Great Lives Folgen

"It's the complicated ones I enjoy the most." Matthew ParrisEllie Gibson picks Labour politician Tony Benn, who was a rock star politician in older age, but a divisive figure in his own party.Tony Benn, MP from 1950 to 2001, packed so much into a long career. He renounced the peerage inherited from his father, served in the Labour governments of both Harold Wilson and Jim Callaghan, led the Stop the War Coalition from 2001 and became pretty much the country’s pre-eminent rock star politician in older age. Comedian Ellie Gibson says she was a Tony Benn groupie and saw him speak many times. A brilliant orator and prolific diarist, he was by the 1980s distrusted by many in his own party, and a bogey figure in the right wing press. Contributors include ex-Labour MP, Chris Mullin, and his biographer, Jad Adams.Plus rare early archive of Tony Benn himself talking about his constitutional fight to give up his inherited peerage. Ellie Gibson is one half of the Scummy Mummies podcast duo.Produced at BBC Bristol by Miles Warde.First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in May 2023.

When Jon Ronson was growing up, he went to see The Specials play in Cardiff. "I went on my own to Sophia Gardens," he says. "The crowd was fantastically wild. There’s a lot to not like about the feral nature of British street culture – i.e. getting beaten up - but out of turmoil can come great art, songs like Ghost Town and Concrete Jungle. Anyway, before The Specials came on, I made a decision: I would pretend to faint in the hope that I could watch the show from the side of the stage. It worked like a dream. I was carried by the bouncers to the wings, and left there. This was probably the most exciting moment of my life, and as I stood there, Terry Hall noticed me and came over to ask if I was okay. Terry Hall, the coolest man in Britain, being kind and showing concern."Years later Terry Hall publicly announced that he'd been abducted by paedophiles as a boy. Jon Ronson immediately remembered the care and concern Terry had shown him and wondered if this was why. Programme includes Terry's bandmate, Lynval Golding, giving his first interview since Terry died in December; plus two of his friends, Shaun O'Donnell and Gary Aspden, and the voice of Terry himself.Jon Ronson is the author of Adventures with Extremists and presenter of Things Fell Apart, about the culture wars.The producer in Bristol is Miles Warde

Sir Edward Coke was born in Norfolk in 1552. He's best known as a judge and Parliamentarian, the link says Jesse Norman between Magna Carta and the English Bill of Rights. He was also, the programme claims, an occasionally appalling human being who used his own daughter in a marriage deal to buy himself favour with the King. Joining Jesse Norman, and presenter Ian Hislop, in the studio, and often backing up his claims for Coke's greatness, is Dr Alexandra Gajda of Oxford University.Jesse Norman is a government minister, former paymaster general and one time financial secretary to the Treasury. Producer: Miles WardeFirst broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in May 2023.