Great Lives

Kathleen Ferrier was a British contralto singer who died in 1953 from breast cancer. Her professional career had lasted just 14 years but in that time she had had become an international star, singing at Covent Garden, Glyndebourne and Carnegie Hall; and had worked with such luminaries of post-war music as Benjamin Britten, Sir John Barbirolli, and Bruno Walter. Not bad for someone who had no formal training as a singer and who had left school to work in the Blackburn telephone exchange. Ferrier never lost her common touch, never became a prima donna, and retained her liking for beer, cigarettes, and risque jokes. In this programme, broadcaster Sue MacGregor tells Matthew Parris why she admires Ferrier's work. Joining the discussion is conductor Christopher Fifield who edited Ferrier's letters.

Actress Diana Quick tells Matthew Parris why she believes that existentialist philosopher Simone de Beauvoir lived a great life, despite living in the shadow of Jean Paul Sartre. Simone de Beauvoir was a brilliant writer and philosopher in her own right. Her study, The Second Sex, made her an iconic figure for the feminist movement, and she remained true to her intellectual honesty until her death in 1986, aged 78. Yet despite all of her achievements, she is chiefly remembered as the student of her lover and teacher, Jean Paul Sartre. Joining Matthew Parris and Diana Quick in the studio is de Beauvoir biographer Lisa Appignanesi. The producer is John Byrne.

The conductor Charles Hazlewood chooses the great American composer Leonard Bernstein, music director of the New York Philharmonic and creator of West Side Story, Wonderful Town, and Candide. The charismatic Bernstein clearly influenced Charles Hazlewood's own choice of career - he's an award winning conductor, made his debut at Carnegie Hall in 2003 and recently presented The Birth of British Music on BBC tv. Joining him in the studio is Humphrey Burton, friend and professional colleague of Leonard Bernstein and whose documentaries include The Making of West Side Story. Matthew Parris presents. The producer is Miles Warde.

Matthew Parris presents the biographical series in which his guests choose someone who has inspired their lives. Here, Sir Clive Sinclair nominates fellow inventor Thomas Edison. Edison invented sound recording, the electric light bulb and moving pictures, but also had his fair share of duds along the way. Sir Clive invented the first electronic calculator but also the ill-fated C5 electric car. Separated by a century, do the two men have anything in common? Joining the discussion is Edison's biographer Neil Baldwin.

Playwright Kwame Kwei-Armah is a passionate advocate of Marcus Garvey, the inspirational black leader of the early twentieth century. Long before Martin Luther King or Malcolm X, Marcus Garvey was trying against all the odds to give black people a sense of pride, and to create the conditions in which they might hope to flourish and prosper. Kwame Kwei-Armah tells the story of Garvey's incredible rise and fall, and brings this impressive yet flawed man to life. He's joined by Colin Grant, the author of Negro with a Hat - a biography of Marcus Garvey. Presenter Matthew Parris contributes his own memories of living in both Jamaica and Africa.Producer: Beth O'Dea.

The writer Katharine Whitehorn chooses Mary Stott, the great campaigning journalist and the first editor of the Guardian women's page. She's the journalist who more than anyone started the revolution in women's journalism since the 1950s. She gave ordinary women a voice, and a place to get together and share ideas. Liz Forgan, who was to edit the women's page later, shares her memories of working with Mary, and Matthew Parris presents. Producer Beth O'Dea.

Gertrude Bell was a British woman who arguably founded the modern state of Iraq. Explorer, mountaineer and archaeologist, this extraordinarily talented woman travelled widely across Arabia in the years preceding the first world war. When war came, her knowledge of the tribes, geography and politics of the area made her a vital asset to British intelligence. In the wake of British victory in Mesopotamia, she became a key figure in the the post-war administration of the turbulent area, as the British grappled with how best to reduce their military commitment while still retaining influence - a situation that was to find strong echoes in post-war Iraq 90 years later. A woman who rose to the top in a man's world, her personal life was beset with ill-starred romance and tragedy. Physicist Jim al-Khalili was born in Iraq at a time when Gertrude Bell was still revered as someone who fought for Iraqi self-determination. With the help of Bell's biographer, Janet Wallach, he explores her remarkable life. Matthew Parris chairs.

In his time, Aneurin Bevan was, according to one biographer, "the most colourful and controversial, most loved and most loathed political personality in Britain".The founding father of the NHS is the choice of Lord Kinnock, the former leader of the Labour Party who, like Bevan, grew up in Tredegar, in the heart of the Welsh coalfields, where he met his hero many times. Kinnock regards Bevan as a hero on a level with Nelson Mandela and believes it was Nye alone who had the force of personality and political will necessary to get the Health Service established after the war. But the presenter Matthew Parris and his other studio guest, Bevan's biographer, John Campbell are more sceptical. Campbell goes so far as to argue that, the achievement of the NHS not withstanding, Nye Bevan's life was essentially a failure because, in his commitment to socialism, he misread the trend of history so completely. Now, with the NHS facing radical reform, this programme captures some of the passion and debate that surrounded its inception and provides personal insights into the life and character of the man responsible for its creation. The producer is Isobel Eaton.Future subjects in the series include Barry Cryer on JB Priestley.

Lionel Blair chooses his friend and dancing partner Sammy Davis Jr. Sammy described himself as a 'one-eyed black Jew' - and he was described by others as one of the greatest all-round entertainers of all time. Lionel danced and sang with Sammy in a dazzling performance on the stage at the Royal Variety Performance in 1961, and he revisits that memory through an evocative archive recording. Paul Gambaccini is on hand to help presenter Matthew Parris draw out the contradictions and triumphs of Sammy Davis Jr's great American life. Producer Beth O'Dea.

Business guru Sir Gerry Robinson was born in Ireland but moved to England in his teens, and he chooses Samuel Beckett, another Irishman who lived away for much of his life - in Paris. Gerry, a late convert to Beckett's plays, loves him because he's accepting of the human condition: that we're all locked in this repetitive pattern. We don't want to keep on doing the same thing over and over again, but we do. Presenter Matthew Parris is also joined by Jim Knowlson, who was a personal friend of Samuel Beckett for 19 years, and is his authorised biographer. He reveals that Beckett was far from the dour gloomy figure of popular imagination, and was in fact very good company - as long as you didn't interrupt him when he was watching the rugby on the telly on a Saturday afternoon.Producer: Beth O'Dea.