Great Lives

Brian Eno has worked with David Bowie, David Byrne and U2 but his choice of Great Life is not a rock star but the sociologist Lord Young of Dartington. Michael Young wrote the Labour party's 1945 election manifesto, researched slum clearance in the East End of London, set up the Consumers' Association, coined the word meritocracy, co-founded the Open University and planned the colonisation of Mars. With the help of Michael's son Toby, Brian considers the life and work of one of the architects of post-war Britain. Producer: Julia Johnson.

Laura Bates, journalist and curator of the Everyday Sexism Project, explains to Matthew Parris why the 19th century children's author Louisa M. Alcott has her vote for a Great Life. They are joined by Sarah Churchwell, Professor of American Literature at the University of East Anglia. Louisa May Alcott is best known as the writer of Little Women, the story of four sisters growing up during the Civil War in America. Generations of girls have read the book, which at first sight seems to be an improving tract on growing up and becoming good Christian wives. Both Laura and Sarah have a very different reading of the book and believe Louisa M. Alcott to have been a remarkable woman and a dedicated feminist. Producer Christine Hall.

Matthew Parris - himself current holder of the House of Commons marathon record time - meets comedian Arthur Smith, who also turns out to have been a runner when he was younger, and whose choice for a Great Life is an athlete whom he has admired since his childhood. Emil Zátopek emerged onto the international stage in 1948 when he became a sensation at the Olympics in London, but it was his performance in the 1952 Helsinki Olympics which put him in the record books. Already an established distance runner, he bagged gold in the 5000 and 10000 metres and then, having previously given no hint that he would be a champion marathon runner, he also won that race. The expert witness is Pat Butcher, writer and ex-runner, who is working on a biography of Zátopek, and he argues that no-one is likely ever to equal Zátopek's achievement in winning gold in three different distance events. Zátopek retired from competitive running in 1957 and later fell heavily out of favour with the post- Dubcek regime in Czechoslovakia

Matthew Parris discovers that Edith Hall, Professor of Classics at King's College, London, has a surprising nomination for a Great Life - that of Lucille Ball, the vivacious redhead who in the 1950s and 1960s was one of the best-known and best-loved actresses on television, both in the United States and here. What makes a professor of Greek and Roman writing such a great fan of a zany American actress? What was Lucy like behind the television persona? Matthew finds out in the company of Carole Cook, Lucy's long-time friend and protégée. Producer Christine Hall.

Matthew Parris hears from Labour peer Lord Adonis why Joseph Bazalgette, the Victorian engineer, has his nomination as a Great Life. Bazalgette, the grandson of a French immigrant who made a fortune lending money to the Hanoverian royal family, is one of the most important of the great Victorian engineers. He not only built a sewage system for London which wiped out cholera in the city, he also built the famous Embankments, laid out several of the main thoroughfares and built or improved many of the city's landmark bridges. Yet he is far less well-known than his flamboyant contemporary Brunel and less celebrated than the creators of the railways. With the help of Joseph Bazalgette's great-great-grandson Sir Peter Bazalgette, the man responsible for Ready Steady Cook and Big Brother and now Chairman of the Arts Council, Matthew pieces together the story of Sir Joseph Bazalgette, 'The Sewer King'. Producer Christine Hall.

Dame Stella Rimington, former director of MI5 and a celebrated crime writer herself, nominates for a Great Life that of Dorothy L Sayers. Sayers' first Lord Peter Wimsey novel was published in the 1920s, the Golden Age of crime fiction, and he is still very much with us, appearing often on Radio 4 Extra. She went on to enjoy a huge popularity with her crime novels and then turned to writing Christian essays and plays, most notably the series for the BBC on the life of Christ - which stirred up a great controversy as no-one had before impersonated Jesus on the radio. Dame Stella tells Matthew Parris why the paradoxes and contradictions in Dorothy Sayers' life fascinate her, and explains how Sayers' writing influences her own. With Seona Ford, chairman of the Dorothy L Sayers Society.

Matthew Parris invites his guests to nominate the person who they feel is a great life. This week singer-songwriter Labi Siffre discusses the life and work of Arthur Ransome. Siffre says that the Swallows and Amazons books taught him responsibility for his own actions and also a morality that has influenced and shaped him throughout his life. Producer: Maggie Ayre.

Dr Tom Shakespeare, lecturer at the Medical School in the University of East Anglia and prominent campaigner for the rights of the disabled, explains to Matthew Parris why the life and work of the Italian left-wing revolutionary Antonio Gramsci means a great deal to him personally. They are joined in the studio by Professor Anne Sassoon. Producer Christine Hall.

The life of Erwin Rommel, for a time Hitler's favourite general is nominated by Ray Mears. Matthew Parris hears why this German soldier was a "great life". They are also joined by Dr Niall Barr, Reader in Military History, Defence Studies Department at Kings College, London. Producer: Perminder Khatkar.

Matthew Parris leads a discussion on Ida B. Wells the African American civil rights and women's rights activist who was a political trailblazer. Throughout her life, Wells was militant in her demands for equality and justice for black Americans and she encouraged the African American community to fight for positive change through their own efforts. She was an investigative journalist who highlighted the practice of lynching in the United States, showing how it was used as a way to control or punish blacks , often under the guise of trumped up rape charges. Ida was also active in women's rights and the women's suffrage movement, establishing several notable women's organizations. She was a skilled and inspiring rhetorician, and travelled internationally on lecture tours. She is the great life chosen this week by Baroness Oona King.

Matthew Parris invites his guests to nominate the person whom they feel is a great life. In this programme, music entrepreneur and DJ Jazzie B of Soul II Soul chooses American singer and musician, James Brown, 'the Godfather of Funk'. Jazzie B, who was awarded a CBE for services to black British music, spent time with James Brown towards the end of his life and says he became 'like a big brother' to him. Here, together with music journalist Charles Shaar Murray, they talk to Matthew about why they believe 'Mr Brown' is a Great Life. Producer: Maggie Ayre.

Writer Jonathan Meades nominates the English artist Edward Burra, who died in 1976, for "great life" status, arguing that he deserves to be better known. Burra painted sailors, drinkers and prostitutes in Toulon; jazz musicians in Harlem; surreal wartime pictures of soldiers in terrifying bird masks; and, in his later years, landscapes in which anthropomorphic and malevolent machines bite chunks out of the countryside. Disabled with rheumatoid arthritis from an early age, Burra barely went to school and so escaped the Edwardian upper class upbringing that would otherwise have been his destiny. At once camp yet apparently celibate, Burra was intensely private and disliked talking about either himself or art - or, as he called it, "fart". Matthew Parris chairs the discussion, and is joined by Burra's biographer Jane Stevenson. Producer: Jolyon Jenkins.

Michael Palin first came across his Great Life when he was studying for school exams, and his love of Ernest Hemingway has never gone away. He, along with expert Naomi Wood, tells Matthew Parris why this twentieth century legend is a Great Life. Producer: Perminder Khatkar.

Countryfile presenter John Craven proposes Victorian Engineer, Isambard Kingdom Brunel, as a great life. He's joined by engineering historian Julia Elton and presenter Matthew Parris And where better to discuss Brunel's achievements than by the harbour in Bristol in the shadow of his magnificent steam ship the SS Great Britain. But should his creator of great machines himself be considered a great man or is finest achievement the engineering of his own reputation? Recorded at the Food Connections Festival in Bristol.

Jake Thackray hated being known as the north country Noel Coward, but at the height of his fame the description stuck. His songs are very British, but his influences were European - Georges Brassens and Jacques Brel. Nominating Jake Thackray is Isy Suttie, Dobby from Peep Show and star of the A-Z of Mrs P. The presenter is Matthew Parris and the producer Miles Warde.

Soprano Emma Kirkby discusses the life of English composer Henry Purcell with Matthew Parris. Despite dying at the age of 36, Purcell was arguably the first composer to become a national figure, as shown by his funeral at Westminster Abbey. Living through turbulent times, and through the reign of three monarchs, Purcell had to cope with shifting Catholic and Protestant regimes while producing a steady output of religious music. But he also did some of his most memorable and enduring work for the commercial theatre. Few composers have set the English language to music so felicitously. After his death, Britain produced few world class composers for 200 years. To discuss his legacy, Emma and Matthew are joined by Purcell scholar Michael Burden Producer: Jolyon Jenkins.

Writer Deborah Moggach nominates the author Arnold Bennett whose work she thinks has been wrongly overlooked. Deborah thinks that the work of the Staffordshire writer Arnold Bennett has been forgotten, largely due to snobbery on the part of the Bloomsbury Set who dismissed it as being too popular. Moggach believes that because he was a working writer who earned his living writing both serious and light fiction, he was not taken seriously after his death in 1931 despite his books being hugely popular during his lifetime. Bennett wrote many novels from Anna of the Five Towns set in his native Potteries district of Staffordshire to The Old Wives Tale and The Grand Babylon Hotel. As a journalist, he also wrote self help and lifestyle articles for magazines from How to Bathe a Baby Part One to Do Rich Women Quarrel More Frequently Than poor? Gyles Brandreth has been a lifelong fan of the works of Arnold Bennett and believes he is one of the greatest writers of the 20th century who deserves to be rediscovered. Pro

Mathematician Marcus du Sautoy chooses the blind Argentinian writer Jorge Luis Borges for Great Lives. He is fascinated by the connection between the creator of 'The Library of Babel' and science - did Borges really understand notions of infinity and space ? Biographer Jason Wilson adds colourful detail to the life of a great writer whom he insists was just being impish when it came to the weighty matters that have excited more than one mathematician over the years. The programme includes beautiful recordings of Borges in conversation in 1971. Marcus du Sautoy is the Charles Simonyi Professor for the Understanding of Science. The presenter is Matthew Parris, and the producer is Miles Warde.

Sir Mark Walport, the government's Chief Scientific Advisor champions the life of Sir Hans Sloane, founder of the British Museum. Along with expert Marjorie Caygill they tell Matthew Parris why they think Sloane is the mother and father of all collectors. Producer : Perminder Khatkar.

Series of biographical discussions with Matthew Parris. Poet Simon Armitage nominates Joy Division singer Ian Curtis, who took his own life in 1980 at the age of 23. Curtis's fellow band member Peter Hook remembers his friend.