Biographical series in which guests choose someone who has inspired their lives.
Radio 4,·609 episodes
Poet Kit Wright chooses author and creator of the English dictionary, Dr Samuel Johnson.
10 Oct 2003,·30 mins
TV producer Peter Bazalgette chooses the actor, lyricist and playwright, Noel Coward.
03 Oct 2003,·30 mins
Broadcaster and campaigner Esther Rantzen chooses Queen Elizabeth I.
06 Jun 2003,·30 mins
Athlete Tanni Grey-Thompson chooses her Welsh compatriot, politician David Lloyd George.
30 May 2003,·30 mins
Military historian Richard Holmes nominates the mysterious Man in the Iron Mask.
23 May 2003,·30 mins
Richard Ingrams nominates author and journalist GK Chesterton for regularly being right.
09 May 2003,·30 mins
Geneticist Steve Jones chooses 19th-century fiddle-playing shepherd and writer James Hogg.
02 May 2003,·30 mins
Poet Benjamin Zephaniah explores the life of reggae legend Bob Marley.
25 Apr 2003,·30 mins
Conductor Leonard Slatkin proposes composer Sergei Rachmaninov for great life status.
11 Apr 2003,·30 mins
Author Beryl Bainbridge selects explorer Robert Falcon Scott as a hidden romantic.
04 Apr 2003,·30 mins
Media executive and broadcaster Greg Dyke chooses explorer Captain James Cook.
20 Dec 2002,·30 mins
Political cartoonist Steve Bell chooses the 18th-century caricaturist James Gillray.
16 Dec 2002,·30 mins
Politician Tam Dalyell chooses cabinet minister and political diarist Richard Crossman.
13 Dec 2002,·30 mins
Nobel Prize-winning chemist Sir Harry Kroto chooses the philosopher Benedict Spinoza.
29 Nov 2002,·30 mins
Novelist Ahdaf Soueif chooses acclaimed Egyptian singer Umm Kulthum as his great life.
22 Nov 2002,·30 mins
Muriel Gray chooses the ghost story writer MR James.
15 Nov 2002,·30 mins
Writer Bea Campbell chooses pioneering environmental protection scientist Rachel Carson.
08 Nov 2002,·30 mins
Darcus Howe discusses his uncle, the sportsman, writer and revolutionary CLR James.
01 Nov 2002,·30 mins
Paul Nurse discusses scientist, inventor and poet Erasmus Darwin, grandfather of Charles.
25 Oct 2002,·30 mins
Comedian Bernard Manning assesses the achievements of Mother Teresa of Calcutta.
18 Oct 2002,·30 mins
Broadcaster Kirsty Young chooses newspaper publisher Katherine Graham.
02 Aug 2002,·30 mins
Sports writer Frank Keating nominates 19th century bare knuckle boxer, Tom Spring.
26 Jul 2002,·30 mins
Sue Limb nominates 'mad, bad and dangerous to know' poet, Lord Byron.
19 Jul 2002,·30 mins
Band leader Chris Barber chooses legendary jazz trumpeter, Louis Armstrong.
12 Jul 2002,·30 mins
Writer Frederic Raphael chooses part man, part myth Alexander the Great.
28 Jun 2002,·30 mins
Lord Carrington and Lord John Slim discuss military leader, Field-Marshal Viscount Slim.
21 Jun 2002,·30 mins
Cellist Steven Isserlis and musicologist Brian Newbould on the composer Franz Schubert.
14 Jun 2002,·30 mins
Ex-parliamentary standards commissioner Elizabeth Filkin chooses novelist George Eliot.
07 Jun 2002,·30 mins
Humphrey Carpenter invites Ned Sherrin to discuss actor Sir Donald Wolfit.
31 May 2002,·30 mins
Jackie Stewart discusses his good friend King Hussein of Jordan with writer Patrick Seale.
26 Oct 2001,·30 mins
