Icons of culture, science and politics - The Sunday Story
The Story
The Times
3.9 • 1.6K Ratings
🗓️ 21 December 2025
⏱️ 30 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In this emotionally resonant end of year episode, we take a deep dive into some of most iconic figures we lost in 2025. From the beloved British actress Dame Patricia Routledge, famed for her incredible performance as Hyacinth Bucket in Keeping Up Appearances, to the pioneering primatologist, Jane Goodall, whose groundbreaking research at Gombe Stream transformed our understanding of chimpanzees and inspired generations of scientists and environmentalists.
Host: Anna Temkin, deputy obituaries editor of The Times.
Producer: Dave Creasey.
Clips: BBC, National Geographic, CNN, Josefa`s Thoughts, TPM TV, Fox, ABC, CBS, BritBox.
Photo: Getty Images.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | From the Times and the Sunday Times, this is the story on Sunday. I'm Manvine Rana. |
| 0:09.5 | Today, we take a look back at some of the incredible people we lost in 2025. There are so many, |
| 0:18.0 | but we've chosen four from the worlds of culture, science and politics. |
| 0:23.1 | And our guide is the Deputy Obiturys editor of the Times, Anna Temkin. |
| 0:31.9 | People assume that working on the Times obitaries desk is gloomy. |
| 0:36.2 | But actually, that couldn't be further from the truth. |
| 0:39.4 | In my day-to-day job, I hear remarkable stories of talent, hope, |
| 0:44.7 | optimism, tenacity, humour and insight. |
| 0:49.0 | And today, on this episode of the story, |
| 0:51.6 | you'll hear some of those remarkable live stories. |
| 0:55.2 | The Times has a long history of publishing obitories, and over the centuries, the paper has |
| 1:00.6 | built a pretty impressive archive of what we call stock obits, pieces that are written and |
| 1:06.6 | researched in advance for figures in the public eye, so that when their deaths are announced, |
| 1:12.0 | a record of their life and achievements is ready for publication. In fact, we have about |
| 1:16.9 | 3,000 of them on file at any one time, and we're constantly updating them. There are, of course, |
| 1:23.9 | times when someone dies unexpectedly, and their obituary has to be written and turned around |
| 1:28.9 | that same day. Fortunately, we have a team of experienced obituists, all with different specialisms, |
| 1:35.3 | who are ready for that challenge. There have been so many fascinating figures whose obits we've |
| 1:40.5 | published over the last 12 months, covering all walks of life, from politics to film, |
| 1:46.4 | sport to science, theatre, to music and entertainment. |
| 1:53.5 | Who can forget Ozzy Osbourne, the bat-eating, hell-raising frontman of Black Sabbath, |
| 2:04.1 | who became an unlikely reality TV star. |
... |
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