Last Word Podcast
Radio 4's weekly obituary programme, telling the life stories of those who have died recently
Episodes to download
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Mimi Reinhard, Sir Harrison Birtwistle (pictured), Sylvia Lancaster OBE, Letizia Battaglia
Fri 22 Apr 2022
John Wilson on a Holocaust survivor, a composer, a campaigner and a photographer.
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Jordan Mooney (pictured), Jack Higgins, Robert Ashe, David McKee
Fri 15 Apr 2022
John Wilson on a punk icon, a writer, an aid worker and an illustrator.
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Derek Mack (pictured), June Brown, Doris Derby, Dave Sales
Fri 8 Apr 2022
Matthew Bannister on a rocket engineer, an actor, a civil rights campaigner, a fisherman.
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Madeleine Albright (pictured), Peter Padfield, Christina Smith, Sheila Paine
Fri 1 Apr 2022
Matthew Bannister on a US politician, a naval historian, an entrepreneur, a textile expert
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Bruce Page, Dottie Frazier, Josephine Veasey (pictured), Maynard Davies
Fri 25 Mar 2022
Matthew Bannister on a journalist, a diver, a singer and a bacon curer
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Mary Coombs, Paul Farmer, Leslie Lonsdale-Cooper, William Hurt (pictured)
Fri 18 Mar 2022
John Wilson on a computer programmer, a medical anthropologist, a translator and an actor.
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Shirley Hughes (pictured), Roger Graef, Shane Warne
Fri 11 Mar 2022
Matthew Bannister on a children鈥檚 author and illustrator, a documentary maker, a cricketer
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Sonny Ramadhin (pictured), Sister Catherine Wybourne, Captain Raymond Savage, Anna Karen
Fri 4 Mar 2022
Matthew Bannister on a cricketer, a nun, a soldier and an actor
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Jamal Edwards MBE, P.J. O'Rourke (pictured), Romaine Hart OBE, Ronnie Campbell
Fri 25 Feb 2022
Matthew Bannister on a music entrepreneur, a writer, a cinema owner, a crofter
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Beryl Vertue CBE (pictured), Flavio Carboni, Phil Harvey, Lata Mangeshkar
Fri 18 Feb 2022
Matthew Bannister on a producer, a 'fixer', a businessman, a singer
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Bamber Gascoigne (pictured), Norma Waterson, Claire Tomlinson, Thich Nhat Hanh
Fri 11 Feb 2022
Matthew Bannister on a broadcaster, a singer, a polo player and a Buddhist monk.
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Sir Crispin Tickell, Barry Cryer (pictured), Darlene Hard, Elza Soares
Fri 4 Feb 2022
Julian Worricker on a diplomat, a comedian, a sportswoman and a singer
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Meat Loaf (pictured), Andr茅 Leon Talley, Jana Bennett, Kristin Baybars
Fri 28 Jan 2022
Matthew Bannister on a singer, a fashion editor, a 91热爆 executive, a toymaker
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Lord Sainsbury, David Stuart, Elizabeth Selby, Ronnie Spector (pictured)
Fri 21 Jan 2022
Matthew Bannister on a businessman, an LGBT support worker, a photo agent, a singer
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Sidney Poitier (pictured), EO Wilson, Sarah Weddington, Assunta 'Pupetta' Maresca
Fri 14 Jan 2022
Matthew Bannister on an actor, a biologist, a lawyer and a mafia boss.
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Lord Rogers (pictured), April Ashley MBE, Joan Didion, Ray Illingworth
Fri 7 Jan 2022
Matthew Bannister on an architect, a transgender pioneer, a writer, a cricketer
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Janice Long (pictured), Marvin Hagler, Esther Bejarano, Leslie Bricusse
Fri 31 Dec 2021
Julian Worricker on a DJ, a boxer, a Holocaust survivor and a songwriter.
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bell hooks (pictured), Shirley McGreal, Lionel Blair, Melvin Van Peebles
Christmas Eve 2021
Julian Worricker on a writer, a conservationist, an entertainer, a film director.
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Mary Maher, Robbie Shakespeare (pictured), Anwar Ditta, Anne Rice
Fri 17 Dec 2021
Matthew Bannister on a journalist, a bass player, a campaigner and an author.
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Sir Antony Sher (pictured), Roger Phillips, Judy Totton
Fri 10 Dec 2021
Matthew Bannister on an actor, a mushroom expert and a publicist.
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Stephen Sondheim (pictured), Sir Frank Williams, Jo-Carroll Dennison
Fri 3 Dec 2021
Matthew Bannister on a composer, a motor racing team owner and a beauty queen.
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Ian Wallace, Rossana Banti, Ivy Nicholson (pictured), Cedric Robinson MBE
Fri 26 Nov 2021
Matthew Bannister on an ornithologist, a partisan, a model, a guide
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Aaron Beck, Joan Carlyle (pictured), Etel Adnan, Anne Bradford
Fri 19 Nov 2021
Kirsty Lang on a psychiatrist, a soprano, a writer and a crossword solver.
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Sir Archie Lamb (pictured), John Boyden, Ida Nudel, Abolhassan Banisadr
Fri 12 Nov 2021
Matthew Bannister on a diplomat, a record producer, a 'refusenik' and a president.
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Sir Michael Rutter (pictured), Christopher Wenner, Sister Megan Rice, Jeanette Altwegg
Fri 5 Nov 2021
Matthew Bannister on a psychiatrist, a film maker, a campaigner, a figure skater
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Bernard Haitink (pictured), Victor Gregg, Ruthie Tompson, Paddy Moloney
Fri 29 Oct 2021
Matthew Bannister on a conductor, a soldier, an animator, and a piper.
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Colin Powell (pictured), Brendan Kennelly, Myriam Sarachik, John Clunies-Ross
Fri 22 Oct 2021
Kirsty Lang on a General, a poet, a scientist and the ruler of the Cocos Islands
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Abdul Qadeer Khan (pictured), R. Allen Gardner, Joyce Jackson, Beresford King-Smith
Fri 15 Oct 2021
Matthew Bannister on a metallurgist, an ethologist, a centenarian, an orchestra manager.
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Antony Hewish (pictured), Roger Michell, Abdelaziz Bouteflika, Jane Powell
Fri 8 Oct 2021
Matthew Bannister on an astronomer, a director, a president and an actor.
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Lord Gowrie, Kamla Bhasin (pictured), Shirley Metherell MBE, Roger Hunt MBE
Fri 1 Oct 2021
Matthew Bannister on a politician, a feminist, a charity founder, a footballer
