Last Word

Matthew Bannister on The actor and singer Chaim Topol (pictured), best known for his performances in the musical Fiddler on the Roof. Zandra Flemister, the first African American woman to work as a Secret Service special agent. The prolific cartoonist Bill Tidy MBE who created the Cloggies and The Fosdyke Saga. Avis Fawcitt, the Leicestershire music teacher who devoted her life to the Orphean Yout...

Matthew Bannister on Judith Heumann (pictured), the American disability rights campaigner who led the longest non-violent occupation of a Federal building in US history. Brian Tufano, the cinematographer who shot films like Quadrophenia, Trainspotting and Billy Elliot. Sir David Elliott, a key figure in the negotiations that created the European single market. Elizabeth Foulkes, who helped to defi...

Kirsty Lang on The extraordinary Lady Betty Boothroyd (pictured) who went from humble beginnings in a Yorkshire mill town to becoming Westminster’s first female Speaker. John Motson OBE - the BBC’s voice of football for half a century, The pioneering New York publisher Marianne Mantell who paved the way for audio books... And Lithuanian pianist Sulamita Aronovsky who founded London’s International...

Kirsty Lang on Dorothy Pitman Hughes who brought black women into the 70s Feminist movement and inspired Gloria Steinem. Raquel Welch (pictured), the Hollywood actor who became a Sixties sex symbol after playing a cavewoman in the film 'One Million Years BC'. The aeronautical engineer Ralph Hooper OBE who designed the revolutionary Harrier jump jet. And Dickie Davies, the sports presenter best kno...

Matthew Bannister on Professor David Vaughan OBE, who was a leading expert on the effects of climate change on glaciers in the Antarctic. Burt Bacharach (pictured), who wrote scores of hit songs including 'I Say A Little Prayer', 'Do You Know The Way To San José' and 'Raindrops Keep Fallin’ On My Head'. Janet Anderson, the Labour MP who wrote entertaining reports of proceedings in parliament for Q...

Matthew Bannister on Frene Ginwala (pictured), one of the leading figures in the anti-apartheid struggle in South Africa, who became Speaker of the country’s first democratically elected parliament. Lady Martha Bruce OBE, governor of Scotland’s first purpose built prison for women. General Pervez Musharraf, who took power as President of Pakistan in a military coup and supported George Bush’s War...

Matthew Bannister on Ralph Ehrmann, the German-born businessman behind the success of the Airfix model kits that delighted a generation of young boys in the 1960s and 70s. Sylvia Syms (pictured), the actor whose roles ranged from beautiful heroines in the 1950s and 60s to Margaret Thatcher and The Queen Mother later in life. Rabbi Dr Abraham Levy, the leader of the UK’s oldest Jewish community who...

Matthew Bannister on Howard Baderman, the hospital consultant who transformed the discipline of emergency medicine and treated casualties from high profile events like the Kings Cross Tube Fire and the sinking of the Thames river boat The Marchioness. David Crosby (pictured), the singer and songwriter with the Byrds and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young whose life went through periods of chaos thro...

Matthew Bannister on Jeff Beck (pictured), who was acclaimed as one of the most influential and innovative rock guitarists of all time. Alice Mahon, the left wing Labour MP who often rebelled against her own party. Tom Karen OBE, the designer who came up with the Raleigh Chopper Bike, the Bond Bug, the Reliant Robin and the Popemobile. Gina Lollobrigida, the first post war Italian actress to gain...

Matthew Bannister on Gianluca Vialli (pictured), the Italian footballer who won many major trophies with Sampdoria and Juventus before moving to Chelsea as a player and then manager. Fay Weldon, the author who told stories of women taking control of their own destinies, including ‘The Life and Loves of A She Devil’. Michael Dower, the former Director General of the Countryside Commission who devot...

Matthew Bannister on Pope Benedict XVI, the religious conservative who was the first Pontiff to resign from the job in almost 600 years. Dame Vivienne Westwood (pictured), punk pioneer, high fashion designer and eco warrior. James Caan, the American actor best known for playing Sonny Corleone in The Godfather. Georgia Holt, the singer who enjoyed success late in life thanks to her daughter Cher. P...

Matthew Bannister on Terry Hall (pictured), the singer who captured the disillusionment of a generation with The Specials’ biggest hit “Ghost Town”. Heather Iandolo, the daughter of the notorious Nazi propaganda broadcaster known as Lord Haw Haw. Eric Allison, who turned his back on a life of crime to become the Guardian’s prisons correspondent. Dame Beryl Grey, the acclaimed ballerina who went on...

Matthew Bannister on The columnist, broadcaster, producer, musician and outrageous hoaxer Victor Lewis-Smith (pictured). Maureen Doherty, the designer who worked with Issey Miyake and founded the influential fashion brand Egg. Edmund de Waal pays tribute. Pablo Milanés, the Cuban musician who was one of the founders of the nueva trova singer/songwriter movement. Ailsa Irving, who started and ran t...

Matthew Bannister on Joyce Bryant (pictured), the American singer who was named by Ebony magazine as one of the five most beautiful black women in the world. Squadron Leader George 'Johnny' Johnson MBE, the last surviving airman who took part in the Dambuster raids. Dame Clare Marx, the first woman to be elected President of the Royal College of Surgeons. Joseph Kittinger, who held the record for...

Matthew Bannister on Christine McVie who wrote some of Fleetwood Mac’s biggest hits and was a key player in the turbulent history of the band. Jiang Zemin, who became Chinese President after the 1989 protests in Tiananmen Square and presided over the opening up of the country’s economy. Derek Granger, the TV and film producer best known for the acclaimed adaptation of Brideshead Revisited. Produce...

Matthew Bannister on Doddie Weir (pictured), the leading Scottish rugby player who spent the last few years of his life raising funds for research into the causes of Motor Neurone Disease. Hebe de Bonafini, the human rights activist from Argentina who led the Mothers of Plaza de Mayo in campaigning to trace victims of the country’s so-called “Dirty War”. Irene Cara, the singer and actor best known...

Matthew Bannister on Mehran Karimi Nasseri – otherwise known as Sir Alfred (pictured). He was the Iranian migrant who lived for eighteen years in terminal one of the Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris. Sue Baker, the motoring journalist who presented Top Gear. Ann Savours, the archivist and polar historian who wrote books on the search for the Northwest Passage and Captain Scott’s ship the Discove...

Matthew Bannister on Peter de Savary, the serial entrepreneur who ran private members’ clubs, once owned both Land’s End and John O’Groats and spent a fortune trying to win the America’s Cup for the UK. Bob Le Sueur MBE, who risked his life during the German occupation of Jersey by helping Russian slave workers to escape. Ela Bhatt (pictured), the Indian trade unionist who campaigned for the right...

Matthew Bannister on Leslie Phillips CBE (pictured), the actor who made his name in the Navy Lark and the Carry On Films, then became a respected character actor. Dame Valerie Beral, the epidemiologist who created the million women study and investigated the safety of the contraceptive pill and HRT. Avtar Singh Jouhl, the trade unionist and activist who campaigned for racial equality. Atarah Ben-T...

Matthew Bannister on Baroness Blood (pictured), the trade unionist, community worker and peace campaigner who became the first woman from Northern Ireland to be given a life peerage. Jerry Lee Lewis, the rock 'n' roll pioneer whose turbulent private life included bigamy, violence and drug addiction. Ian Jack, the journalist known for his long form articles and for editing the Independent on Sunday...

Matthew Bannister on Dame Carmen Callil (pictured), the Australian-born publisher who founded the feminist Virago Books. Ivy Jo Hunter, known as the 'forgotten man of Motown', he co-wrote Dancing In The Street for Martha Reeves and the Vandellas. Kathleen Booth the mathematician and pioneering computer designer. Dietrich Mateschitz, the billionaire who turned the Red Bull energy drink into a globa...

Matthew Bannister on Ian Hamilton KC, the Scottish lawyer who, as a student, took part in removing the Stone of Destiny from Westminster Abbey and returning it to Scotland. Professor Audrey Evans, the paediatric oncologist who founded a global network of homes where the families of her young patients could stay during their treatment. Parvatiben Solanki, who teamed up with her husband to launch Ga...

Matthew Bannister on Dame Angela Lansbury (pictured), the stage and screen actor best known in recent years for her role in the TV series Murder She Wrote. Lady Keswick who was Director of the Conservative think tank the Centre for Policy Studies after being a special adviser to Kenneth Clarke at Education and the Treasury. He pays tribute. Sacheen Littlefeather, who staged a high profile protest...

Matthew Bannister on Yusuf al-Qaradawi, one of the most influential Muslim scholars of his generation. He reached a vast audience through his show on the TV channel Al Jazeera. 'Ma' Smith MBE, who ran a celebrated soup kitchen in Oxford for thirty years. Mike Burrows, the pioneering cycle designer who came up with the Lotus 108 bike ridden by Chris Boardman when he won Olympic Gold in Barcelona. L...

Matthew Bannister on Dame Hilary Mantel (pictured), the Booker prize winning novelist best known for the Wolf Hall trilogy. John McVicar, the former armed robber who studied sociology in prison and became a writer and broadcaster. Joyce Reynolds, the eminent Cambridge classicist who specialised in the study of epigraphs and taught Dame Mary Beard who joins us to remember her. The multi-instrumenta...