I'm Rory Stewart and I grew up wanting to be a hero and I'm still fascinated by the ideas of heroism.

In my new series, I'm taking in the long sweep of history from Achilles to Zelensky and asking, what is a hero?

Simply doing your job, being a decent human being.

A true hero is someone who just kind of shines by their own light,

and that light is to be recognized by others.

The long history of heroism with me, Rory Stewart.

Listen on BBC Sounds.

BBC Sounds, music, radio, podcasts.

You're right, Mark. I am. You're looking rather cool and groovy. Definitely. A cool and groovy kind of style. I've just put... I've had to put water on my... I've got to that point in my life that, you know, when you're... You wouldn't know this because you've still got young man's hair. But because my hair is now all grey, suddenly you get this kind of

Albert Einstein wiry thing. If you don't like, you know, slick your hair down, it turns in

and they go out at all angles. Oh, really? Yeah, it's really, really, so it's a different

consistency. Yeah, grey hairs and white hairs particularly, I'm going full Nick Lowe. White

hairs are, they're like spirally and they stick out angle than this. I think they must be thicker or stronger. So, you know, what's left of your ordinary hair just sort of lies down. You'd think, you know, as the body is sort of giving up, maybe the white hairs would be the most feeble. But then think of people that you know with hair in later age. And it's always kind of, you know, the Gerald Healy eyebrows. Yes. You know, all that sort of stuff. Or David Hemmings, of course, who was interviewed in later life with eyebrows like, you know, Mount Vesuvius. It was just suddenly these. And then, you know, hair in your ears. But Nickloowe is a good inspiration because... He looks brilliant. He does look brilliant, and so do you. Yeah, but thank you, but not as brilliant as Nick Lowe, because Nick Lowe is the coolest... It's better now, I think, than he did. Yes, he does, exactly. He's really grown into it because his hair's gone completely white, and I think that's's totally natural but he hasn't lost any of it

so he's got this fantastic kind of white quiffy thing going I think I'm going to dye my hair white

for next for next week's show I'll tell you what if you I'll die I'll I'll I'll die my hair white

if you die your hair white do you think that would be a little bit freaky?

It would look like we'd... I don't think you're going to London. It would be definitely some of that,

wouldn't it? That's your favourite line from any film ever, isn't it? It is one of them.

I don't think you're going to London. I think if we both turned up with identical hair,

that's... And glowing eyes. And then staring at people and freak them out.

I love that.

You know, I told you this, but that film was filmed around the corner. Remind me what the film is? Village of the Damned. Village of the Dam. Based on the Midwitch Cuckoos by John Wyndham, who was... When I was a kid, I used to read loads of John Wyndham,

...