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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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
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Jimmy Greaves (pictured), Sir Clive Sinclair, Olivia Jordan, Carolyn Shoemaker
Fri 24 Sep 2021
Julian Worricker on a footballer, an inventor, a translator and an astrophysicist.
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Otelo Saraiva de Carvalho, Jean-Paul Belmondo (pictured), Angela Milner, Inge Ginsberg
Fri 17 Sep 2021
Datshiane Navanayagam on a revolutionary, an actor, a palaeontologist and a singer.
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Sergei Kovalev (pictured), Lee 'Scratch' Perry, Abebech Gobena, Ed Asner
Fri 10 Sep 2021
Matthew Bannister on a dissident, a reggae pioneer, a humanitarian, an actor
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Jill Murphy (pictured), Len Gibson, Dame Elizabeth Blackadder, Nanci Griffith
Fri 3 Sep 2021
Matthew Bannister on an author, a prisoner of war, an artist, a country singer
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Charlie Watts (pictured), Austin Mitchell, Hugh Wood, Sean Lock
Fri 27 Aug 2021
Matthew Bannister on a drummer, a Labour MP, a composer and a comedian.
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Una Stubbs (pictured), Gino Strada, Mo Hayder
Fri 20 Aug 2021
Matthew Bannister on an actor, a surgeon, a writer
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Jean 'Binta' Breeze MBE (pictured), Sir Nicholas Goodison, Shaykh Abdalqadir as-Sufi, Joyce Shrubbs
Fri 13 Aug 2021
Matthew Bannister on a poet, a stockbroker, a Muslim teacher, a military observer
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Sir Graham Vick (pictured), Carmel Budiardjo, Piers Plowright, Dusty Hill
Fri 6 Aug 2021
Julian Worricker on an opera director, a campaigner, a radio producer and a musician.
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Jackie Mason (pictured), John Woodcock, Dinah Murray, Billy Lacey
Fri 30 Jul 2021
Matthew Bannister on a comedian, a cricket writer, a campaigner, a marshman
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Gillian Sheen (pictured), William 'Twink' Allen, Lawrence 'Benny' Goodman, Alan Lewis
Fri 23 Jul 2021
Matthew Bannister on an Olympian, a horse fertility expert, a Squadron Leader, a publisher
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Jehan Sadat (pictured), Michael Horovitz, Richard Ernst, Dilip Kumar
Fri 16 Jul 2021
Matthew Bannister on a First Lady, a poet, a chemist, an actor
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Donald Rumsfeld (pictured), Menelik Shabazz, Elizabeth French
Fri 9 Jul 2021
Matthew Bannister on a US defense secretary, a film-maker and an archaeologist.
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John McAfee (pictured), Tr岷 Thi峄噉 Khi锚m, Karla Burns, Horace 'Lyle' Hutley
Fri 2 Jul 2021
Matthew Bannister on a businessman, a general, a singer, a war veteran.
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Kenneth Kaunda, Janet Malcolm, Penny Kemp, Bob Swash
Fri 25 Jun 2021
Matthew Bannister on a president, a writer, a campaigner, a producer.
