Main content

Last Word Episodes

  1.

    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.

  2. Frederick Sanger, Doris Lessing, Ray Gosling, Jock Kane, Austin John Marshall

    A biochemist, an author, a broadcaster, a whistleblower and a record producer.

  3. 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.

  4. 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

  5. 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.

  6. A sculptor, a comedian, a social worker and Yugoslavia's First Lady

    Matthew Bannister recalls Sir Anthony Caro, Jovanka Broz, Felix Dexter and Olive Stevenson

  7. A Buddhist leader, a cookery writer, a Motown stylist, an Australian criminal and a whisky distiller

    Aasmah Mir on Choje Akong Rinpoche, Marcella Hazan, Maxine Powell and Mark 'Chopper' Read.

  8. Maria de Villota, General Vo Nguyen Giap, Dr Ruth Patrick, Kathleen Watkins, Phil Chevron

    Matthew Bannister remembers Maria de Villota, General Vo Nguyen Giap and Dr Ruth Patrick.

  9. A thriller writer, a musician, the Kabbalah Centre founder and a Hammer Horror producer

    Matthew Bannister on Tom Clancy, Lindsay Cooper, Rabbi Philip Berg and Anthony Hinds.

  10. A Ghanaian poet, an addiction counsellor, a beat writers' muse and a special branch officer

    Matthew Bannister remembers Kofi Awoonor, Peter Kay, Carolyn Cassady and Ferguson Smith.

  11. An RAF air marshal, a cancer care centre founder, a chocolate maker, a singer and a broadcaster

    Sir John Curtiss, Pat Pilkington, Brian Sollitt, Joan Regan, Tom Vernon, Franco de Gemini.

  12. An inventor, an autogyro pilot, a photographer, a science fiction writer and a circus performer

    Matthew Bannister on Ray Dolby, Wing Cdr Kenneth Wallis, Frederick Pohl and Lydia Gridneff

  13. Two broadcasters, a folk singer and a science journalist

    Matthew Bannister on Sir David Frost, David Dickson, Louisa Jo Killen and David Jacobs.

  14. An Irish poet, a woman stockbroker, a Roma King and a Welsh rugby player

    Matthew Bannister remembers Seamus Heaney, Muriel Siebert, Florin Cioaba and Cliff Morgan.

  15. A writer, a lawyer, a motor racing team owner, an actress and an entrepreneur

    Aasmah Mir on Elmore Leonard, Rosalia Mera, Jacques Verges and John Coombs.

  16. A Holocaust activist, a Hollywood actress, a jazz keyboardist, a stuntman and a tugboat hero

    Aasmah Mir recalls Betty Maxwell, Mark Sutton, Karen Black, Kenneth Dancy and George Duke.

  17. A Falklands War admiral, a writer and rock musician, an engineer who developed fracking, a French actress, a folk singer

    Matthew Bannister remembers Admiral Sir Sandy Woodward, Mick Farren and Bernadette Lafont.

  18. A sex therapist, an archeologist, a modelling agent, a meditation teacher and a guitarist and songwriter

    Jane Little on Virginia Johnson, Mike Morwood, John Casablancas, Sonia Moriceau, JJ Cale.

  19. A White House journalist, a comedian, an artist, a technology guru, and a blues musician

    Matthew Bannister on Helen Thomas, William Turner, Mel Smith, Dr James Martin and more.

  20. A footballer, a Scottish nationalist, painter, an evolutionary theorist, a Liberal activist and a TV producer

    Matthew Bannister on Bert Trautmann, Kay Matheson, Elaine Morgan, Lord Chitnis, Ray Butt.

  21. An Afghan police officer, a prisoner of war, a TV presenter, an Egyptian princess and an American jazz pianist

    Matthew Bannister on Alan Whicker, Islam Bibi, Lord Campbell, Paul Smith, Princess Fawzia.

  22. A computer pioneer, a Hungarian politician, a choral director, an animator and a Native American tribal executive

    Aasmah Mir remembers Douglas Engelbart, Gyula Horn, Richard Marlow and Marjorie Anderson.

  23. An archaeologist, a psychoanalyst, a former Lord Advocate, a writer and an aboriginal singer

    Matthew Bannister on Mick Aston, Betty Joseph, Lord Fraser of Carmyllie, Michael Baigent.

  24. An actor, a youth worker, a ballet dancer, a poet and a local radio presenter

    Matthew Bannister on James Gandolfini, Elizabeth Braund, David Wall and Oliver Bernard.

  25. A novelist, a racehorse trainer, a swimmer and film star, a key figure in the Warsaw Pact and 'the fastest granny on water'

    Matthew Bannister on Iain Banks, Sir Henry Cecil, Esther Williams, the Countess of Arran.

  26. A novelist, a botanist, a TV writer, a missionary and a composer

    Mark Coles on Tom Sharpe, Nigel Hepper, Anne Valery, Henri Dutilleux, Molly Clutton-Brock.

  27. An actor, a child behavioural researcher, a French singer-songwriter, a chemist, a lighthouse keeper and a bass player

    Matthew Bannister recalls Bill Pertwee, Joyce Robertson, Georges Moustaki and George Gray.

  28. A comedy writer, a founding member of The Doors, an Argentine dictator, a Pakistani politician and an escapologist

    Matthew Bannister on Ray Manzarek, Jorge Videla, Zahra Shahid Hussain and Eddie Braben.

  29. A geophysicist, a pro-life campaigner, a former Ford UK chief executive, a composer and an actor

    Matthew Bannister on Joe Farman, Dr Margaret White, Sir Terence Beckett and Arnold Peters.

  30. An architect, the founder of Ms magazine, an Olympic sailor, an Italian politician and a film director

    Remembering Andrew Simpson, Bryan Forbes, Giulio Andreotti, Mary Thom and Rick Mather.

  2. 1
  3. …
  4. 21
  5. 22
  6. 23
  7. 24
  8. 25
  9. …
  10. 35