Last Word

(Photo: Russian baritone Dmitri Hvorostovsky) Matthew Bannister on The Russian baritone Dmitri Hvorostovsky, known for playing leading operatic roles - and for his silver hair and matinee idol looks. Unity Spencer who overcame a dysfunctional upbringing as the daughter of the painter Stanley Spencer to be recognised as an accomplished artist in her own right. Lewis Golden, the war veteran who set...

Matthew Bannister on Lord Imbert, the Commissioner who tried to change the culture of the Metropolitan Police. He invited TV cameras to observe his officers at work, leading to a controversial film of them subjecting a rape victim to aggressive questioning. Pat Hutchins, the children's author and illustrator who created the book "Rosie's Walk" and presented the TV series "Rosie and Jim". Rodney Be...

Matthew Bannister on Lord Hutchinson of Lullington, the barrister who appeared in many celebrated cases, including defending the publication of Lady Chatterley's Lover and the director of the play Romans In Britain and securing the acquittal of Howard Marks on drug smuggling charges. Linda Nochlin the feminist art historian who wrote a celebrated article in the 1970s entitled "Why Have There Been...

Matthew Bannister on The chef Antonio Carluccio who transformed Italian cooking in the UK. Sima Wali who devoted her life to campaigning for the rights of Afghan women. The Pulitzer Prize winning American poet laureate Richard Wilbur. Mary Reveley, the Yorkshire based race horse trainer who saddled more than two thousand winners. And Dudley Simpson who composed the theme from the TV series Blake's...

Matthew Bannister on Howard Pendleton who made the Marquee Club a launch pad for scores of rock stars including the Rolling Stones, the Who and David Bowie and started the Reading Festival. Glenn Barr, the Unionist leader who brought Northern Ireland to its knees for thirteen days. Iona Opie who devoted her life to collecting nursery rhymes and studying children's use of stories and language. Gary...

Matthew Bannister on The campaigning Maltese journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia who was killed by a car bomb after exposing corruption in politics and business. Fats Domino - the rock and roll pioneer who was second only to Elvis in record sales. Rodney Bickerstaffe, the trade union leader who campaigned for the minimum wage. Geoffrey Schild, the virologist who laid the foundations for the creation...

Matthew Bannister on Sean Hughes, the comedian who pioneered stand up with a narrative and was a team captain on "Never Mind the Buzzcocks". Architect David Marks who mortgaged his house as he battled to turn his design for the London Eye into an international landmark. Major Khush Ahmad-ul-Mulk, the last surviving son of the Mehtar of Chitral who ruled the state in the North West of Pakistan for...

Julian Worricker on: Lillian Ross, who wrote for the New Yorker, and created a new form of journalism.... The Iraqi president after the fall of Saddam Hussein, Jalal Talabani - a prominent Kurdish politician.... The boxer Terry Downes, who held the world middleweight title in the 1960s.... Sybil Flory, a seamstress who evaded the Japanese in 1941, and found her sister six decades later.... Hedley...

Matthew Bannister on The actor Tony Booth, best known for playing Alf Garnett's left wing son-in-law in the TV comedy Till Death Us Do Part - and notorious for his womanising and heavy drinking. His daughter Cherie Blair shares her memories. Lillian Bettencourt who was the richest woman in the world - as heiress to the L'Oreal cosmetics group. She was also embroiled in a bitter court battle over h...

Matthew Bannister on Hugh Hefner who built the Playboy empire on a best selling magazine. Was he a libertarian who changed attitudes to sex or a sleazy pornographer? Soviet officer Stanislav Petrov who is credited with averting a nuclear disaster during the Cold War. The right wing Conservative M.P. Teddy Taylor best known for his outspoken opposition to the European Union. And actress Liz Dawn wh...

Matthew Bannister on David Shepherd, the artist who painted trains, aeroplanes and elephants and worked tirelessly to conserve wild animals. Nancy Hatch Dupree, the American born adventurer and writer who devoted her life to creating an archive of Afghan culture and history. Gordon Williams, the Booker prize shortlisted author whose novel The Siege of Trencher's farm became the controversial film...

Matthew Bannister on Sir Peter Hall, the director who founded the Royal Shakespeare Company, ran the National Theatre and created many acclaimed theatrical and operatic productions. Kate Millett, the radical feminist whose 1970 book Sexual Politics suggested that men's institutionalised power over women is a social construct, rather than innate or biological. Sir Edward Du Cann, the Tory MP and bu...

Matthew Bannister on: The flamboyant businessman Sir David Tang who founded the fashion label Shanghai Tang and collected celebrity friends. Tracey Emin pays tribute. Professor Dame Margaret Turner-Warwick who became one of the world's leading authorities on thoracic medicine after suffering from tuberculosis as a child. Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, the genial head of the Catholic Church in En...

Matthew Bannister on Dick Gregory, the African American comedian and civil rights activist who was also a dietician to stars like John Lennon and Mohammed Ali. Jeannie Rousseau who spied on the Nazis' secret weapons programme. Wayne Lotter, the South African elephant conservationist who has been shot dead in Tanzania. Sean O'Callaghan, the leading IRA member who turned informer. He helped to stop...

Brian Aldiss - the gifted science fiction author who inspired the Hollywood movie AI artificial intelligence. Jerry Lewis the American comic who - with Dean Martin found fame as one of the most successful double acts of all time. Blanche Blackwell - the Jamaican society hostess who became Ian Fleming's lover and some believe - the inspiration for the Bond movie character Pussy Galore. Abu Kifah, t...

Kate Silverton on the "Broadway Diva" Barbara Cook, the American singer and actress who first came to prominence in the 1950s as the lead in the original Broadway musicals Plain and Fancy and Candide; Sister Ruth Pfau 'Mother Teresa' of Pakistan for her work in combating the spread of leprosy; Richard Gordon the anesthetist,whose medical work inspired him to write Dr in The House novels which were...

Matthew Bannister on Glen Campbell - the singer and guitarist best known for hits like Galveston and Witchita Lineman. We talk to the man who wrote them - Jimmy Webb. Dame Helen Alexander, former Chief Executive of the Economist Group and the first woman to head the C.B.I. Clancy Sigal the American writer and activist who was blacklisted during the Communist witch hunts of the 1950s. Prunella Bria...

Matthew Bannister on The actor Robert Hardy, best known for his roles in All Creatures Great and Small and the Harry Potter films and for playing Winston Churchill. David Jones who wrote the Daedalus column in New Scientist magazine and came up with an endless stream of inventive and challenging experiments. Jeanne Moreau the iconic French actress who was actually half English. Mark Wilkinson - th...

Matthew Bannister on Mary Turner the President of the GMB Union who started her campaigning life by organising her fellow dinner ladies at a North London school. Chester Bennington, lead singer of the band Linkin Park who sold more than seventy million copies of their nu-metal albums. Scharlette Holdman who cajoled lawyers into representing people on death row in American prisons and developed tec...

Matthew Bannister on Chuck Blazer who embezzled millions of dollars from the international football organisation FIFA, then turned whistle blower to incriminate his former colleagues. Maryam Mirzakhani, the Iranian mathematician who became the first woman to win the prestigious Fields Medal. The architect Bryan Avery who designed the drama school RADA and the London Imax cinema. Peter McHugh, the...

Matthew Bannister on Simone Veil, the Holocaust survivor who became a leading French politician and President of the European Parliament. Graham Rose who directed some of the best loved TV commercials, including the award winning Photo Booth for Hamlet Cigars. Tom Isaacs who was diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease at the age of 27 and raised hundreds of thousands of pounds for research by walking r...

Matthew Bannister on Barry Norman - best known for presenting the BBC television's Film programme,on radio he also fronted the Today Programme and the News Quiz. Gordon Wilson, the leader who re-built the Scottish National Party after electoral defeat and internal division. Jazz pianist and composer Geri Allen who played in a wide range of styles and was committed to the advancement of women in ja...

Matthew Bannister on Lord Joffe, the lawyer who defended Nelson Mandela at the infamous Rivonia trial. He went on to co-found the Allied Dunbar insurance company and sat as a Labour peer in the House of Lords. Michael Bond who created Paddington Bear, the Herbs and the guinea pig Olga Da Polga. Ann Louise Gilligan the former nun who campaigned for her same sex marriage to be recognised in Irish la...

Julian Worricker on: Helmut Kohl, Chancellor of Germany at the time of the country's re-unification. Anita Pallenberg, artiste and muse to three of the Rolling Stones. Scientist, Brian Bellhouse, who invented the needle-free injection. Naseem Khan, a pioneering figure within the minority ethnic arts scene in Britain. Brian Cant, children's TV presenter, most famous for his twenty years on Play Sch...

Matthew Bannister on Arms dealer Adnan Khashoggi, known for his lavish life style, he acted as a middle man between governments and arms suppliers. Countess Mountbatten, godmother to Prince Charles, she was badly wounded in the IRA bomb attack which killed her father, Earl Mountbatten of Burma, and her son Nicholas. Adam West, the actor best known for playing Batman on TV. Kailash Puri, the Indian...