Last Word

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

Radio 4,892 episodes

Episodes

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Gerry Goffin, Freydis Sharland, Alexander Shulgin, Francis Matthews
Matthew Bannister remembers a songwriter, a pilot, a chemist and an actor.
20 Jun 2014,28 mins
Rik Mayall, Dr Lorna Wing, Eric Hill, Billie Fleming, Alan Douglas
Matthew Bannister remembers a comedian, a psychiatrist, a children's writer and a cyclist.
13 Jun 2014,28 mins
Prof Colin Pillinger, Antony Hopkins, Bev Evans, Sir Ben Gill and Stan Kelly-Bootle
Matthew Bannister on a space scientist, a musician, a farmers' leader, a computer pioneer.
16 May 2014,28 mins
Sir George Christie, Leslie Thomas, Elena Baltacha, Sir William Benyon and Deborah Rogers
Matthew Bannister remembers Glyndebourne's owner, an author, a Tory MP and a tennis player
09 May 2014,28 mins
Bob Hoskins, U Win Tin, Ian McIntyre, Gailene Stock
Matthew Bannister on an actor, a Burmese activist, a BBC executive and a ballet teacher.
02 May 2014,28 mins
Mark Shand, Mrs Pilkington Garimara, Derek Cooper, Wally Olins, Julian Wilson
Matthew Bannister on a conservationist, a writer, a broadcaster and a branding consultant.
25 Apr 2014,28 mins
Gabriel García Márquez, Edna Doré, Richard Hoggart, Gerardo D'Ambrosio, John Shirley-Quirk
Julian Worricker remembers an author, an actress, a commentator, a magistrate and a singer
18 Apr 2014,28 mins
Sue Townsend, Lord Kimball, Peaches Geldof, Prof Lorna Casselton, Mickey Rooney
Matthew Bannister on an author, an MP, a TV presenter, a fungal biologist and a film star.
11 Apr 2014,28 mins
Margo MacDonald, Frankie Knuckles, Lorna Arnold, Kate O'Mara, Ahmad Tejan Kabbah
Matthew Bannister remembers a politician, a DJ, a historian, an actress and a president.
04 Apr 2014,28 mins
Mickey Duff, John Tyson, Jill Sinclair, Adolfo Suarez, Oswald Morris
Matthew Bannister on a boxing promoter, an explorer, a music exec and a cinematographer.
28 Mar 2014,28 mins
Clarissa Dickson Wright, Lord Ballyedmond, L'Wren Scott, Mohammed Fahim, Peter Callander
Julian Worricker remembers a chef, an entrepreneur, a lyricist, a statesman and a designer
21 Mar 2014,28 mins
Tony Benn, James Ellis, Peter Rona, Marion Thorpe, Bob Crow
Julian Worricker on a politician, an actor, an oceanographer, a pianist and a union leader
14 Mar 2014,28 mins
Paco de Lucia, Frank Rushbrook, Rose Finn-Kelcey, Logan Scott-Bowden, Alain Resnais
Aasmah Mir remembers a guitarist, a firefighter, an artist, a soldier and a director.
07 Mar 2014,28 mins
Alison Jolly, Alice Herz-Sommer, Valery Kubasov, Mavis Gallant, Harold Ramis
Aasmah Mir remembers a primatologist, a pianist, a cosmonaut, a writer and a director.
28 Feb 2014,28 mins
Sir Tom Finney CBE, Sid Caesar, Ian McNaught-Davis, Els Borst, Louise Brough
Matthew Bannister on a footballer, a comedian, a climber, a politician and a tennis player
21 Feb 2014,28 mins
Prof Stuart Hall, Jean Babilée, Tony Crook, Shirley Temple Black
Matthew Bannister remembers a sociologist, a dancer, a car maker and a child star.
14 Feb 2014,28 mins
Philip Seymour Hoffman, Jose Sulaiman, Anna Gordy Gaye, Ron Hall, Peter Austin
Matthew Bannister recalls an actor, a journalist, a Motown exec and a boxing administrator
07 Feb 2014,28 mins
Pete Seeger, Kathryn Findlay, Sir Robert Scholey, Sir Run Run Shaw
A singer and activist, an architect, a British Steel chairman and a movie mogul.
31 Jan 2014,28 mins
Lord McAlpine, Jocelyn Hay, Amiri Baraka, Sir Christopher Chataway, Claudio Abbado
Matthew Bannister on a Tory fundraiser, a broadcasting campaigner, a poet and a runner.
24 Jan 2014,28 mins
Roger Lloyd Pack, Prof Julian B Rotter, Hiroo Onoda, Rae Woodland, Ariel Sharon
Remembering an actor, a psychologist, an opera singer and a former Israeli prime minister.
17 Jan 2014,28 mins
Simon Hoggart, Prof Janet Rowley, Saul Zaentz, Terry Biddlecombe, Phil Everly
A journalist, a cancer researcher, a film producer, a jockey, and an Everly Brother.
10 Jan 2014,28 mins
Elizabeth Jane Howard, John Fortune, Vera Houghton, Sir Christopher Curwen, Harold Camping
A novelist, a satirist, a family planning pioneer, an MI6 chief and a Doomsday evangelist.
03 Jan 2014,28 mins
Peter O'Toole, Lord Roberts of Conwy, Colin Wilson, Joan Fontaine, Ronnie Briggs
Matthew Bannister recalls an actor, a politician, an author, an actress and a train robber
20 Dec 2013,28 mins
Stan Tracey, General Alfonso Armada, Mary Eyre, Bob George, Mary Riggans
A jazz musician, a Spanish general, a hockey international, a flea expert and an actress.
13 Dec 2013,28 mins
Paul Ausseresses, Olivia Robertson, Noel Woodall, Hugh de Wardener, Junior Murvin
Matthew Bannister on a general, an archpriestess, an autonumerologist and a nephrologist.
06 Dec 2013,28 mins
A priest, Walt Disney's daughter, a centenarian Labour campaigner, a footballer, an actor
Father Alec Reid, Diane Disney Miller, Hetty Bower, Bill Foulkes and Lewis Collins.
29 Nov 2013,28 mins
Frederick Sanger, Doris Lessing, Ray Gosling, Jock Kane, Austin John Marshall
A biochemist, an author, a broadcaster, a whistleblower and a record producer.
22 Nov 2013,28 mins
A British composer, a Northern Irish MP, a Romanian architect, a German mayor and a British supercentenarian
Sir John Tavener, Manfred Rommel, Anca Petrescu, Eddie McGrady and Grace Jones.
15 Nov 2013,28 mins
A BBC political editor, a naturalist, a landscape architect, a Sultan and a union leader
John Cole, John Cloudsley-Thompson, Georgina Livingston, Sultan Jamalul Kiram III and more
08 Nov 2013,28 mins
A film director, a property developer, a radio operator, an actor and a rock legend
Matthew Bannister on Antonia Bird, Paul Reichmann, Robert Ford, Nigel Davenport, Lou Reed.
01 Nov 2013,28 mins