Last Word

American evangelist Jim Bakker built up the multi-million dollar Praise the Lord TV network, but ended up in prison after being convicted of fraud. Often working alongside his wife Tammy Faye, Jim became one of the best-known evangelical preachers in the United States. At its height, his PTL – or Praise the Lord – Network was pulling in 14 million viewers. But Jim’s career would eventually end in...

Margaret Hamilton was a trailblazer in her field, leading the team who developed the software for Nasa's Apollo missions. This was where the term "software engineering" was first coined. Margaret's work in the 1960s, ultimately enabled the astronauts on Apollo 11 to land on the moon. In 2016, Hamilton's life work was honoured by Barack Obama with the Presidential Medal of Freedom for her contribut...

Lord Archer of Weston-Super-Mare - Jeffery Archer - was a top sprinter in his 20s, an MP at 29, a multi-million best-selling author and a close confidant of Conservative Prime Ministers, his career came crashing down following unwise investments, a scandal involving a sex worker and a conviction for perjury. A life worthy of a novel, told by journalist Michael Crick when he wrote 'Stranger than Fi...

The spectacular designer to the stars Bob Mackie, who created Cher’s notorious “nude illusion” dress. From Diana Ross to Tina Turner and more recently from Miley Cyrus to Sabrina Carpenter, wearing a Bob Mackie creation, most likely studded with sequins and elaborate embroidery and with a revealing cut, was bound to turn heads and lead to acres of media coverage. Joe McFate was Bob’s Design Direct...

Playwright and critic Bonnie Greer was a frequent panellist on programmes such as Newsnight and Question Time where she took part in one of its most contentious episodes. Kirsty spoke to Judith Antell who was Bonnie's agent and friend for over 20 years. They discuss how Bonnie's father being stationed in the UK during World War 2 shaped her view on the country; the surprising backlash Bonnie faced...

The pioneering feminist leader, Gloria Steinem, moved the dial on critical issues regarding women’s health and reproductive rights as well as equal pay. But, she was first and foremost a journalist who started out, in her words, “as a girl reporter” forced to do light fluffy magazine features, a role she resented. She went on to write serious investigative pieces before co-founding Ms Magazine, th...

The work of Japanese avant-garde artist Yayoi Kusama is famed for its use of dots and inspired the likes of Andy Warhol. She was a work of art herself, often photographed wearing a bright orange wig and technicolour clothes covered in her signature polka dots. But, behind the canvas Yayoi was suffering with her mental health and spent almost five decades living in a psychiatric hospital. Frances M...

Dolly Parton broke the mould for country music over a seven-decade career, winning 10 Grammy awards, selling more than 100 million records worldwide, and writing in excess of 3,000 songs. Born in the Smokey Mountains of Tennessee, her childhood was one of poverty, put gave back after finding fame aiding children's literacy and health care through the Dollywood Foundation. Country Music Hall of Fam...

Former Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji spearheaded the explosive growth of the country’s economy in the 1990s. He had been previously removed from the Chinese Communist Party twice after criticising Mao Zedong. But by 1991 was charged with China's economy, securing its entry into the World Trade Organisation. Kerry Brown, former First Secretary at the British Embassy, witnessed Zhu Rongji in action. Pr...

William Orbit, the pioneering DJ and music producer, through his work with synthesizers and new studio technology he combined electronic dance music with pop, to create chart toppers. He grew up surrounded by classical music. His epiphany came when he discovered Tonto's Expanding Head Band, an electronic duo and so began his passion for electronic music. The DJ and A&R executive Pete Tong tell...

Rod Liddle was a columnist and broadcaster who strongly divided opinion. Some saw him as an entertaining satirist, others, a bigot. As a teenager he joined a punk band and studied social psychology at the London School of Economics. He was politically active too, first as a member of Socialist Workers Party and then a Labour speech writer. He later joined the BBC as a trainee producer, working his...

Gunther von Hagens, often known as Dr Death, was a German anatomist who developed a system of plastination to preserve human bodies permanently after death. His aim was to de-mystify anatomy and created the internationally successful “Body Worlds” exhibition. Former Channel 4 producer Nick Curwin, who helped Gunther broadcast a public autopsy, tells his story. Sir Ian Wood was the billionaire Scot...

Brenda Fricker became the first Irish woman to win an Academy Award for her performance in the film “My Left Foot”. She began her career with parts in Ireland’s first soap opera Tolka Row, ITV’s Coronation Street, and became a household name as the nurse Megan Roach in Casualty on the BBC. Her friend and fellow actress Anna Friel pays tribute. The BBC’s long-serving correspondent David Willey was...

Sam Neill starred in over fifty films and numerous television series, playing often wildly different roles, from a palaeontologist in Jurassic Park to a repressed husband in The Piano. When he was seven years old the family moved from Northern Ireland to his father’s native New Zealand, a country which Sam grew to love, and, as his friend and fellow actor Oscar Kightley told Matthew, which also ca...

Bonnie Tyler, went from a Welsh council house to topping the international charts with songs like: ”Lost In France”, “Holding out for a Hero” and “Total Eclipse of the Heart”. Born Gaynor Hopkins in South Wales she grew up in a passionately religious family, which is where young Gaynor’s first experience of performing came – singing “All Things Bright and Beautiful” at her local chapel. Fellow Wel...

Dame Penelope Keith became a household name for her performances in two classic TV comedy shows of the 1970s and early 80s: The Good Life and To The Manor Born. We share her story through her own words, with interviews from the BBC Archives. David Hencke was an award-winning investigative journalist who worked for the Guardian newspaper for over thirty years. His scoops brought to light wrongdoing...

A giant of American economics, former US Federal Reserve Chair Alan Greenspan, was an economic pioneer who shaped the modern American economy and believed in free markets and light touch regulation. A world financial crisis after he left the job, however, forced him to question some of his economic assumptions. We hear from Bloomberg's Stephanie Flanders. Tulsi Vagjiani survived the plane crash wh...

Lord Roy Hattersley, the former Deputy Leader of the Labour party. He was born and brought up in Sheffield. In his book A Yorkshire Boyhood, he confessed to being passionate about three things: Sheffield Wednesday Football Club, Yorkshire County Cricket and socialist politics. His friend and colleague, Lord Kinnock, pays tribute. Daphne Hamilton-Fairley, spoke out for tolerance after her husband w...

For thirty years, Kanya King was a champion of Black music. She was the founder and guiding light of the Music of Black Origin Awards, the ‘MOBOs’. Launched in 1996, the awards became a highly successful annual event. Sir Alex Younger was one of the longest serving chiefs of the Secret Intelligence Service MI6. He held the role known as “C” from 2014 to 2020. In that time, he headed the security o...

Larry King teamed up with his wife Billie Jean King to start the women’s professional tennis circuit in the USA. Baroness Ramsay was MI6 Head of Station in Helsinki during the Cold War and then became a leading figure in Labour politics. Caroline Marland transformed the financial fortunes of The Guardian newspaper as a senior executive in the 1980s and 90s. Valie Export challenged centuries of mis...

Matthew Bannister on Clarence B Jones the American lawyer and civil rights campaigner who helped Martin Luther King to write his famous I Have A Dream speech. Judith Chalmers, the TV and radio presenter best known for her globetrotting holiday series Wish You Were Here. Dr Anna Ritchie, the archaeologist who excavated some of Orkney’s most revealing ancient sites. And Frank Land, one of the prime...

Kirsty Lang on Michael Pennington, the Shakespearean actor who preferred a life on stage to the glamour of Hollywood. For Dame Judi Dench, he was her 'Mr Plum', she recalls his life. Cynthia Shange defied apartheid to become the first Black woman to represent South Africa at Miss World. Scott Hastings the rugby legend, who was once Scotland’s most capped player. He went on to become a well-known c...

The virtuoso pianist, Ruth Slenczynska was the last living student of Sergei Rachmaninoff. She began performing at the age of four, and was once reputed to be the greatest child prodigy since Mozart. From the Australian outback to the forefront of British science, Dame Bridget Ogilvie was the daughter of sheep farmers who went on to help make the UK a leader in biomedical research. Labour MP, Tony...

Dr Ittai Gradel, the Danish antiquities dealer who uncovered the theft of hundreds of artefacts from the British Museum. Katie Razzall recalls how he helped her report the story. Dame Shirley Porter, the Conservative leader of Westminster Council who had a spectacular fall from grace over the 'homes for votes' scandal. Professor Nigel Dunnett, the horticulturalist and garden designer, known for hi...

Xia De-hong, inspired her daughter Jung Chang to write the best selling book Wild Swans about her trials and tribulations at the hands of the Chinese government. Lord Hunt, the meteorologist and former Director General and Chief Executive of the Met Office, who was an expert in turbulence. Joan Burstein, ran the influential Browns boutique in London’s South Molton Street, backing the careers of ma...