Last Word

Matthew Bannister on TV pioneer Peter Dimmock. An accomplished presenter and also a BBC executive, he directed the coverage of the Queen's coronation in 1953. Also SOE agent Alix d'Unienville. In the days before D Day she was parachuted into occupied France with a suitcase containing forty million francs. Yolanda Sonnabend who designed some of the UK's best loved ballets Maggie Eales who rose from...

Matthew Bannister on Roy Dommett, one of the UK's leading rocket scientists who was also a well known morris dancer. Warren Mitchell, the actor best known for playing Alf Garnett in the TV sit com "Till Death Us Do Part" Allen Toussaint, the New Orleans producer and musician who worked with many of the great names in rock. Cynthia Payne, who ran a brothel at her home in Streatham where men exchang...

Matthew Bannister on Helmut Schmidt, the German Chancellor who helped to design the European Monetary System and agreed that US nuclear weapons could be sited in his country. His friend the former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger pays tribute. Also the jockey Pat Eddery - Willie Carson remembers their rivalry on the course and their friendship off it. The actress and TV scriptwriter Julia Jon...

Matthew Bannister on Norman Moore, the conservationist who discovered that organochorine pesticides were decimating the UK's bird of prey population. He fought a twenty year campaign to have them banned. The singer Diane Charlemagne - known as the diva of drum and bass. We have a tribute from Moby. The academic David Cesarani - a leading authority on modern Jewish history. The actor and screenwrit...

Matthew Bannister on Professor Lisa Jardine, the historian whose intellectual curiosity stretched across the arts and sciences. She was chair of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority and a regular broadcaster on Radio 4. Philip French, for thirty-five years the Chief Film Critic of the Observer. Ronnie Massarella who built up a successful family ice cream business and managed the Britis...

Matthew Bannister on General Jack Galvin who was NATO's Supreme Allied Commander in Europe as the Cold War ended. Generals Colin Powell and David Petraeus pay tribute. Joan Leslie - the Hollywood star who made forty films in ten years. Michael Meacher - the former Environment minister once described by Neil Kinnock as "Tony Benn's vicar on earth." The Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn joins us. Howard K...

Julian Worricker on: The former Chancellor and Foreign Secretary, Geoffrey Howe, whose resignation speech in the Commons was generally regarded as the beginning of the end for Margaret Thatcher as Prime Minister. The journalist, Sue Lloyd-Roberts, whose reporting frequently took her to some of the most dangerous parts of the world. The farmer and conservationist, Joe Henson, who founded the Rare B...

Lucy Ash on the former Labour politician Denis Healey who was Chancellor of the Exchequer during the Winter of Discontent in 70s; Catalan literary agent Carmen Ballcells known as Big Mamma to her Nobel Prize winning authors;Captain Bob Arnott, beloved by his passengers on the QE2; Swedish crime writer Henning Mankell and radical priest Reverend Kenneth Leech, who founded the homelessness charity C...

Matthew Bannister on The award winning Irish playwright Brian Friel, best known for Dancing At Lughnasa and Translations. Argentine General Mario Menéndez who was appointed Governor of the Falkland Islands during the invasion. Tessa Ransford who founded the Scottish Poetry Library. John Guillermin who directed movie blockbusters like The Towering Inferno, Death on the Nile, and the 1976 re-make of...

Matthew Bannister on Brian Sewell, the art critic with the distinctive voice, outspoken opinions and love of dogs. Jackie Collins who sold millions of copies of her sex and showbusiness novels, Ted Smith, the conservationist who built up the UK's network of Wildlife Trusts. PJ Kavanagh, the poet who also played a Nazi loving priest in the TV comedy Father Ted. And Yogi Berra the top baseball playe...

Matthew Bannister on Sir David Willcocks - one of the most influential choir masters of his generation. Known for his descants to Christmas carols, he was director of music at King's College Cambridge for 17 years - and led the Bach choir for 38. Merv Adelson the property developer who founded the TV company Lorimar which made hits like the Waltons, Dallas and Knots Landing. Mariem Hassan, the sin...

Matthew Bannister on Sir Adrian Cadbury - who was chairman of the family confectionery firm, led its merger with Schweppes and wrote an influential report on corporate governance. He was also an Olympic rower - and Sir Steve Redgrave pays tribute. Rico Rodriguez the trombonist who helped create ska and reggae and played with the Specials and Jools Holland, who shares his memories. Ieng Thirith - h...

Matthew Bannister on Lord Montagu of Beaulieu who founded the National Motor Museum, opened his estate to the public and served a prison sentence for homosexuality. His son, who has succeeded to the title, pays tribute. Joy Beverley - one of the Beverley sisters who became close harmony singing stars in the 1940s and 50s. She married the England and Wolves footballer Billy Wright, making them the...

Matthew Bannister on The trade union official Bernie Passingham who helped women workers at the Ford Motor Company in their fight for equal pay. Medical researcher Chris Marshall who identified one of the human oncogenes which cause cancer. Wayne Carson who wrote the song Always on My Mind, which was recorded by Elvis Presley, the Pet Shop Boys and eight hundred other artists. Michael Turk, a Quee...

Presenter Lucy Ash remembers: Khaled Al-Asaad, the Syrian archaeologist beheaded by Islamic State who was famous for his in depth knowledge and love of the ancient city of Palmyra; Jazz Summers, the maverick music manager who took Wham! to China and had a reputation as a hard man; Jack Gold, multi-BAFTA winning TV director of the Naked Civil Servant and Goodnight Mr Tom; Manuel Contreras, the army...

Last Word is presented by Reeta Chakrabarti this week. She will be remembering: The comic writer and novelist David Nobbs - we speak to his friend and fellow writer Jonathan Coe about the man who invented the 1970s anti-hero Reginald Perrin; Frances Kelsey, the scientist whose concerns about the drug Thalidomide prevented it from being approved in the US; Kyril Zinovieff, who as a child in Russia...

Matthew Bannister on The singer and TV presenter Cilla Black - we go behind the scenes to discover the secret of her success on Saturday night TV. Michael Kidson who taught history at Eton for thirty years, delighting his pupils by his maverick behaviour. The Indian scientist and reluctant politician APJ Abdul Kalam, known as the "People's President". The Scottish public health campaigner Evelyn G...

Matthew Bannister on The Reverend Owen Chadwick, the distinguished ecclesiastical historian who was vice Chancellor of Cambridge University during student protests in the 1970s and chaired an influential commission on Church and State. Also Jon Vickers the operatic tenor best known for playing muscular roles like Samson, Otello and Peter Grimes. Yoichiro Nambu, the theoretical physicist who won th...

Matthew Bannister on Joyce Bennett who was the first English woman to be ordained as an Anglican priest. It happened in Hong Kong in 1971. Prince Saud al-Faisal, who was the world's longest serving foreign minister, representing the interests of Saudi Arabia for forty years. Burt Shavitz, the American beekeeper who developed a popular range of beeswax products. Professor Michael Oliver, the physic...

Matthew Bannister on Actor Omar Sharif Flying squad detective Stanley Moore - always known as Steve, he helped to catch some of the Great Train Robbers. Theatre Director Jules Wright who co-founded the Women's Playhouse Trust and set up the Wapping Project arts venue. Former Russian Foreign and Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov. And the composer Ernest Tomlinson, best known for his light orchestral...

Matthew Bannister on Sir Nicholas Winton who saved 669 children from the advancing Nazis in Czechoslovakia. Also the Irish singer Val Doonican - known for his cardigans and rocking chair - he was sometimes called Britain's Bing Crosby. The Indian artist Nek Chand who created the extraordinary Rock Garden of Chandigarh. Jarvis Cocker pays tribute. The novelist and former fighter pilot James Salter...

Matthew Bannister on: The controversial Chief Inspector of Schools Sir Chris Woodhead who said he was paid to challenge "mediocrity, failure and complacency". The actor Patrick Macnee, best known for playing the suave John Steed in the Avengers. Dame Diana Rigg pays tribute. Dame Anne Warburton who was the UK's first woman ambassador. The Fleet Street sub-editor Vic Mayhew, who was as well known f...

Matthew Bannister on Morris Beckman - the East End Jewish activist who co-founded the 43 Group to fight against post-war British fascists. Ornette Coleman - the pioneering saxophonist who developed free jazz improvisation. Tanith Lee - the prolific science fiction author who also wrote episodes of the TV series Blake's 7. Süleyman Demirel - who was seven times Prime Minister and then President of...

Andrea Catherwood on film star Christopher Lee, internationally famous for his villainous, on screen roles. Cookery writer and broadcasting pioneer Marguerite Patten, explorer Major 'Roy' Homard who made the first crossing of the Antarctic, German born band leader and purveyor of 'Happy Music' James Last and actor Ron Moody, best known for playing Fagin in Oliver.

Andrea Catherwood on Iraqi politician Tariq Aziz, former Leader of the Liberal Democrats Charles Kennedy; Oscar winning costume designer Julie Harris; flamboyant Australian property developer and entrepreneur Alan Bond and violinist Peter Cropper who founded the Lindsay Quartet.