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Bruce Page, Dottie Frazier, Josephine Veasey (pictured), Maynard Davies

Matthew Bannister on journalist Bruce Page, diver Dottie Frazier, singer Josephine Veasey and bacon curer Maynard Davies.

Matthew Bannister on

Bruce Page, the investigative journalist best known for leading the Sunday Times Insight team鈥檚 expose of the Thalidomide scandal.

Dottie Frazier, the pioneering American scuba diver who kept a boa constrictor as a pet and rode a motorcycle until she was in her nineties.

Josephine Veasey, the British mezzo-soprano acclaimed for her performances in works by Wagner and Berlioz.

And Maynard Davies, who left school unable to read and write, went on to become a well-known bacon curer and chronicled his extraordinary life in a series of books.

Producer: Neil George

Interviewed guest: Magnus Linklater
Interviewed guest: Peter Kellner
Interviewed guest: Alec Peirce
Interviewed guest: Karen Straus
Interviewed guest: Una Barry
Interviewed guest: Karen McCall

Archive clips used: AP Archive, How West Germany Treats Thalidomide Children 10/12/1972; 大象传媒 One, The Editors: Press and Politicians 02/07/1978; Alec Peirce Scuba Channel, Dottie Frazier - A Diving Legend 09/01/2020; 大象传媒 Radio 4, A Musical Evening - Josephine Veasey 01/08/1985; YouTube - TheScottReaProject/Channel 4, Interview with Maynard Davies 1996; 大象传媒 Radio 4, The Food Programme - Interview with Maynard Davies 23/07/2000; AmericanRhetoric.com/YouTube Channel, Madeleine Albright - International Women's Day speech 08/03/2010.

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28 minutes

Last on

Sun 27 Mar 2022 20:30
大象传媒 Radio 4

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Clip

Bruce Page

Born 1 December 1936; died 11 March 2022 aged 85.

Last Word spoke to Scottish journalist and former newspaper editor Magnus Linklater and to journalist and broadcaster Peter Kellner.聽

Dottie Frazier

Born 16 July 1922; died 8 February 2022 aged 99.

Last Word spoke to scuba diving expert and friend Alec Peirce and to book editor Karen Straus.聽

Josephine Veasey

Born 10 July 1930; died 22 February 2022 aged 91.聽

Last Word spoke to soprano opera singer Una Barry.

Maynard Davies

Born 2 May 1934; died 24 February 2022 aged 87.

Last Word spoke to book publisher Karen McCall.

Broadcasts

  • Fri 25 Mar 2022 16:00
    大象传媒 Radio 4
  • Sun 27 Mar 2022 20:30
    大象传媒 Radio 4

Podcast

  • Last Word

    Radio 4's weekly obituary programme