Podcast Episodes

The Roman Emperor Nero

An unexpected choice for Great Lives, the Roman Emperor Nero has a reputation for debauchery and murder. He was also surprisingly popular, at least d…

1 year, 9 months ago

Film director Julien Temple on Elizabethan bad boy Christopher Marlowe

Julien Temple, director of The Great Rock n Roll Swindle, Glastonbury and Absolute Beginners, chooses Christopher Marlowe, writer of brilliant plays …

1 year, 9 months ago

Zing Tsjeng on Swedish painter Hilma af Klint

Hilma af Klint (1862-1944) was barely known during her lifetime but an exhibition of her work at the Guggenheim Museum in 2018 shattered attendance r…

1 year, 9 months ago

Miriam Margolyes on Charles Dickens

The great Miriam Margolyes chooses Charles Dickens, author of Oliver Twist and A Christmas Carol.

"He's the man in my life. He's tugged me into his wo…

1 year, 9 months ago

Mary Portas on Anita Roddick

Dame Anita Roddick started The Body Shop in Brighton as a way to earn a living while her husband was travelling the Americas by horseback. Her idea …

2 years ago

Lady Rachel MacRobert, chosen by Hayaatun Sillem

Lady Rachel MacRobert was born Rachel Workman in Massachusetts in 1884. She was sent to study in the UK where she developed a passion for geology, a…

2 years ago

Queen Emma

Professor Alice Roberts, best known as the presenter of Digging for Britain, picks the wife of two English kings and the mother of two English kings.…

2 years ago

James Dyson on Frank Whittle

Frank Whittle’s fascination with aeroplanes started as a nine-year-old boy when he was nearly decapitated by one that was taking off from a local com…

2 years, 1 month ago

Katherine Rundell on E Nesbit

Bestselling children's author Katherine Rundell discusses the extraordinary life of E Nesbit who wrote The Railway Children and Five Children And It.…

2 years, 1 month ago

Antoni Gaudi

Baroness Ros Altmann, a Conservative peer and former pensions minister, was “blown away” by the architecture of Antoni Gaudi on a trip to Barcelona i…

2 years, 1 month ago