Last Word

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...

Kirsty Lang on Jean-Luc Godard (pictured), the critic and filmmaker who revolutionised French cinema. The writer and journalist Barbara Ehrenreich, whose bestseller 'Nickel and Dimed', is considered a classic in social justice literature. Captain Dennis Wilson, the Normandy veteran whose war poems were ranked alongside Wilfred Owen’s... And Mavis Nicholson, the Welsh broadcaster with a knack for m...

Matthew Bannister on Bill Turnbull (pictured), the journalist and BBC Breakfast presenter who was also a beekeeper and committed fan of Wycombe Wanderers. Anne Sutton, whose detailed studies of the life and times of King Richard III transformed his reputation. Norah Vincent, who wrote a best-selling book about her experience of living as a man for eighteen months and then suffered a mental breakdo...

Matthew Bannister on The last President of the Soviet Union Mikhail Gorbachev (pictured), who was feted in the West but often derided in his own country. We follow his journey from a collective farm in Stavropol to momentous times in the Kremlin, including the introduction of Perestroika and Glasnost, the end of the Cold War and the coup that toppled him from power. Stella 'Jaye' Edwards, who was...

Matthew Bannister on Margaret Keane (pictured), the American artist whose paintings of children with 'Big Eyes' became hugely popular in the 1960s. Her identity as the painter was kept secret by her husband who claimed the works as his own. Keith Smith, the market trader who co-founded the Poundland chain of shops. Mario Fiorentini, Italy’s most decorated partisan, who risked torture and death to...

John Wilson on Lamont Dozier (pictured), who wrote dozens of hits for Motown Records. Joan Lingard, the author of the popular Kevin and Sadie books set during the Troubles in Northern Ireland. Issey Miyake, the Japanese fashion designer who survived the atomic bomb. Edana Minghella, the mental health researcher and jazz singer. Producer: Emily Finch Interviewed guest: Eddie Holland Interviewed gue...

Kirsty Lang on James Lovelock (pictured), the scientist and inventor who came up with the Gaia theory. Ayman al-Zawahiri, the leader of the terrorist group Al-Qaeda. Roy Hackett MBE, who led the Bristol bus boycott in 1963. Dame Olivia Newton-John, the singer and actor who starred in Grease. Producer: Emily Finch Interviewed guest: Bryan Appleyard CBE Interviewed guest: Paul Martin Interviewed gue...

Matthew Bannister on Bernard Cribbins OBE, the much-loved actor known for appearances in The Railway Children and Doctor Who as well as reading countless stories on Jackanory. Diana Kennedy MBE, the British-born food writer who dedicated her life to promoting the diversity of Mexican cuisine. Sir Colin Blakemore, the neuroscientist who received death threats after speaking out in defence of experi...

John Wilson on Lord David Trimble, Northern Irish politician who was an architect of the Good Friday Agreement and won a Nobel Peace Prize. Susie Steiner, a British crime author who shared her experience of living with a brain tumour. Uwe Seeler, captain of the West German football team in 1966 and a hero for his home team of Hamburg. Producer: Sofie Vilcins Interviewed guest: Lord Dean Godson Int...

John Wilson on Tony Sirico, the former armed robber turned actor who found fame playing the role of mobster Paulie Walnuts in ground-breaking television series The Sopranos. José Eduardo dos Santos, who ruled Angola as president for 37 years, steering the country through a bloody civil war, and reaping the benefits of an oil boom while being accused of huge levels of corruption. Ann Shulgin, a the...

Kirsty Lang on Shinzo Abe - Japan’s longest-serving prime minister who sought to end a wartime legacy of defeat and occupation and to tackle the economy through ‘Abenomics’. Actor Mona Hammond is best known for her TV role in Eastenders. Lorna de Smidt, the anti-apartheid and anti-racist activist who cut her political teeth in the Black Consciousness Movement in South Africa in the late 1960s. And...

Matthew Bannister on Baroness Greengross, who championed the rights of older people as Director General of the charity Age Concern. Sonny Barger, the leading American Hell’s Angel who was arrested 21 times and spent 13 years in prison. Technoblade, the young Youtuber who amassed millions of followers for his commentaries on the video game Minecraft. Qin Yi, the leading Chinese film star whose care...