The Great Lives of Great Lives

Great Lives

BBC

History, Documentary, Personal Journals, Society & Culture

4.2 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 11 December 2020

⏱️ 29 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Back in the late summer of 2001, a new biography series aired on Radio 4. Matthew Parris was not the first presenter, but he has chaired more editions than anyone else. His very first episode was about Morecambe and Wise, since when he's listened to claims for Leon Trotsky, Donna Summer, Doris Day and Benito Mussolini. So what makes a great life, and can anyone join? Here, with some help from the first programme's producer, he starts to draw some conclusions of his own. Extracts include Toni Morrison, Frank Sinatra, Muhammad Ali, Virginia Woolfe, Kenny Everett, and Clement Attlee, Nominators include Jessie Ware, Christopher Hitchens, Ken Dodd, Andi Oliver, Penelope Keith, David Attenborough, and Grace Dent. The presenter is Matthew Parris, the producer in Bristol Miles Warde

Transcript

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0:00.0	Newscast is the unscripted chat behind the headlines.
0:05.6	It's informed, but informal.
0:07.6	We pick the day's top stories and we find experts who can really dig into them.
0:12.4	We use our colleagues in the newsroom and
0:14.4	our contacts. Some people pick up the phone rather faster than others.
0:18.0	We sometimes literally run around the BBC building to grab the very best guests.
0:23.4	Join us for daily news chats to get you ready for today's conversations.
0:28.3	Newscast, listen on BBC Sounds.
0:31.4	BBC Sounds. B. C Sounds, music radio podcasts.
0:37.0	Just before I get the green, this is to say,
0:41.0	but this is, it's a conversation, it's not me interviewing you both. I don't mind being left out of the conversation, agree, disagree, ask each other questions, that's fine.
0:52.0	If you launch into, that's fine.
0:52.9	If you launch into something that's just coming out all wrong, don't worry, just stop and start
0:57.9	again.
0:58.9	Let's go. Today's great life, great life,
1:10.0	Trotsky, Ras Putin.
1:12.0	Tintin,
1:12.7	More come and wise.
1:14.1	My great life is Elizabeth David.
1:16.2	Alfred the Great.
1:17.2	The author Nancy Mitford.
1:19.2	Pope John Paul II, Tony Morrison.
	...

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