Great Lives is BBC Radio 4's biography series. Produced in Bristol it is presented by Matthew Parris. A distinguished guest is asked to nominate the person they feel is truly deserving of the title "Great Life". Matthew and a recognised expert (a biographer, family member or fellow practitioner) are on hand to help him make a judgement on this.
You need to be a member of Times Past to add comments!
Matthew Parris presents the biographical series. Cartoonist Gerald Scarfe discusses the life of Walt Disney.
Gerald Scarfe spent much of his childhood in his sick bed, so it's not surprising that Disney cartoons and feature films meant so much to him. He can still recall the thrill at the prospect of seeing Pinocchio at the cinema, and then the agony of being lead away again in the rain because the tickets were too expensive.
Walt Disney came from a working family. His god-fearing father Elias, said by one writer to have 'hated Capital, and favored Labor, but really needed to make a buck', found work where he could. So Walt lived a peripatetic childhood, and sought solace in drawing and play acting. Hard times early on did not make Walt frugal with money in adulthood, and despite the huge successes of the golden era of Disney, it was only with the opening of Disneyland that Walt attained any substantial personal wealth.
You don't have to look far to find myth surrounding Walt Disney. Even after his death, rumors that his body had been cryogenically frozen spread so widely that they soon slipped into folklore. He had actually been cremated, but the readiness with which the cryogenic claim was accepted perhaps bears witness to a man who was terrified of dying, who believed in the white hope of technology and who, some might say, had been searching all his life for an escape into an immortal, fairytale world.
Matthew Parris, Gerald Scarfe and guest experts Brian Sibley and Richard Williams, creator of Roger Rabbit, discuss the life of a complex cultural icon. A man who was seemingly unpretentious, and did not fit the image of movie mogul with his scruffy tweed jacket and awkward demeanor, yet a man who was accused of being a tyrannical egomaniac. The son of a socialist who ended up naming names at the House of Un- American Activities committee. Above all else perhaps though, they discuss the life of a man who strove tirelessly for perfection and who changed the cultural landscape of a little boy called Gerald, and arguably of the world, for ever.
Scarfe himself is best known for his classic images lampooning the great and the good of politics, and also in his iconic animation for Pink Floyd's The Wall. He reveals in this program that he also spent time working on the Disney production Hercules.
Winston Churchill's is the Great Life chosen by Lord Digby Jones, former Director General of the CBI. Expert contribution comes from Professor David Reynolds. Both men have vivid memories of the day in 1965 when, as children, they heard that Churchill had died. Surprisingly this is the first time that Churchill has been nominated in the series.
Considered by many a busted flush in the 1930s, Churchill is now remembered as our greatest wartime leader - his speech before the Battle of Britain still sends a shiver down the spine. But his great qualities and personal flaws remained inextricably linked. David Reynolds has uncovered a stark revelation about Churchill's real state of mind at the time he made that speech, while Digby Jones argues that the ability to instil confidence in people even when there is little rational hope of victory is one of the signs of a great leader. He believes that no one made his mark on the last century in the way that Churchill did.
David Reynolds does not subscribe to the Great Man theory of history. He is the Professor of International History at Cambridge University. Known to Radio 4 listeners as the writer and presenter of "America, Empire of Liberty", he has also written extensively on Churchill, including the book "In Command of History" about Churchill's memoirs of World War Two. The presenter is Matthew Parris.
Golda Meir was the Iron Lady of Israeli politics, a straight-talking, intransigent leader who once said, "There is a type of woman who does not let her husband narrow her horizons". She is the choice of former Conservative government minister Edwina Currie.
Golda Meir was born in Kiev and educated in the United States, but moved to Palestine her twenties, just after the First World War. One of the signatories on Israel's Declaration of Independence in 1948, Meir was elected to the Knesset and stayed there until she retired in her late sixties. But when prime minister Levi Eshkol died unexpectedly she was called back to take his place. She was the compromise candidate but stayed there for five years and was in power during the Yom Kippur War.
Edwina Currie admires her conviction and humanity, and that fact that she reminds her of her granny.
Ahron Bregman from the Department of War Studies at Kings College London, served in the Israeli army and was present at Golda Meir's funeral. Unlike Edwina, Ahron thinks Golda Meir made some unforgiveable mistakes.
Broadcasts
1.
Tue 7 Sep 2010
16:30
BBC Radio 4
2.
Fri 10 Sep 2010
23:00
BBC Radio 4
Simone Weil - mystic, social activist, and sort of latter day saint - is one of the more unexpected recent choices for Great Lives. She is remembered chiefly these days for her writings and the controversy over whether she starved herself to death, at the age of 34. But for Eleanor Bron she remains the supreme example of someone who lived her life according to her ideals.
Born in 1909 in Paris, Simone Weil chose to work in factories, volunteered for the anarchist militia in the Spanish Civil War, and tried to persuade General de Gaulle in the Second World War to parachute nurses onto the frontline. She seemed permanently compelled to identify with suffering, but not, argues Eleanor Bron, in a preachy way. Grahame Davies, who based his first novel on Simone Weil's life, largely agrees.
Eleanor Bron's career began with satire at the Establishment Club. She appeared alongside the Beatles in Help - her name is said to have inspired McCartney's Eleanor Rigby - and on television she has featured in Yes Minister, Doctor Who, Absolutely Fabulous, and so the list goes on. The presenter is Matthew Parris, and the producer is Miles Warde.
Matthew Parris is joined by the founder of Kids' Company, the psychotherapist Camila Batmanghelidjh, to discuss the life of her Victorian equivalent, Mary Carpenter.
Mary Carpenter developed theories for helping deprived and criminalised children through the experience of running schools and reformatories in Bristol in the mid-nineteenth century. She became very influential as MPs turned to her for advice on educational and penal reform regarding children. Her guiding principle was that the treatment of troubled children should be based on the love of the child, not on ideas of punishment or retribution.
Camila Batmanghelidjh founded Kids' Company to offer practical support 'and love' to vulnerable inner city children who may lack it from their families. She was surprised to discover how closely Mary Carpenter's beliefs mirror her own, one hundred and fifty years on, and how many of the problems Mary Carpenter described remain unchanged. Camila finds Dickensian conditions in the homes of South London children now, with filthy conditions, parents who are intoxicated and drugs being used to control or pacify children. These scenes would have been familiar to Mary Carpenter as she visited families in the slums of Bristol.
The parallels between the two women are striking: both exhibited a gift for dealing with children at an early age; both decided to devote their lives to the cause, eschewing a family life of their own; both have had to spend time raising money and advocating on behalf of the children they represent.
Matthew and Camila are joined by biographer and historian Carla Contractor in this fascinating and moving programme.
The disgrace and resignation of Richard Nixon in 1974 was a profoundly traumatic moment in the history of the American presidency, leaving us the endlessly influential word Watergate and a cynicism about politics which arguably has only now, with Barack Obama, started to heal. His life is thus perhaps a strange one to nominate as "great", but the historian Dominic Sandbrook unhesitatingly selected him for celebration in this programme. Matthew Parris talks to him about his intriguing choice, and calls on Professor Philip Davies of the Eccles Centre for American Studies to round out the picture.
The Greek poet Sappho has been described as everything from a great intellectual to little more than a vamp. Hard facts about her life are in short supply - we know that she lived on the island of Lesbos over two and half thousand years ago, and fragments of her poetry still survive. The best examples deal with the language of desire, but whether she really was a lesbian (with a small l) is less clear. Historian Bettany Hughes is as obsessed with who Sappho might be, as with whom the fragmentary evidence suggest she was. "This lack of facts has not stopped people making up stories about her," writes expert Peggy Reynolds. "Sappho is not a name, much less a person. It is, rather, a space." An enigmatic choice for presenter Matthew Parris to decipher.
Journalist John Harris, author of influential books on music, politics and popular culture, was born just as the Beatles were splitting up, and was only 11 when John Lennon died. Yet Lennon's mischievous anti-establishment position - and the richness of his lyrics and music - makes him Harris's nomination for a Great Life. Matthew Parris tries to define what it is that makes this enigmatic, often difficult figure an inspiring subject for reflection. The expert witness is Barry Miles, in whose London gallery John first met Yoko in the mid 1960s.
This is the first of new series of Great Lives - future programmes include Bettany Hughes on the Greek poet Sappho and Dominic Sandbrook on Richard Nixon.
For 50 years, Millicent Garrett Fawcett struggled to win the right to vote for women in Britain, yet today she is little-known compared to the suffragette leaders who took a more militant course. Feminist campaigner Lesley Abdela discusses the extraordinary 'MGF', with Matthew Parris and historian Elizabeth Crawford
Replies
Matthew Parris presents the biographical series. Cartoonist Gerald Scarfe discusses the life of Walt Disney.
Gerald Scarfe spent much of his childhood in his sick bed, so it's not surprising that Disney cartoons and feature films meant so much to him. He can still recall the thrill at the prospect of seeing Pinocchio at the cinema, and then the agony of being lead away again in the rain because the tickets were too expensive.
Walt Disney came from a working family. His god-fearing father Elias, said by one writer to have 'hated Capital, and favored Labor, but really needed to make a buck', found work where he could. So Walt lived a peripatetic childhood, and sought solace in drawing and play acting. Hard times early on did not make Walt frugal with money in adulthood, and despite the huge successes of the golden era of Disney, it was only with the opening of Disneyland that Walt attained any substantial personal wealth.
You don't have to look far to find myth surrounding Walt Disney. Even after his death, rumors that his body had been cryogenically frozen spread so widely that they soon slipped into folklore. He had actually been cremated, but the readiness with which the cryogenic claim was accepted perhaps bears witness to a man who was terrified of dying, who believed in the white hope of technology and who, some might say, had been searching all his life for an escape into an immortal, fairytale world.
Matthew Parris, Gerald Scarfe and guest experts Brian Sibley and Richard Williams, creator of Roger Rabbit, discuss the life of a complex cultural icon. A man who was seemingly unpretentious, and did not fit the image of movie mogul with his scruffy tweed jacket and awkward demeanor, yet a man who was accused of being a tyrannical egomaniac. The son of a socialist who ended up naming names at the House of Un- American Activities committee. Above all else perhaps though, they discuss the life of a man who strove tirelessly for perfection and who changed the cultural landscape of a little boy called Gerald, and arguably of the world, for ever.
Scarfe himself is best known for his classic images lampooning the great and the good of politics, and also in his iconic animation for Pink Floyd's The Wall. He reveals in this program that he also spent time working on the Disney production Hercules.
The producer is Miles Warde.
BBC-Great Lives-Walt Disney.mp3
Winston Churchill, Great Lives 100914
Winston Churchill's is the Great Life chosen by Lord Digby Jones, former Director General of the CBI. Expert contribution comes from Professor David Reynolds. Both men have vivid memories of the day in 1965 when, as children, they heard that Churchill had died. Surprisingly this is the first time that Churchill has been nominated in the series.
Considered by many a busted flush in the 1930s, Churchill is now remembered as our greatest wartime leader - his speech before the Battle of Britain still sends a shiver down the spine. But his great qualities and personal flaws remained inextricably linked. David Reynolds has uncovered a stark revelation about Churchill's real state of mind at the time he made that speech, while Digby Jones argues that the ability to instil confidence in people even when there is little rational hope of victory is one of the signs of a great leader. He believes that no one made his mark on the last century in the way that Churchill did.
David Reynolds does not subscribe to the Great Man theory of history. He is the Professor of International History at Cambridge University. Known to Radio 4 listeners as the writer and presenter of "America, Empire of Liberty", he has also written extensively on Churchill, including the book "In Command of History" about Churchill's memoirs of World War Two. The presenter is Matthew Parris.
Winston Churchill, Great Lives 100914 160k.mp3
Golda Meir
Golda Meir was the Iron Lady of Israeli politics, a straight-talking, intransigent leader who once said, "There is a type of woman who does not let her husband narrow her horizons". She is the choice of former Conservative government minister Edwina Currie.
Golda Meir was born in Kiev and educated in the United States, but moved to Palestine her twenties, just after the First World War. One of the signatories on Israel's Declaration of Independence in 1948, Meir was elected to the Knesset and stayed there until she retired in her late sixties. But when prime minister Levi Eshkol died unexpectedly she was called back to take his place. She was the compromise candidate but stayed there for five years and was in power during the Yom Kippur War.
Edwina Currie admires her conviction and humanity, and that fact that she reminds her of her granny.
Ahron Bregman from the Department of War Studies at Kings College London, served in the Israeli army and was present at Golda Meir's funeral. Unlike Edwina, Ahron thinks Golda Meir made some unforgiveable mistakes.
Broadcasts
1.
Tue 7 Sep 2010
16:30
BBC Radio 4
2.
Fri 10 Sep 2010
23:00
BBC Radio 4
Great Lives 100907 Golda Meir (Edwina Currie) - podcast.mp3
Great Lives: Simone Weil
Broadcast Tue 31 Aug 2010, Great Lives
160/44; 31.7 MB; sound quality excellent
Simone Weil - mystic, social activist, and sort of latter day saint - is one of the more unexpected recent choices for Great Lives. She is remembered chiefly these days for her writings and the controversy over whether she starved herself to death, at the age of 34. But for Eleanor Bron she remains the supreme example of someone who lived her life according to her ideals.
Born in 1909 in Paris, Simone Weil chose to work in factories, volunteered for the anarchist militia in the Spanish Civil War, and tried to persuade General de Gaulle in the Second World War to parachute nurses onto the frontline. She seemed permanently compelled to identify with suffering, but not, argues Eleanor Bron, in a preachy way. Grahame Davies, who based his first novel on Simone Weil's life, largely agrees.
Eleanor Bron's career began with satire at the Establishment Club. She appeared alongside the Beatles in Help - her name is said to have inspired McCartney's Eleanor Rigby - and on television she has featured in Yes Minister, Doctor Who, Absolutely Fabulous, and so the list goes on. The presenter is Matthew Parris, and the producer is Miles Warde.
Great Lives 100831 Simone Weil (Eleanor Bron).mp3
Great Lives: Mary Carpenter
Broadcast Tue 24 Aug 2010, 16:30
160/44; 31.7 MB; sound quality excellent
Matthew Parris is joined by the founder of Kids' Company, the psychotherapist Camila Batmanghelidjh, to discuss the life of her Victorian equivalent, Mary Carpenter.
Mary Carpenter developed theories for helping deprived and criminalised children through the experience of running schools and reformatories in Bristol in the mid-nineteenth century. She became very influential as MPs turned to her for advice on educational and penal reform regarding children. Her guiding principle was that the treatment of troubled children should be based on the love of the child, not on ideas of punishment or retribution.
Camila Batmanghelidjh founded Kids' Company to offer practical support 'and love' to vulnerable inner city children who may lack it from their families. She was surprised to discover how closely Mary Carpenter's beliefs mirror her own, one hundred and fifty years on, and how many of the problems Mary Carpenter described remain unchanged. Camila finds Dickensian conditions in the homes of South London children now, with filthy conditions, parents who are intoxicated and drugs being used to control or pacify children. These scenes would have been familiar to Mary Carpenter as she visited families in the slums of Bristol.
The parallels between the two women are striking: both exhibited a gift for dealing with children at an early age; both decided to devote their lives to the cause, eschewing a family life of their own; both have had to spend time raising money and advocating on behalf of the children they represent.
Matthew and Camila are joined by biographer and historian Carla Contractor in this fascinating and moving programme.
Produced by Mary Ward-Lowery.
Great Lives 100824 Mary Carpenter (Camila Batmanghelidjh).mp3
Richard Nixon - Great Lives 100817
The disgrace and resignation of Richard Nixon in 1974 was a profoundly traumatic moment in the history of the American presidency, leaving us the endlessly influential word Watergate and a cynicism about politics which arguably has only now, with Barack Obama, started to heal. His life is thus perhaps a strange one to nominate as "great", but the historian Dominic Sandbrook unhesitatingly selected him for celebration in this programme. Matthew Parris talks to him about his intriguing choice, and calls on Professor Philip Davies of the Eccles Centre for American Studies to round out the picture.
Producer: Christine Hall.
Richard Nixon, Great Lives 100817 160k.mp3
Sappho, Great Lives 100810
The Greek poet Sappho has been described as everything from a great intellectual to little more than a vamp. Hard facts about her life are in short supply - we know that she lived on the island of Lesbos over two and half thousand years ago, and fragments of her poetry still survive. The best examples deal with the language of desire, but whether she really was a lesbian (with a small l) is less clear. Historian Bettany Hughes is as obsessed with who Sappho might be, as with whom the fragmentary evidence suggest she was. "This lack of facts has not stopped people making up stories about her," writes expert Peggy Reynolds. "Sappho is not a name, much less a person. It is, rather, a space." An enigmatic choice for presenter Matthew Parris to decipher.
Sappho, Great Lives 100810 160k.mp3
Much thanks!
CB
Great Lives - John Lennon
13/08/2010 BBC Radio 4
Podcast Quality
Duration: 25:33
Bitrate: 64 kbps
Samplerate: 44100
MPEG-1 layer 3
Journalist John Harris, author of influential books on music, politics and popular culture, was born just as the Beatles were splitting up, and was only 11 when John Lennon died. Yet Lennon's mischievous anti-establishment position - and the richness of his lyrics and music - makes him Harris's nomination for a Great Life. Matthew Parris tries to define what it is that makes this enigmatic, often difficult figure an inspiring subject for reflection. The expert witness is Barry Miles, in whose London gallery John first met Yoko in the mid 1960s.
This is the first of new series of Great Lives - future programmes include Bettany Hughes on the Greek poet Sappho and Dominic Sandbrook on Richard Nixon.
Producer: Christine Hall.
Great Lives - John Lennon.mp3
Millicent Fawcett
For 50 years, Millicent Garrett Fawcett struggled to win the right to vote for women in Britain, yet today she is little-known compared to the suffragette leaders who took a more militant course. Feminist campaigner Lesley Abdela discusses the extraordinary 'MGF', with Matthew Parris and historian Elizabeth Crawford
061219_great_lives_ep2_millicent_fawcett.mp3
-
1
-
2
-
3
-
4
-
5
of 5 Next