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Society & Culture

Great Lives

by BBC Radio 4
DocumentarySociety & CultureHistory

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Latest episodes

  • Lea Ypi on Kant

    October 26, 2026 · 28 min

    Kant was born in 18th century Prussia. He showed great intellectual promise as a child, but didn't make a name for himself until his late forties, when he published his lengthy tome on the scope of Metaphysics, called The Critique of Pure…

  • Shaun Keaveny picks Caroline Aherne

    October 19, 2026 · 28 min

    Caroline Aherne was born in London on Christmas eve, but her family moved north when she was a toddler. With an IQ of 176, school was easy, so she kept herself busy, mimicking the nuns for the entertainment of her peers. After school…

  • Tony Juniper on EO Wilson

    October 12, 2026 · 28 min

    Edward Osborne Wilson was a pioneer across several fields of biology, from entomology to biodiversity. He is best known for his expertise on ants, his work developing the field of Sociobiology and for his 'Half-Earth' goal. Born in…

  • Russell Kane on Iris Murdoch

    October 5, 2026 · 28 min

    Iris Murdoch was born in Ireland in 1919, grew up in London and was educated in Bristol and Oxford. She's famous both as a novelist and a philosopher, and she won the Booker Prize in 1978 for The Sea, The Sea. Her nominator is Russell…

  • Ruby Tandoh on Brian Jacques author of the Redwall series

    September 28, 2026 · 28 min

    Brian Jacques was a docker, sailor, boxer, trucker, milkman, poet and a folk singer too. Then he wrote his Redwall series of children's fantasy novels and became an overnight forty year success. His books were immensely successful…

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  • Eric Ashby, Silent Watcher of the New Forest

    September 21, 2026 · 28 min

    Eric Ashby was a quiet pioneer. He lived in the New Forest in the south of England, where he painstakingly filmed the local wildlife, particularly badgers, foxes and deer. His occasional films were introduced by Sir Peter Scott who dubbed…

  • Pauline Black of The Selecter on Poly Styrene of X-Ray Spex

    September 14, 2026 · 28 min

    Poly Styrene was born Marie Joan Elliot-Said in 1957 and went on to become front woman of X Ray Spex. When Pauline Black first saw her on Top of the Pops, Poly was wearing a red military jacket and cap. Her attitude, says the lead singer…

  • Actor Laurence Olivier with Derek Jacobi and Tim Walker

    August 14, 2026 · 28 min

    Laurence Olivier, Baron Olivier of Brighton, was born in Dorking in 1907. He's best known these days for roles in films ranging from Wuthering Heights to Spartacus to the ageing Nazi hunter Ezra Lieberman in The Boys from Brazil. He…

  • Cartoonist Naji al-Ali

    June 2, 2026 · 28 min

    Naji al-Ali was one of the best known cartoonists in the Arab world. His creation, a little boy called Handala, always stands with his back to the viewer, hands behind his back, watching whatever Naji al-Ali has drawn. He's been picked by…

  • Cleopatra picked by Kate Williams

    June 1, 2026 · 28 min

    "Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale her infinite variety." She's the most famous character in antiquity, made more famous by Shakespeare and Hollywood films. But this Cleopatra is not the one Kate Williams has come to nominate. She…

  • Ade Edmondson on singer Sandy Denny

    May 19, 2026 · 27 min

    Ade Edmondson - star of The Young Ones, The Comic Strip Presents, Bottom and much more besides - chooses the singer Sandy Denny. "I think a large part of my Englishness comes from Sandy Denny," he says of the singer perhaps best known for…

  • Tony Garnett picked by Harry Bradbeer

    May 19, 2026 · 28 min

    Tony Garnett was born in Birmingham and, after a brief career as an actor, found a new role behind the scenes of The Wednesday Play. These rapidly gained a reputation in the sixties for social realism, and together with Ken Loach and Roger…

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About the show

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