Great Lives

Ken Dodd explains to Matthew Parris why movie legend Stan Laurel inspired him to get into comedy.Born Stan Jefferson into a theatrical family, in Lancashire, he later moved to the United States, where talent and a leg of lamb helped forge the Laurel & Hardy partnership.They became the last big comedy sensation of the silent era but took to talkies like "ducks to water" and were mobbed by fans and reporters everywhere they went.Features archive clips, including their memorable performance of The Trail Of The Lonesome Pine.With comedy historian, Glenn Mitchell.Producer: Toby Field First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in September 2012.

Matthew Parris invites writer and comic Natalie Haynes to explain why her nomination for a Great Life is a Roman poet about whose life we know very little. Dr Llewelyn Morgan of Brasenose College Oxford helps her explain the enduring appeal of this scurrilous writer.On the face of it, Juvenal's life is hard to defend as a Great one. In the first place - as Dr Llewelyn Morgan, lecturer in Classical Languages and Literature at Oxford, confirms - we know very little about his life. He may have been a first-generation Roman from a Spanish family; he may have served in army; he may have been sent into exile. None of this can be confirmed. What we do know is that he uses his Satires to rant and rail against women, foreigners, gays and the upstarts who are all ruining Rome - which might make him hard to love. But Natalie Haynes, veteran of the stand-up circuit and now a writer and critic, finds Juvenal an indispensable part of her life and is very happy to explain why.Producer Christine HallFrom 2012.

Matthew Parris finds out why the actor Bill Paterson would nominate for Great Life status a Scottish actor little known outside Scotland. He is Leonard Maguire, who died in 1997 after a career which took in acting on stage, television, film and radio and included some wonderful writing - not bad going for a man who learned English as his third language as a child.The expert witness is Leonard Maguire's writer daughter, Susie.Produced by Christine Hall and Sarah Langan.First heard on Radio 4 in 2012.

Tory MP author and adventurer Rory Stewart champions the life of Sir Walter Scott. Presenter Matthew Parris is joined by Scott's biographer Stuart Kelly. Scott arguably invented the idea of Scottishness and marketed it to the world. But now he is virtually unread and he stands accused of saddling Scotland with tartan tat and Highland kitsch. Rory Stewart argues that Scott's version of Scottish identity represents a valid alternative to today's Scottish nationalism. Producer: Jolyon Jenkins From 2012.

"I get to Milan," wrote Napoleon. "I fling myself into your room. I have left everything in order to see you, to clasp you in my arms .... you were not there." The tale of Napoleon and Josephine is one of history's great love affairs, and while she did not win the battles he fought, she was both present, and perhaps influential, at a great moment in Europe's past. Her own life before then was equally extraordinary - born in Martinique, her first husband was executed and she was in jail too, expecting the madame guillotine at any time.Reporter Janine di Giovanni champions Josephine with the expert help of her biographer Andrea Stuart, who makes no apology for the methods Josephine employed to ensure her survival and rise. An astonishing life, though presenter Matthew Parris remains unconvinced that she was truly great. The producer is Miles Warde.

The date is June 18 1963, the final seconds of the fourth round of a boxing match. In the ring, Henry Cooper, eight years older and 26 pounds lighter than his opponent, Cassius Clay. And then Cooper hits Clay, just as the bell rings.Des Lynam was Henry Cooper's boxing co-commentator for many years. He nominates our 'Enery - or Lord 'Enery as he became - as the representative of a different era of sporting prowess. Winner of three Lonsdale belts, but never world champion himself, Henry Cooper is always remembered for his two fights with Cassius Clay, later Muhammed Ali. The programme features archive of the first of those fights, plus the voice of Cooper's famous manager, the Bishop, also known as Jim Wicks. Expert opinion is provided by Norman Giller, author of Henry Cooper: A Hero For All Time. The presenter is Matthew Parris, the producer Miles Warde.

Lynn Barber first met Sebastian Walker at Oxford. "He was the first person I'd ever met who was gay...quite funny looking with a big adam's apple and bespeckled face...he dressed in a very dandy way." He formed Walker Books in 1978 which, in Lynn's words, "launched a whole new era of children's book publishing." He took every opportunity to reinvent the rules of publishing - he paid the illustrators more money than anyone else, befriending the likes of Maurice Sendak and Helen Oxenbury till they agreed to work for him. He struck a deal to sell books through Sainsbury's supermarkets and justified it in the name of child literacy. Titles like 'We're Going on a Bear Hunt' and 'Where's Wally? would establish Walker Books as a major player in children's book publishing. Walker would describe the financial side of business as a "bore" preferring to spend his money on lavish parties for his friends. Lynn Barber talks to Matthew Parris about why Sebastian Walker remains such a memorable friend. They're joined by Walker's sister and biographer Mirabel Cecil who says her brother "..had very little sense of his own identity", and that his one true love was really the piano. Producer: Toby FieldFirst broadcast on Radio 4 in 2012.

Diana Athill joins Matthew Parris to explore the life of the Spanish painter, Francisco de Goya, who has been called the last old masters and the first of the moderns.The literary editor and memoirist praises Goya for bearing witness truthfully to the horrors of war, for the tenderness of his observations as a painter, his unorthodox style and his desire to keep learning, even in old age.We know more about Goya thanks to his letters, which have been edited by Dr Sarah Symmons, who also contributes to this programme. They reveal a passionate and playful man, who was fascinated by people and every incarnation of human life and behaviour - including royalty, prostitutes and the elderly. He also wrote openly about professional humiliation and shared intimate details about his private life.Diana Athill helped establish the publishing company Andre Deutsch, worked with some of the 20th century's greatest writers in her long career, and her six volumes of memoirs include Somewhere Towards the End, an examination of what it means to be old.Reader Javier Marzan.First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2012.

John Ford had a monumental Hollywood career - over 140 films, Oscars he never turned up to receive, and a blunt way of approaching the business that made him enemies as well as friends. He stood up once at a meeting and said simply, "My name's John Ford, I make westerns." Critic Ed Buscombe also joins Matthew Parris and we hear archive of the tough-talking director John Ford. From 2012.Producer: Miles Warde.

Edward Said was a man, who, in his own words, lived two quite separate lives. First there was the scholar and literary critic of Columbia University, and then there was the fierce critic of American and Israeli policies in the Middle East. In the United States he was an academic superstar, but his views - on Palestine in particular - made him an intensely divisive figure. He died of leukaemia in 2003.In Great Lives, Alexei Sayle explains to Matthew Parris why Edward Said, a man he met twice and described as "very noble and fiercely intelligent", inspired him. Edward Said once described the Palestinians as 'the victims of the victims'. This eloquence, on a subject that in America was taboo, still impresses Alexei Sayle today. Producer: Toby Field.