Maxine Peake on Ellen Wilkinson
Great Lives
BBC
4.2 • 1.3K Ratings
🗓️ 9 August 2017
⏱️ 28 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Actress Maxine Peake nominates her working class hero, Ellen Wilkinson, as a great life.
Ellen is regarded as one of the most important figures in the history of British radical left politics. She joined the Communist party, met Lenin and Trotsky in Moscow and then went on to become one of the Labour Party's youngest people entering parliament in 1924.
For Maxine, the tragedy is that Ellen Wilkinson is now virtually a forgotten figure despite her remarkable achievements.
With help from historian Helen Antrobus from the People's History Museum in Manchester, they make the case for Ellen Wilkinson meriting the description of a great life.
Presented by Matthew Parris.
Producer: Perminder Khatkar
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in August 2017.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Hey, it's Doleepa, and I'm at your service. |
| 0:04.7 | Join me as I serve up personal conversations with my sensational guests. |
| 0:08.8 | Do a leap interviews, Tim Cook. |
| 0:11.2 | Technology doesn't want to be good or bad. |
| 0:15.0 | It's in the hands of the creator. |
| 0:16.7 | It's not every day that I have the CEO of the world's biggest company in my living room. |
| 0:20.7 | If you're looking at your phone more than you're looking in someone's eyes, |
| 0:24.6 | you're doing the wrong thing. |
| 0:26.0 | Julie, at your service. |
| 0:27.8 | Listen to all episodes on BBC sales. |
| 0:31.3 | This is the BBC. This week's great lives brings us one of the most important figures in the history of |
| 0:39.7 | British radical left politics, yet all but forgotten a mystery I want to probe. |
| 0:46.2 | Our great life joined the Communist Party, met Lenin and Trotsky and Moscow and went on to become |
| 0:51.6 | one of the youngest people who had entered Parliament. |
| 0:55.3 | You're probably already thinking, who is he? |
| 0:58.5 | Well, he is a she. |
| 1:00.3 | And what makes this life even more remarkable is that I'm talking about a working-class girl from Manchester. |
| 1:06.0 | It's the great life choice of my guest, the actress Maxine Peek. |
| 1:11.0 | Maxine, in your role as QC and the TV show Silk you were described as a cross |
| 1:16.8 | between Mother Teresa Martin Luther King and a small Rot viola. I rather |
| 1:22.2 | think you brought us a similar person today. Tell us who is your |
| 1:25.9 | great life? My great life is Ellen Wilkinson. And why? Because she's been a constant inspiration and an inspiration that has been forgotten |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.