Great Lives

Mumsnet founder Justine Roberts champions the life of the legendary football manager Bill Shankly, who in the 1960s took Liverpool from the second division to become one of the world's greatest sides. Famous for his quip that "football is not a matter of life and death, it's much more important than that", Shankly lived and breathed football; but in his later years he felt that the Liverpool managers had frozen him out of the side he had nurtured, and betrayed him. Shankly came from humble beginnings. After school he worked down the local coal mine until the pit was closed. He never became rich and lived in a modest semi-detached house where Liverpool fans were always welcome. His life was a far cry from that of today's top managers, but through his canny playing of the transfer market, did he anticipate their methods? Matthew Parris chairs the discussion, with the aid of Shankly biographer Stephen Kelly. Producer: Jolyon Jenkins

Broadcaster Gyles Brandreth nominates Sir Arthur Conan Doyle as his "Great Life". Matthew Parris chairs, assisted by biographer Andrew Lycett. Conan Doyle is best known as the creator of Sherlock Holmes. This always irritated him, and he tried to kill off the great detective, only to bring him back by popular demand. But there was more to Conan Doyle than Holmes. A footballer, cricketer, skier,, a campaigner against the Belgian atrocities in the Congo, and most startlingly, a convinced spiritualist who believed in fairies. The paradox of Conan Doyle's life was that, having invented the most rational, cerebral fictional character of all time, he himself embraced superstition and behaved in ways that caused even his allies to despair of his credulity.

Dr David Livingstone was the Victorian equivalent of an astronaut - a man who ventured into the  interior of Africa to report on territory that was wholly unknown to Europeans. In this programme, the explorer Colonel John Blashford-Snell explains why he admires his predecessor. Matthew Parris chairs the discussion, assisted by Dr Sarah Worden of the National Museum of Scotland. Livingstone went to Africa as a missionary but succeeded in making only one convert, who soon lapsed. Frustrated, he switched his focus to exploration, crossing southern Africa from east to west and back again. He discovered the Victoria Falls, but his attempts to reach the interior by going up the Zambezi were a disaster when he discovered that the rapids he had been warned about were impassable. On his recommendation, missionary families came out from England to settle in what is now Malawi but - as he should have anticipated - many of them died of disease. Despite these failures, he was and is regarded as a hero. As a self-made ma

Chris Tarrant chooses one of the great pioneers of modern radio - a man born Maurice Cole in Liverpool in 1944, who became famous on television as Gizzard Puke, Cupid Stunt and Sid Snot. Kenny Everett's life was almost as bizarre as the characters he played, but it is for his work as a deejay that Chris Tarrant selects him. Tarrant was at Capital Radio for twenty years. Kenny Everett began his career in pirate radio, from where he was sacked. He also worked for the BBC, from where he was sacked. He made one appearance on Radio 4's Just a Minute, famously talking about marbles. Other employees included Radio Luxembourg and Capital. Presenter Matthew Parris reminisces about the Young Conservatives invitation to Kenny Everett to join them on stage in 1983 - his slogans included 'Let's Bomb Russia' and 'Let's kick Michael Foot's stick away' - while biographer James Hogg fills in some of the details of Everett's complicated personal life. The producer is Miles Warde

The DJ and broadcaster Bobby Friction champions the Italian physicist and astronomer Galileo Galilei. He is the first Great Lives guest to have named a child after his nominated hero. Galileo was born on 25th February 1564, in Pisa. He was a best-selling author - the Stephen Hawking of his day - who challenged Aristotle's view of the cosmos and was brought before the Inquisition. The presenter is Matthew Parris, with additional contributions from Dr David Berman from Queen Mary University of London. Together they discuss whether Galileo should have stood his ground and refused to recant, or if he should be recognised as someone whose experimentation helped define what science is. Produced by Perminder Khatkar. First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2013.

"I remember seeing him sitting on the bishops' bench, and I went to him and said, George, I believe you are going to make a speech. He replied, yes I am. I said, George, there isn't a soul in this House who doesn't wish you wouldn't make the speech ..." Lord Woolton, 1944 George Bell, Bishop of Chichester, was the most famous churchman of his day. His brave speech attacking the allies' bombing tactics in World War Two is justly remembered here by Peter Hitchens as one of the clearest, most coherent and measured statements ever made about the war. But his contemporaries did not see it quite the same way. "Don't let's be beastly to the Germans," sang Noel Coward, in part inspired by Bell's anti-war stance. But George Bell was not a pacifist - he just believed that the British should not be as barbaric, as he saw it, as the Nazis who had provoked the war. In his speech Bell said, "... to justify methods inhumane in themselves by arguments of expediency smacks of the Nazi philosophy that Might is Right." The

Gardener Carol Klein's great life is a Victorian hero of the wild garden, the writer and horticulturalist William Robinson. Matthew Parris presents, with expert help from Robinson's biographer Richard Bisgrove and reader Stephen Hogan. William Robinson was a radical and persuasive writer and designer whose influence on British gardens has been compared to that of William Morris on interiors. You may not recognise his name but his influence lives on: 'we are all Robinsonians now, even if we don't know it', according to one recent review. Born in 1838 in Ireland, he started young as a garden boy for the Marquess of Waterford. Little more is known about Robinson's early life, but his rise to prominence was swift once he'd arrived in London. Within a few years he'd been elected as a fellow to the Linnaean Society, sponsored by Charles Darwin and James Veitch. He founded, wrote and published his own gardening periodicals and almanacs as well as writing best-selling books on gardening which struck a chord wit

Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen on the Victorian artist Aubrey Beardsley, whose shocking originality he compares to that of Alexander McQueen. Laurence's first foray into art was copying Beardsley drawings to sell at his school - with the more erotic ones fetching a premium price... Biographer Matthew Sturgis fills in the detail of Beardsley's short but extraordinary life, and Matthew Parris presents. Produce:r Beth O'Dea First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2013.

Max Mosley nominates the philosopher and proponent of personal liberty, John Stuart Mill, as his great life. With presenter Matthew Parris and biographer Richard Reeves. Max Mosley trained as a barrister and was an amateur racing driver before becoming involved in the professional sport, latterly as president of the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile. The youngest son of Sir Oswald Mosley, former leader of the British Union of Fascists, and Diana Mitford, his family name made a career in politics impossible. His choice of Mill as a great life is a result of his recent experiences of suing the News of the World for invasion of privacy, and giving evidence to the Leveson Inquiry. He says that both sides of the debate used Mill's work on liberty to justify their arguments. Until summer 2012 Richard Reeves was Nick Clegg's Director of Strategy, and before that, head of the think-tank 'Demos'. His biography, 'John Stuart Mill - Victorian Firebrand', depicts Mill as a passionate man of action: a philosophe

What was so notable about Grigori Rasputin ? "The hypnotic power shining in his exceptional gaze," said one observer. The photos are indeed remarkable, and so are the myths. This programme begins with his death. The date is December 1916, and Rasputin, ice encrusted and with a mutilated face, is dragged out of a frozen river in St Petersburg. According to police reports at the time, people ran to the river with armed with jugs and buckets, hoping to scoop up any unfrozen water that had come into contact with this famous man. Comedian Richard Herring chooses Rasputin as much for the mythology as the fact. Was he really the lover of the Russian Queen ? No ... but it is said that his dead body sat up in the fire when it was being burnt. Filling in some of the gaps in this mysterious tale of pre-revolutionary Russia is Bob Service of Oxford University, and an endlessly entertained Matthew Parris presents. Producer: Miles Warde.

Matthew Parris talks to writer, broadcaster and 6Music presenter Stuart Maconie about the life of Ralph Vaughan Williams. The expert witness is Em Marshall-Luck, chairman of the Ralph Vaughan Williams Society and founder-director of the English Music Festival. Producer: Christine Hall

Children’s author Francesca Simon chooses artist, writer and film-maker Jean Cocteau. With Matthew Parris. From December 2012.

The date is 1956, Aintree, and Dick Francis is riding the Queen Mother's horse to victory in the Grand National. Except Devon Loch collapses bizarrely to the ground within sight of the finishing post. The jockey later says that he never recovered from this defeat. But the strange case of Devon Loch and the most famous Grand National of them all is the making of Dick Francis, who becomes both a household name and a best selling author too. Martin Broughton, chairman of British Airways, the British Horse Racing Board and - for a while - Liverpool FC, chooses Dick Francis as his example of a man who succeeded in two careers. The Francis novels have sold in millions. Philip Larkin loved the opening lines: "There was a godawful cock up in Bologna," begins The Danger. But there have been question marks over whether the books were all his own work. Mischievous biographer Graham Lord tells Miles Warde why he thinks Dick's wife, Mary, was responsible. "Garbage," says Martin Broughton. Expert opinion comes from Jonat

Whilst at school, a young Alan Johnson was given some money by a teacher and told to go and buy four copies of any book for the school library. He headed down the Kings Road in Chelsea, stopping only for a sly cigarette along the way. Having already read 'Animal Farm', he picked 'Keep the Aspidistra Flying' and yearned for the life of lead character Gordon Comstock. In conversation with Matthew Parris, former Home Secretary Alan Johnson explains why Orwell was crucial to his education and political development. He's surprised to learn that Orwell is not on the National Curriculum, and insists that Orwell would have hated I.D. cards. They're joined by Jean Seaton, Professor of Media History at the University of Westminster and Chair of the Orwell Prize. Orwell was in the news recently when the outgoing Director-General of the BBC, Mark Thompson, turned down a proposal to erect a statue of George Orwell outside BBC Broadcasting House, reportedly telling Joan Bakewell that it was 'far too Left-wing an idea.'

"If only we'd stop trying to be happy we could have a pretty good time." Edith Wharton is as well known for her wit as for her novels. Born in 1862, she was the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize, for The Age of Innocence in 1921. She is nominated by Naomi Wolf, the provocative American commentator and author of The Beauty Myth. Presenter Matthew Parris is also joined in the studio by Janet Beer and Avril Horner. The producer is Jolyon Jenkins. From 2012.

Film director Stephen Frears discusses the life of his mentor, Czech-born director, Karel Reisz, with the help of critic and Reisz's friend, John Lahr. Frears is one of Britain's most successful directors, responsible for "My Beautiful Laundrette", "Dangerous Liaisons", and "Dirty Pretty Things", among many others. Reisz is probably best known for "Saturday Night and Sunday Morning", and "The French Lieutenant's Woman". "Karel took me into his life and into his family and he took on the business of turning me into whatever it is I've become," Frears has said. "Without him, I wouldn't have become a film director". Matthew Parris chairs the discussion.

The late Ken Dodd explains to Matthew Parris why Stan Laurel inspired him to get into comedy, with the help of expert Glenn Mitchell. Born Stan Jefferson into a theatrical family, in Lancashire, he later moved to the United States, where talent and a leg of lamb helped forge the Laurel & Hardy partnership. They became the last big comedy sensation of the silent era but took to talkies like "ducks to water" and were mobbed by fans and reporters everywhere they went. Features archive clips, including their memorable performance of The Trail Of The Lonesome Pine. First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2012.

Matthew Parris invites writer and comic Natalie Haynes to explain why her nomination for a Great Life is a Roman poet about whose life we know very little. Dr Llewelyn Morgan of Brasenose College Oxford helps her explain the enduring appeal of this scurrilous writer. On the face of it, Juvenal's life is hard to defend as a Great one. In the first place - as Dr Llewelyn Morgan, lecturer in Classical Languages and Literature at Oxford, confirms - we know very little about his life. He may have been a first-generation Roman from a Spanish family; he may have served in army; he may have been sent into exile. None of this can be confirmed. What we do know is that he uses his Satires to rant and rail against women, foreigners, gays and the upstarts who are all ruining Rome - which might make him hard to love. But Natalie Haynes, veteran of the stand-up circuit and now a writer and critic, finds Juvenal an indispensable part of her life and is very happy to explain why. Producer Christine Hall From 2012.

Matthew Parris finds out why the actor Bill Paterson would nominate for Great Life status a Scottish actor little known outside Scotland. He is Leonard Maguire, who died in 1997 after a career which took in acting on stage, television, film and radio and included some wonderful writing - not bad going for a man who learned English as his third language as a child. The expert witness is Leonard Maguire's writer daughter, Susie. Produced by Christine Hall and Sarah Langan. First heard on Radio 4 in 2012.

Tory MP author and adventurer Rory Stewart champions the life of Sir Walter Scott. Presenter Matthew Parris is joined by Scott's biographer Stuart Kelly. Scott arguably invented the idea of Scottishness and marketed it to the world. But now he is virtually unread and he stands accused of saddling Scotland with tartan tat and Highland kitsch. Rory Stewart argues that Scott's version of Scottish identity represents a valid alternative to today's Scottish nationalism. Producer: Jolyon Jenkins From 2012.