Great Lives Folgen

Matthew Parris is joined by Diane Abbott MP and biographer and critic Michael Billington to explore the life of playwright and Nobel Laureate Harold Pinter. His name - if you add an "esque" to it, as in Thatcheresque or Ortonesque - defines that which is 'marked especially by halting dialogue, uncertainty of identity, and air of menace'. But today's great life is not an easy man to encapsulate. He was a polymath - a playwright, poet, screenwriter, actor, director, political activist and Nobel Laureate - whom his biographer describes as 'an instinctively radical poet whose chosen medium is drama.' He was one of Britain's most celebrated writers - the master of the pause - Harold Pinter.Pinter is said to have 'stamped his mark on the cultural and political scene as an observer of suburban brooding and as an irate iconoclast.' He was also born in Hackney, which explains in part why he has been chosen by Diane Abbott, Shadow Minister for Public Health, and MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington.The programme explores Pinter's life and his appeal for Abbott with expert assistance from Pinter's biographer, the writer and critic Michael Billington.

It was the fight of the century, July 4th 1910, when Tim Jeffries, the so-called Great White Hope, was stopped by Jack Johnson in the 15th round. Suddenly white supremacy didn't seem so self-assured. In America there were riots, while a follow up fight in Britain - between Johnson and the British champion, Bombardier Wells - never took place. A leader in the Times newspaper had urged the promoter to consider 'the special position of trusteeship for coloured subject peoples which the British empire holds ....'Jack Johnson, also known as the Galveston Giant, has been proposed by Matthew Syed, a recent sports journalist of the year. His nomination is based not only on Johnson's life, but what he came to represent. The expert is Kasia Boddy, author of Boxing: A Cultural History. The presenter is Matthew Parris and the producer Miles Warde.

Matthew Parris presents the biographical series in which his guests choose someone who has inspired their lives. Green MP Caroline Lucas nominates German Green politician Petra Kelly. Kelly was one of the first Green parliamentarians to be elected anywhere in the world. Intense, charismatic and beautiful, she became an international political superstar who rejected the idea of conventional politics. But she fell out with her colleagues and became reliant on her lover, a former German army General turned peace activist, Gert Bastian. Bastian, possibly fearing exposure as a Stasi agent, murdered Kelly and himself in 1992. Joining the discussion is Kelly's biographer and former Green Party activist, Sara Parkin.