Last Word

Radio 4's weekly obituary programme, telling the life stories of those who have died recently

Radio 4,900 episodes

Episodes

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Molly Parkin, Kristina Gjerde, Michael Barton, Eva Schloss
Matthew Bannister on an artist, an activist, a BBC executive and a holocaust survivor.
09 Jan 2026,28 mins
Brigitte Bardot, Sir Alec Reed, Alwyn Crawshaw, Dame Shân Legge-Bourke
Jon Kay on an actor, a businessman, an artist, a landowner
02 Jan 2026,28 mins
Antony Price, Sister Stan Kennedy, Ena Collymore Woodstock, John Carey
Jon Kay on a fashion designer, a nun, a barrister, a literary critic
26 Dec 2025,28 mins
Rob Reiner, Joanna Trollope, Stanley Baxter, Sophie Kinsella
Matthew Bannister on a film-maker, a comedian and two authors.
19 Dec 2025,28 mins
Iain Douglas-Hamilton, Vera Weisfeld, Frank Gehry, Martin Parr
Matthew Bannister on a zoologist, a businesswoman, an architect and a photographer.
12 Dec 2025,28 mins
Sir Tom Stoppard, Pam Hogg, Yanxin He, Jack Shepherd
Matthew Bannister on a playwright, a designer, a language speaker and an actor.
05 Dec 2025,28 mins
Jimmy Cliff, Charlotte Bingham, Skye Gyngell, David Bellos
Kirsty Lang on a musician, a writer, a chef and a translator.
28 Nov 2025,28 mins
Baroness Newlove, Zoe Wicomb, Sir Geoffrey Bindman KC, Professor Roland Paxton
Matthew Bannister on a campaigner, an author, a lawyer and a civil engineer.
21 Nov 2025,28 mins
James Watson, Pauline Collins, Judith Vidal-Hall, Dugald Ross
Matthew Bannister on a scientist, an actor, a journalist and a fossil hunter.
14 Nov 2025,28 mins
Dick Cheney, Yvonne Brewster, Mary McGee, Peter Watkins
Matthew Bannister on a US politician, a theatre director, a campaigner and a film-maker.
07 Nov 2025,28 mins
Prunella Scales CBE, Gillian Tindall, Roger Smith, Anthony Grey
Matthew Bannister on an actor, a writer, an outdoors champion, a journalist
31 Oct 2025,28 mins
SPECIAL EDITION: Prunella Scales
Matthew Bannister talks to Samuel West about his mother Prunella Scales
31 Oct 2025,21 mins
Raila Odinga, Bill Colley, Baroness Rosalind Howells, Sister Marion Irvine
Matthew Bannister on a Kenyan politician, a boat builder, a campaigner, a nun'
24 Oct 2025,28 mins
Peter Gurney, Diane Keaton, Peter Hall, Angela Bond
Matthew Bannister on a bomb disposal expert, an actor, a winemaker and a theatre manager.
17 Oct 2025,28 mins
Patrick Bradley, Dame Jilly Cooper, Sara Jane Moore, Dame Patricia Routledge
Matthew Bannister on an electoral officer, an author, an attempted assassin and an actor.
10 Oct 2025,28 mins
Dame Jane Goodall, Tony Harrison, Lord Menzies Campbell, Danny Thompson
Matthew Bannister on a primatologist, a poet, a politician and a bass player.
03 Oct 2025,28 mins
Sir Nicholas Grimshaw, John Stapleton, Mary Elizabeth Dodd, Claudia Cardinale
Matthew Bannister on an architect, a TV presenter, a physiotherapist and an actor.
26 Sep 2025,28 mins
Robert Redford, Barbara Harvey, Rosa Roisinblit, Stuart Craig
Matthew Bannister on a film star, a historian, a campaigner and a designer.
19 Sep 2025,28 mins
The Duchess of Kent, Giorgio Armani, Valerie Pearlman, Rick Davies
John Wilson on a duchess, fashion designer, judge and a singer.
12 Sep 2025,28 mins
Joe Bugner, Ann McManus, Angela Mortimer Barrett, Frank Strang
John Wilson on a boxer, a writer, a tennis player and an entrepreneur.
05 Sep 2025,28 mins
David Richardson, Doris Lockhart Saatchi, Dame Annette Brooke, Byron Rogers
John Wilson on a broadcaster, an art collector, a former MP and a biographer.
29 Aug 2025,28 mins
Terence Stamp, Stephanie Shirley, Kay Dunbar, Eric Midwinter
John Wilson on an actor, tech pioneer, literacy festival founder, a polymath
22 Aug 2025,28 mins
Jim Lovell, Biddy Baxter, Razia Jan, Iris Williams
Matthew Bannister on an astronaut, an editor, an educator, a singer
15 Aug 2025,28 mins
Dame Stella Rimington, Sylvia Young, Sir Jamie McGrigor, Joan Anderson
Matthew Bannister on an spy boss, a drama school founder, a politician and a craze starter
08 Aug 2025,28 mins
Dame Cleo Laine, Hulk Hogan, Margaret Boden, Tom Lehrer
Matthew Bannister on a singer, a wrestler, a cognitive scientist and a satirist.
01 Aug 2025,28 mins
Ozzy Osbourne, Connie Francis, Jacqui Browne, Douglas Chamberlain
Matthew Bannister on two singers, a campaigner and a cardiologist.
25 Jul 2025,28 mins
Sir Ian Blair, Jennie Street, Dr Anna Ornstein, Muhammadu Buhari
Matthew Bannister on a police commissioner, a farmer, a psychoanalyst and a president.
18 Jul 2025,28 mins
Lord Tebbit, Daphne Boden, James Leprino, Sir Francis Graham-Smith
Matthew Bannister on a politician, a harpist, a businessman and an astronomer.
11 Jul 2025,28 mins
Courtney Griffiths KC, Sara Venn, Nina Kuscik, Mohammad Hussain
Matthew Bannister on a barrister, a gardener, a runner and a soldier.
04 Jul 2025,28 mins
Michael Lachmann, Pik-sen Lim, Leon Krier, David 'Syd' Lawrence
Matthew Bannister on a director, an actor, an architect and a cricketer.
27 Jun 2025,28 mins