Great Lives

DH Lawrence was, in the words of Geoff Dyer, a man with thin wrists and thick trousers. He was also the author of Women in Love, Sons and Lovers and Lady Chatterley's Lover. But poet and performer John Hegley has chosen him above all for the quality of his poetry, an admiration presenter Matthew Parris also shares.Lawrence died aged just 44. An obituary at the time reckoned he was 'a rebel against all the accepted values of modern civilization'. Certainly his life - born in Eastwood, Notts, became a teacher only to run off with a German-born mother of three to embark on his 'savage pilgrimage' around the world - was unpredictable. As indeed was this programme, recorded in front of an audience at the Arnolfini in Bristol, with John Hegley using both music and verse to make his point. Geoff Dyer, the author of Out of Sheer Rage, makes the case that Lawrence's unpredictability was a sign of strength, and that his best work lies in his letters and not his books. The producer is Miles Warde.

Matthew Parris presents the life of the great rock and roll swindler, Malcolm McLaren, who died earlier this year. 'I've been called many things,' McLaren wrote as advance publicity for his one man show, 'a charlatan, a con man, or the culprit responsible for turning popular culture into nothing more than a cheap marketing gimmick. This is my chance to prove these accusations are true.'The man behind the Sex Pistols and Duck Rock is nominated by public relations expert Mark Borkowski, author of The Fame Formula, and a man who knew him well. What intrigues Borkowski is not just the success, but the myths that have evolved around this highly manipulative man. Matthew Parris is more sceptical, as is Chris Salewicz. As a journalist for NME between 1974-1981, Salewicz watched McLaren rewrite the rules of management. He also introduced the Sex Pistols to the man from EMI who then signed them up. An intriguing programme about fame, the media, and why the truth should not be confused with an easily believable myth.The producer is Miles Warde.Future subjects in the series include Samuel Beckett, Nye Bevan, and JB Priestley who is nominated by Barry Cryer.

Gerald Scarfe, merciless cartoon satirist of political figures, chooses an icon who created icons: Walt Disney.Gerald Scarfe spent much of his childhood in his sick bed, so it's not surprising that Disney cartoons and feature films meant so much to him. He can still recall the thrill at the prospect of seeing Pinocchio at the cinema, and then the agony of being led away again in the rain because the tickets were too expensive. Walt Disney came from a working family. His god-fearing father Elias, said by one writer to have 'hated Capital, and favoured Labour, but really needed to make a buck', found work where he could. So Walt lived a peripatetic childhood, and sought solace in drawing and play acting. Hard times early on did not make Walt frugal with money in adulthood, and despite the huge successes of the golden era of Disney, it was only with the opening of Disneyland that Walt attained any substantial personal wealth.You don't have to look far to find myth surrounding Walt Disney. Even after his death, rumours that his body had been cryogenically frozen spread so widely that they soon slipped into folklore. He had actually been cremated, but the readiness with which the cryogenic claim was accepted perhaps bears witness to a man who was terrified of dying, who believed in the white hope of technology and who, some might say, had been searching all his life for an escape into an immortal, fairy-tale world.Matthew Parris, Gerald Scarfe and guest experts Brian Sibley and Richard Williams, creator of Roger Rabbit, discuss the life of a complex cultural icon. A man who was seemingly unpretentious, and did not fit the image of movie mogul with his scruffy tweed jacket and awkward demeanour, yet a man who was accused of being a tyrannical egomaniac. The son of a socialist who ended up naming names at the House of Un- American Activities committee. Above all else perhaps though, they discuss the life of a man who strove tirelessly for perfection and who changed the cultural landscape of a little boy called Gerald, and arguably of the world, for ever.Scarfe himself is best known for his classic images lampooning the great and the good of politics, and also in his iconic animation for Pink Floyd's The Wall. He reveals in this programme that he also spent time working on the Disney production Hercules.Producer: Miles WardeFirst broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in September 2010.

Michel de Montaigne is one of the most influential writers of the French Renaissance. He is known for popularising the essay as a literary genre and became famous for his ability to fuse intellectual speculation with casual anecdotes and autobiography. Montaigne's work continues to influence writers to this day. Championing his life is the surgeon, scientist, broadcaster and politician Professor Robert Winston and providing expert witness is the writer Sarah Bakewell, whose recent biography, How to Live: A Life of Montaigne in One Question and Twenty Attempts at an Answer, was recently published to great acclaim.Producer: Paul Dodgson.

Winston Churchill's is the Great Life chosen by Lord Digby Jones, former Director General of the CBI. Expert contribution comes from Professor David Reynolds. Both men have vivid memories of the day in 1965 when, as children, they heard that Churchill had died. Surprisingly this is the first time that Churchill has been nominated in this long-running series. Considered by many a busted flush in the 1930s, Churchill is now remembered as our greatest wartime leader - his speech before the Battle of Britain still sends a shiver down the spine. But his great qualities and personal flaws remained inextricably linked. David Reynolds has uncovered a stark revelation about Churchill's real state of mind at the time he made that speech, while Digby Jones argues that the ability to instil confidence in people even when there is little rational hope of victory is one of the signs of a great leader. He believes that no one made his mark on the last century in the way that Churchill did. David does not subscribe to the Great Man theory of history. He is the Professor of International History at Cambridge University. Known to Radio 4 listeners as the writer and presenter of "America, Empire of Liberty", he has also written extensively on Churchill, including the book "In Command of History" about Churchill's memoirs of the Second World War. Presenter: Matthew ParrisFirst broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in September 2010.

Golda Meir was the Iron Lady of Israeli politics, a straight-talking, intransigent leader who once said, "There is a type of woman who does not let her husband narrow her horizons". She is the choice of former Conservative government minister Edwina Currie. Golda Meir was born in Kiev and educated in the United States, but moved to Palestine her twenties, just after the First World War. One of the signatories on Israel's Declaration of Independence in 1948, Meir was elected to the Knesset and stayed there until she retired in her late sixties. But when prime minister Levi Eshkol died unexpectedly she was called back to take his place. She was the compromise candidate but stayed there for five years and was in power during the Yom Kippur War. Edwina Currie admires her conviction and humanity, and that fact that she reminds her of her granny. Ahron Bregman from the Department of War Studies at Kings College London, served in the Israeli army and was present at Golda Meir's funeral. Unlike Edwina, Ahron thinks Golda Meir made some unforgiveable mistakes.