Last Word

• Updated:
  Weekly

• Episodes available for:
  30 Days

Recent episodes (4)

• Robin Gibb, Canon Eric James, Alan Oakley, David Ellis, Eugene Polley

  Fri, 25 May 12

  Duration:
  29 mins
  
  Available:
  27 days remaining

  Matthew Bannister on: Robin Gibb of the Bee Gees who, with his brothers Barry and Maurice, sold two hundred million records; the left-wing Anglican Canon Eric James, a regular on BBC Radio 4's Thought for the Day; Alan Oakley who invented the Raleigh Chopper bicycle, coveted by schoolboys of the 1970s; David Ellis, the dancer and doctor who played a leading role in Ballet Rambert's development; and Eugene Polley, who launched a million couch potatoes by pioneering the TV remote control.

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• Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Horst Faas, Carlos Fuentes, Lord Glenamara, Donna Summer

  Fri, 18 May 12

  Duration:
  28 mins
  
  Available:
  20 days remaining

  Matthew Bannister on: Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, lyrical German baritone famed for his interpretation of Schubert's "Winterreise"; Horst Faas, photographer of the Vietnam war and two-times winner of the Pulitzer Prize; Carlos Fuentes, the Mexican author who became a key figure in the flowering of Latin American literature in the 1960s; Lord Glenamara, who as Labour MP Ted Short was the Chief Whip who kept Harold Wilson in power; and Donna Summer, the disco queen of the 1970s who later became a born again Christian.

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• Vidal Sassoon, Angelica Garnett, Maurice Sendak, Lloyd Brevett

  Fri, 11 May 12

  Duration:
  29 mins
  
  Available:
  13 days remaining

  Matthew Bannister on: Vidal Sassoon, who fought the blackshirts in post-war London and revolutionised the world of hairdressing during the swinging sixties; the artist Angelica Garnett, only daughter of the Bloomsbury Group painters Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant and niece of Virginia Woolf; Maurice Sendak, the children's writer best known for "Where The Wild Things Are"; and Lloyd Brevett, the bass player behind the ska rhythm that gave birth to reggae.

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• Khalil Dale, Leila Berg, Tomas Borge, Terry Spinks, Reverend Ray Davey

  Fri, 4 May 12

  Duration:
  28 mins
  
  Available:
  6 days remaining

  Matthew Bannister on: the Red Cross worker Khalil Dale who was kidnapped and killed in Pakistan; the writer and educationalist Leila Berg whose controversial "Nippers" series taught children to read with stories from working class life; the Nicaraguan revolutionary Tomas Borge who co-founded the Sandinista Front and cracked down on opponents as Interior Minister; the flyweight Terry Spinks who became the youngest boxer to win a gold medal at the Olympics; and the Reverend Ray Davey whose Corrymeela Community brought together Protestants and Catholics during Northern Ireland's troubles.

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