Great Lives
Where it charts
Today’s combined position on our country charts.
Ranking history
About the show
Latest episodes
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Russell Kane on Iris Murdoch
October 5, 2026 · 28 minIris 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…
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Ruby Tandoh on Brian Jacques author of the Redwall series
September 28, 2026 · 28 minBrian 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 minEric 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…
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Pauline Black of The Selecter on Poly Styrene of X-Ray Spex
September 14, 2026 · 28 minPoly 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…
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Actor Laurence Olivier with Derek Jacobi and Tim Walker
August 14, 2026 · 28 minLaurence 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…
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Cartoonist Naji al-Ali
June 2, 2026 · 28 minNaji 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…
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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…
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Ade Edmondson on singer Sandy Denny
May 19, 2026 · 27 minAde 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…