongly divided opinion. Some saw him as an entertaining satirist, others, a bigot. As a teenager he joined a punk band and studied social psychology at the London School of Economics. He was politically active too, first as a member of Socialist Workers Party and then a Labour speech writer. He later joined the BBC as a trainee producer, working his way up to become editor of the Today programme. His former boss, Roger Mosey, told us how he immediately stood out from the crowd.

Vicki Wickham was one of the music industry’s most influential managers with clients including Marc Almond, Morrissey, and Dusty Springfield. She landed the job of booking acts for ITV's Ready Steady Go! despite knowing little about music and became the driving force behind the show, arranging appearances by the likes of Jimi Hendrix and The Beatles. Vicki’s friend Simon Napier Bell, who himself managed artists like Wham!, Marc Bolan and Ultravox, recalls the lasting impact she had on the industry.

Simone Forti was the pioneering dancer and choreographer whose pieces often use improvisation and draw on inspiration from the world around her using everyday objects like rope and wood alongside the human body. Simone’s start in life was challenging. Her Jewish family had to flee from the increasing threat of the Italian fascist dictator Benito Mussolini. Her biographer Ann Cooper Albright shares her story.

Justin Hardy was a Bafta and Emmy-nominated director known for historical films. His father was Robin Hardy the director of cult classic The Wicker Man. Robin had eight children by five different women and the making of the tortured film tore Justin's family apart. Justin went onto make a documentary with his half-brother Dominic Hardy, Children of the Wicker Man, where they interrogated their childhood using newly discovered documents from his father. Justin also completed his father's Wicker Man trilogy with new film Wrath of the God's - the release of which he never saw.

Presenter: Matthew Bannister
Producer: Ben Mitchell
Assistant producer: Catherine Powell
Researcher: Jesse Edwards
Editor: Andrea Kennedy

Archive:
Channel 4 News, 19/06/2014, YouTube; BBC Two, Have I Got News For You, 19/10/2002; BBC Radio 4, Start the Week, 02/06/2014; LA Women, EZTV, Kate Crash, 15/10/2012, YouTube; Huddle, Friends of the High Line, 12/11/2013, YouTube; Simone Forti, Slant Board, 1961. © 2026 The Museum of Modern Art, New York, Audio courtesy of MOCA - The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, Performed January 29, 2023, during the exhibition Simone Forti (presented at MOCA Grand Avenue, January 15 – April 3, 2023); BBC World Service, Outlook, 09/04/2024

Rod Liddle: Part-time punk turned professional provocateur

Gunther von Hagens, often known as Dr Death, was a German anatomist who developed a system of plastination to preserve human bodies permanently after death. His aim was to de-mystify anatomy and created the internationally successful “Body Worlds” exhibition. Former Channel 4 producer Nick Curwin, who helped Gunther broadcast a public autopsy, tells his story.

Sir Ian Wood was the billionaire Scottish businessman and philanthropist who made his fortune by transforming his Aberdeen based family fishing boat repair business into one of the oil and gas sector’s biggest engineering firms. The former Business Editor at BBC Scotland, Douglas Fraser, covered Sir Ian’s work for many years and shares his memories.

Juliet Gardiner was a social historian who pored over the diaries of ordinary people in WWII to bring a different perspective to history. She wrote books and made radio and TV programmes such as Channel 4's “The 1940s House” in which a modern family were challenged to live as they would have done during the war. Fellow social historian Simon Garfield reveals what inspired her to choose her field of study.

Dinkie Flowers was a mere 98 years-old when she wowed the audience and judges alike on the BBC TV show The Greatest Dancer. She had previously had a long and successful dancing career when in the 1940s she moved from the ballroom to the ice rink, to become England's only ice acrobat. She went on to set up her own dance school in her home town of Shoreham-by-Sea. Her friend and former pupil Louise Durrant remembers her.

Presenter: Matthew Bannister
Producer: Ben Mitchell
Assistant Producer: Ribika Moktan
Researcher: Jesse Edwards
Editor: Andrea Kennedy

Archive:
BBC World Service, The Interview, 17/08/2007; BBC Two, Newsnight, 22/11/2002; Channel 4, Firefly Film, Television, The Autopsy, 20/11/2002; BBC News, Reporting Scotland, 18/11/2012; Channel 4, Wall to Wall Media, The 1940’s House, 02/01/2001; BBC Radio 4, Archive on 4, 05/09/2015; BBC, A Blitz Scrapbook, 01/01/1941; BBC Radio 4, The History of the Future, 20/02/2018; BBC Radio 4, Making History, 23/02/2016; BBC Two, Who Do You Thin You Are?, 27/12/2007; BBC Two, the Goodies, Kitten Kong, 09/04/1972; BBC Two, Springwatch, 29/05/2006; BBC News, 10/03/2021; BBC One, The Greatest Dancer, 04/01/2020

Gunther von Hagens: The life of "Dr Death" the man who founded Body Worlds

Brenda Fricker became the first Irish woman to win an Academy Award for her performance in the film “My Left Foot”. She began her career with parts in Ireland’s first soap opera Tolka Row, ITV’s Coronation Street, and became a household name as the nurse Megan Roach in Casualty on the BBC. Her friend and fellow actress Anna Friel pays tribute.

The BBC’s long-serving correspondent David Willey was a renowned authority on the Vatican, covering the lives and deaths of five popes. Before he settled in Rome, David had travelled widely for the BBC, reporting from Algeria, the Vietnam War and China just after the communist revolution. Two of his colleagues, former Chief News Correspondent Kate Adie and International Editor Jeremy Bowen, share their memories of working with him.

The name David Austin is forever indelibly associated with the rose growing business. He created some of the most sought after roses, naming new varieties after fictional or real-life people, including Gabriel Oak from Far From the Madding Crowd, the actress Dame Judi Dench and ceramicist Emma Bridgewater - who pays tribute to him alongside Gardeners' World presenter Sue Kent.

Wally Funk broke records as the oldest person to go to space onboard Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin Rocket in 2021. In the early 1960s she was part of a group of women known as the Mercury 13 who were tested to see if they could compete with male astronauts for a place in the American space programme. But the project was abandoned and her hopes dashed. Loretta Hall, who co-wrote her memoir, tells us her story. 

Producer: Ben Mitchell
Assistant Producer: Catherine Powell
Researcher: Jesse Edwards
Editor: Andrea Kennedy

Archive:
"My Left Foot", Ferndale Films, Granada Film, RTÉ, Hell's Kitchen Films; BBC One, Wogan, 16/02/1990; 62nd Academy Awards, The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, 26/03/1990; BBC Radio 4, Woman's Hour, 05/03/1997; BBC One, Wogan, 15/02/1991; BBC Radio 4, Sunday, 10/03/2013; BBC Radio 4, Archive on 4, From our Rome Correspondent, 07/04/2012; BBC One, RHS Chelsea Flower Show, 21/05/2007; BBC One, Football Focus, 06/10/2018; BBC Radio 4, Woman's Hour, 19/06/2019; BBC News, 19/06/1983; Blue Origin, YouTube, 20/07/2021; Other audio courtesy of Loretta Hall

Brenda Fricker: The first Irish woman to win an Oscar

Sam Neill starred in over fifty films and numerous television series, playing often wildly different roles, from a palaeontologist in Jurassic Park to a repressed husband in The Piano. When he was seven years old the family moved from Northern Ireland to his father’s native New Zealand, a country which Sam grew to love, and, as his friend and fellow actor Oscar Kightley told Matthew, which also came to love Sam. We also hear from writer and journalist Hadley Freeman.

Phyllis Kinney became known as one of the most influential figures in traditional Welsh music, although she was born many miles from Wales in Michigan, USA. She moved to London to further her training as an opera singer, when on a trip to Wales, she met and fell in love with folk musician Meredydd Evans. The two married and together performed and edited collections of Welsh songs that came to be regarded as the definitive reference works of Welsh traditional music. Her friend, poet Arwel Jones, tells her story.

Acclaimed chef Bill Poon brought authentic Chinese cooking to the UK and set about changing the negative perception of Chinese food across the country. In 1980 his was only the second Chinese restaurant in Britain to be awarded a Michelin Star. His daughter Amy Poon remembers him.

For almost seventy years Patricia “Paddy” Greene, starred as Jill Archer, the matriarch of the central farming family. As a trainee actor Paddy had been told that her mic technique would never pass muster. Then In 1957, as she was about to go on tour with a theatre company, she got a call to audition for a role in The Archers. They were looking for a temporary cast member to be a love interest for Philip Archer. As the current editor of The Archers, Jeremy Howe explains – the audition went well.

Presenter: Matthew Bannister
Producer: Ed Prendeville
Assistant Producer: Ribika Moktan
Researcher: Jesse Edwards
Editor: Andrea Kennedy

Archive:
Desert Island Discs, BBC Radio 4, 27/12/2015; The Archers, BBC Radio 4, Jan 1959; The Archers, BBC Radio 4, 25/07/2017; The Archers, BBC Radio 4, 20/12/2023; The Archers, BBC Radio 4, 17/02/2019; Wogan, BBC Radio 2, 15/11/1985; Sam Neill Instagram post; Conversations with Sarah Kanowski, ABC Radio National, 2023; Beti a'i Phobol, BBC Radio Cymru, 06/03/1997

Sam Neill: The silent child with a stutter who became a movie star

Matthew Bannister on

Jim Lovell, the astronaut who commanded the ill-fated Apollo 13 mission.

Biddy Baxter, the editor who left an indelible stamp on the children’s TV show Blue Peter. Sarah Greene pays tribute.

Razia Jan, the Afghan/American who founded a school for girls in Afghanistan after 9/11.

Iris Williams, the Welsh born singer whose career took off after an appearance on Radio 2.

Producer: Ed Prendeville

Archive used:
The Festival of Politics, The Scottish Parliament, 2009; Jim Lovell on Apollo 13 Mission, permission granted by NASA Media Team; 13 Minutes Presents: The Space Shuttle – Apollo 13: Bonus 1. Jim Lovell, 14/04/2020; Desert Island Discs, BBC Radio 4, 06/06/2014; Blue Peter, BBC One, 18/11/1963; The Things We Forgot to Remember, BBC Radio 4, 30/05/2005

Jim Lovell, Biddy Baxter, Razia Jan, Iris Williams

Lyt når som helst, hvor som helst

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