Podcast Episodes

Gabriel Gbadamosi on Fela Kuti

Poet, playwright, and critic Gabriel Gbadamosi chooses as his Great Life the political maverick and inventor of Afrobeat, musician Fela Kuti, and tel…

12 years, 9 months ago

Russell Grant on Ivor Novello

Astrologer and performer Russell Grant chooses one of the greatest screen legends of cinema's early years – Ivor Novello.

Born in 1893 in Cardiff, No…

12 years, 9 months ago

Florence Nightingale

Dr Lucy Worsley chooses a figure as familiar as she is unknown, the great champion of Victorian nursing, Florence Nightingale. Known as 'the Lady wit…

12 years, 11 months ago

Primo Levi

Edmund de Waal chooses a writer he believes is one of the greatest of the modern age - Primo Levi, author of the Periodic Table. Born in 1919 in Turi…

13 years ago

Salvador Dali

John Cooper Clarke, poetry's Punk Laureate, nominates Salvador Dali, the surrealist behind melting clocks, lobster telephones, and that trademark mou…

13 years ago

Bill Shankly

Mumsnet founder Justine Roberts champions the life of Liverpool’s football manager Bill Shankly.

In the 1960s, Bill Shankley took his team from divisi…

13 years ago

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Broadcaster and writer Gyles Brandreth nominates Sir Arthur Conan Doyle as his "Great Life".

Matthew Parris chairs, assisted by biographer Andrew Lyc…

13 years, 1 month ago

David Livingstone

Dr David Livingstone was the Victorian equivalent of an astronaut - a man who ventured into the  interior of Africa to report on territory that was w…

13 years, 1 month ago

Kenny Everett

Chris Tarrant chooses one of the great pioneers of modern radio.

He's the man born Maurice Cole in Liverpool in 1944, who found fame on TV as Gizzard …

13 years, 1 month ago

Galileo

The DJ and broadcaster Bobby Friction champions the Italian physicist and astronomer Galileo Galilei. He is the first Great Lives guest to have named…

13 years, 1 month ago