Great Lives Folgen

It all began with a small portrait in the Greenwich museum - of a sexless looking character in wide stripey trousers. Actor Nina Sosanya says she was immediately intrigued. Who was this? Why was she here? And did she really sail round the world dressed as a man? She discovered that Jeanne Baret was a poor but ingenious French woman who joined Louis Antoine de Bougainville's circumnavigation in 1763. She was dressed as a man because women were not allowed on board. But this was only the beginning of a crazy, often terrifying ordeal. Joining Nina Sosanya is Glynis Ridley, author of the Discovery of Jeanne Baret. Together they piece together this adventurer's life, from her birth in rural France to her passage round the globe, abandoned on Mauritius and getting back home seven years after everyone else. Nina Sosanya has starred in Staged, Killing Eve and W1A, often playing extremely likable characters who keep their head while everyone else goes down in flames.The producer in Bristol is Miles Warde

Johnny Ramone is a founding member of the seminal New York punk band, the Ramones. Famed for their blisteringly short songs played at breakneck speed, the Ramones burst onto the scene in 1976 with tracks like 'Blitzkrieg Bop', 'I Don't Wanna Walk Around With You' and 'Judy is a Punk'. When they played The Roundhouse in London journalist Chris Salewicz was there, and afterwards he said all the British punk bands started to play their songs twice as fast. But, as advertising expert Rory Sutherland reveals, it's Johnny Ramone's contradictions that really form the basis for his choosing him as a great life. Johnny was a staunch Republican at a time when punk was perceived as a largely left-wing movement. In fact, for Rory, anything that aims to disrupt the status quo can be punk - including Brexit! Johnny studied tapes of the Ramones performances to ensure that they looked, sounded and moved in what he felt was the right way, and his aim was to make a million dollars and retire early. Matthew Parris presents, ready to shout "1,2,3,4".Producer for BBC Audio in Bristol: Toby Field

John Ronald Reuel Tolkien was born in Bloemfontein in 1892. Orphaned before he was a teenager, he fought at the Somme in the First World War before going on to become one of the best-selling authors of all time. Bilbo, Gandalf, Gollum, Frodo, Sauron - these are just a few of the famous characters he created for The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.Nominating Tolkien - an Oxford University professor - is the popular historian, Niall Ferguson. He aims to rescue Tolkien from the hippies, who, he says, claimed Tolkien as their own. "The fascinating thing to me about Tolkien is that his sensibility is so profoundly conservative - with a small 'c'. ...when you look at the man's politics, he was such a reactionary!" Presenter Matthew Parris, who doesn't believe in elves or dwarves, is not so sure that the fantasy author deserves to be rescued. With additional help and guidance from Malcolm Guite.Niall Ferguson is senior fellow of the Hoover Institution and author of Empire: How Britain made the Modern World.Producer: Ellie RicholdFirst broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in December 2021.