Great Lives Folgen

Broadcaster and writer Gyles Brandreth nominates Sir Arthur Conan Doyle as his "Great Life". Matthew Parris chairs, assisted by biographer Andrew Lycett.Conan Doyle is best known as the creator of the pipe smoking, deerstalker wearing, Sherlock Holmes. Yet this irritated him, and he tried to kill off the great detective, only to bring him back by popular demand. But Conan Doyle was a footballer, cricketer, skier, a campaigner against the Belgian atrocities in the Congo, and most startlingly, a practising spiritualist who also believed in fairies.The paradox of Conan Doyle's life was that, having invented the most rational, cerebral fictional character of all time, he himself embraced superstition and behaved in ways that caused even his allies to despair of his credulity.Producer Jolyon Jenkins First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in April 2013.

Dr David Livingstone was the Victorian equivalent of an astronaut - a man who ventured into the  interior of Africa to report on territory that was wholly unknown to Europeans. In this programme, the explorer Colonel John Blashford-Snell explains why he admires his predecessor. Matthew Parris chairs the discussion, assisted by Dr Sarah Worden of the National Museum of Scotland.Livingstone went to Africa as a missionary but succeeded in making only one convert, who soon lapsed. Frustrated, he switched his focus to exploration, crossing southern Africa from east to west and back again. He discovered the Victoria Falls, but his attempts to reach the interior by going up the Zambezi were a disaster when he discovered that the rapids he had been warned about were impassable. On his recommendation, missionary families came out from England to settle in what is now Malawi but - as he should have anticipated - many of them died of disease.Despite these failures, he was and is regarded as a hero. As a self-made man who put himself through university on his wages from working in a cotton mill, he embodied the Victorian can-do spirit. His map-making, natural history observations, facility with languages and sheer endurance in the face of overwhelming obstacles made him a formidable character. Above all, his legacy in helping to end the east African slave trade mean that he is still revered in Africa today.Produced by Jolyon Jenkins.First broadcast on Radio 4 in 2013.

Chris Tarrant chooses one of the great pioneers of modern radio.He's the man born Maurice Cole in Liverpool in 1944, who found fame on TV as Gizzard Puke, Cupid Stunt and Sid Snot: Kenny Everett.Kenny's life was almost as bizarre as the characters he played, but it is for his work as a DJ that Chris Tarrant selects him. Tarrant was at London's Capital Radio for 20 years. Kenny Everett began his career in pirate radio, from where he was sacked. He also worked for the BBC, from where he was sacked. He made one appearance on Radio 4's Just a Minute, famously talking about marbles. Other employees included Radio Luxembourg and Capital.Presenter Matthew Parris reminisces about the Young Conservatives invitation to Kenny Everett to join them on stage in 1983 - his slogans included 'Let's Bomb Russia' and 'Let's kick Michael Foot's stick away' - while biographer James Hogg fills in some of the details of Everett's complicated personal life.Producer: Miles WardeFirst broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in April 2013.