Tony Benn
Born Anthony Wedgwood Benn in 1925, he became an MP in 1950 and a rock star politician in older age. But Benn was a divisive figure in his own party.
"It's the complicated ones I enjoy the most." Matthew Parris
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鈥檚 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.
The producer in Bristol is Miles Warde
Last on
More episodes
Previous
Broadcasts
- Tue 30 May 2023 16:30大象传媒 Radio 4
- Thu 1 Jun 2023 11:30大象传媒 Radio 4 FM
Great Rock and Roll Lives
Stories of inspiration from great musicians from Bowie to Billie Holliday
Download this programme
Subscribe to this programme or download individual episodes.
Podcast
-
![]()
Great Lives
Biographical series in which guests choose someone who has inspired their lives.
