Living a lie: discovering my dad faked who he was
Lives Less Ordinary
BBC
4.7 • 885 Ratings
🗓️ 12 January 2026
⏱️ 45 minutes
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Summary
Joanne Briggs had always thought of her dad as a bit of a superhero. But he was hiding a dark secret.
She only saw him a couple of times a year during her childhood in the UK, but that was because Professor Michael Briggs was off travelling the world being a very important scientist. Or at least that was the story she grew up to believe. It was only in 1986, when Joanne was 23, that she first got a glimpse of who he really was. The Sunday Times newspaper exposed him as a scientific fraud, leaving his reputation in tatters. Two months later, he was dead. Joanne chose to close the door on this mysterious and destructive period of her life. But 34 years later it unexpectedly reopened, and led her on a journey through multiple lies and deception, towards a better understanding of the man she thought she knew. Joanne Briggs has written a book about her father: The Scientist Who Wasn't There.
Presenter: Jo Fidgen Producer: Anna Lacey
Lives Less Ordinary is a podcast from the BBC World Service that brings you the most incredible true stories from around the world. Each episode a guest shares their most dramatic, moving, personal story. Listen for unbelievable twists, mysteries uncovered, and inspiring journeys - spanning the entire human experience. Step into someone else’s life and expect the unexpected. Got a story to tell? Send an email to liveslessordinary@bbc.co.uk or message us via WhatsApp: 0044 330 678 2784 You can read our privacy notice here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/5YD3hBqmw26B8WMHt6GkQxG/lives-less-ordinary-privacy-notice
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, Podcasts. |
| 0:07.0 | Hello, I'm Greg Jenner, and good news, |
| 0:09.5 | Your Dead to Me, is back for a new series. |
| 0:11.6 | Here we go. |
| 0:12.1 | Yes, we'll explore Emperor Nero's notorious reign with Professor Marybeard and Patton Oswald. |
| 0:16.9 | I would not want my daughter having the remote control, not alone an empire. |
| 0:21.0 | We'll dissect the decadent life of Philippe Duke-Dolion with Tom Allen. |
| 0:24.8 | I've often tried to pretend I'm an aristocrat and being very quickly knocked down. |
| 0:29.1 | And there'll be so much more with comedians like Olga Koch, Mike Mosniak and Rihelina. |
| 0:33.0 | I'm excited. |
| 0:33.7 | You're dead to me. |
| 0:34.5 | The comedy podcast that takes history seriously. |
| 0:37.0 | Listen first on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:42.3 | I went to the shops on Sunday morning and bought a newspaper. You know, it's 1986. There's no other way of reading a newspaper at that time other than going and buying one. |
| 1:02.8 | And on the front of the news in focus, was a possibly life-sized close-up of my dad's face from eyebrows to chin, with the word exposed partially obscuring his face. |
| 1:12.3 | There'd been this investigation, a large investigation of his research work. |
| 1:18.0 | I thought, oh gosh, he was really in a very great deal of hot water. |
| 1:38.6 | Yeah. water. Professor Michael Briggs had always been a bit of a hero to Joanne, his daughter. |
| 1:44.0 | He hadn't been around much when she was a child, |
| 1:46.8 | but she had this image of him as a superstar scientist, |
| 1:50.8 | jet-setting around the world, working for NASA, |
| 1:53.7 | advising the World Health Organization, |
... |
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