Physicist Brian Cox tells Matthew Parris how Carl Sagan's Cosmos tv show changed his life. As a young boy of 13, Brian Cox stared at his television screen every Wednesday evening, as Carl Sagan took him on a journey across the Cosmos. The programme was a ground-breaking piece of television …
Businesswoman Baroness Sarah Hogg discusses the life of Lady Charlotte Guest, a Victorian polymath whose many achievements included running the largest ironworks in the world. Assistance is provided by Lady Charlotte's great grand-daughter, Revel Guest.
Comedy producer John Lloyd, responsible for such TV classics as Blackadder and QI, nominates the maverick American architect Buckminster Fuller, inventor of the geodesic dome, as worthy of Great Life status. Matthew Parris is joined by futurist and business strategist Hardin Tibbs, who fills in the biographical gaps.
Controversial English cricket captain Douglas Jardine, responsible for the 1932 Bodyline tour of Australia, is nominated for Great Lives by the blind broadcaster, Peter White. This Ashes tour continues to ignite passionate disagreement.
Clive Stafford Smith talks about his hero Robin Hood with Matthew Parris and Professor Stephen Knight.
Playwright John Godber joins Mathew Parris to discuss the life of German writer Bertolt Brecht, with the help of drama specialist Professor Michael Patterson.