Last Word

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...

Matthew Bannister on Miriam Rodríguez Martínez- the Mexican woman whose daughter was killed by drug cartels - and who led a campaign for justice for thousands of missing people. Lord Soulsby - the first vet to be made a peer. He was an expert on parasites nicknamed "Lord of the Worms." Peter Sallis the actor best known for his role as Norman Clegg in Last of the Summer Wine - and for being the voi...

Julian Worricker on: The broadcaster, John Noakes, who was famous for his daredevil exploits on Blue Peter for thirteen years.... Manuel Noriega, who flirted with the Americans as leader of Panama, and ended up being jailed by them.... The dancer for whom one photograph of her on railings on Blackpool promenade shot her to fame, Pat Stewart.... Wing Commander Rex Sanders, lead navigator on a serie...

Andrea Catherwood on Brendan Duddy, the businessman from Derry who played a key but unsung role in the Northern Ireland peace process hosting secret talks between MI6 and the IRA. Nina Lowry, the first woman to become an Old Bailey judge, who helped toughen up sentencing on sex crimes. Roger Ailes, the controversial figure who conceived and ran Rupert Murdoch's Fox News Network for two decades bef...

Matthew Bannister on Rhodri Morgan the former Welsh First Minister, known as the Labour Party's "Father of Welsh devolution". Michael Wearing the TV producer behind award winning series like "Boys From The Blackstuff" and "Edge of Darkness". Helen Szamuely who helped to start the Anti Federalist League - which became the UK Independence Party. The Moors murderer Ian Brady. And the DJ Robert Miles...

Matthew Bannister on The Swiss climber Ueli Steck, famous for his daring high speed ascents of the world's most challenging mountains without the use of oxygen. Lord Williams the human rights expert who advised three Labour Foreign secretaries. Sylvia Moy who co-wrote many of Stevie Wonder's best known songs, including "I Was Made To Love Her" and "My Cherie Amour." Captain James Dickson, the expe...

Matthew Bannister on Robert Pirsig, author of the best selling book Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. Shobha Nehru, the Hungarian woman who married into India's most powerful political dynasty - and used her position to confront Prime Minister Indira Ghandi about human rights abuses. Michael Ballhaus, the cinematographer who worked closely with Martin Scorsese. Leo Baxendale, the cartooni...

Matthew Bannister on The film director Jonathan Demme - best known for the multi Oscar winning films Silence of the Lambs and Philadelphia. Robert Taylor who helped to develop the first networked computers - a forerunner of the internet - and inspired the creation of modern personal computers. Cathy Hopkins who campaigned for the residents of St Helena to get back their British citizenship. Peter...

Matthew Bannister on The theatre director Michael Bogdanov, who co-founded the English Shakespeare Company. His National Theatre production of the Romans In Britain led to an obscenity trial. The ethnomusicologist Louis Sarno who fell in love with the music of an obscure tribe of pygmies in the Central African Republic and went to live with them. Sheila Abdus Salaam, who became the first African A...

Julian Worricker on: The society columnist and Holocaust survivor, Masha Leon.... Actor Tim Pigott-Smith and director Christopher Morahan, who worked together on ITV's The Jewel in the Crown.... Playwright Parv Bancil whose work tackled issues affecting young British Asians.... Marthe Gosteli, who was at the forefront of the campaign to get women the vote in Switzerland.... And the broadcaster, ho...

Matthew Bannister on the Black Power activist and journalist Darcus Howe. He was a leading campaigner for equal rights in the 1970s and 80s. Athletics coach Andy Coogan who spent three and a half years as a prisoner of the Japanese during the second world war. Dr Sylvia Moody, the clinical psychologist who pioneered greater understanding of dyslexia in adults. The Russian poet Yevgeny Yevtushenko...

Matthew Bannister on Playwright and novelist David Storey who drew on his experiences as a professional rugby league player in some of his work. The South African anti apartheid activist Ahmed Kathrada who spent twenty six years in prison with Nelson Mandela and then became his parliamentary adviser. Barbara Buss who edited Woman Magazine in its 1970s heyday. And Lucky Gordon, the drug dealer, jaz...