The fourth of Martha Kearney's new series celebrating portraits and portraiture through the eyes of ten Great Britons.
Her guest is multi-medal-winning Olympic Rower and Chair of UK Sport Dame Katherine Grainger. Her choice is the swimmer Mercedes Gleitze, the first British woman to swim the channel as well as breaking many swimming endurance records in the 1920s and 30s. Although uncelebrated today, she was the first person on record to swim the straights of Gibraltar.

After three years of closure for major refurbishment and expansion the National Portrait Gallery, just off London's Trafalgar Square is set for re-opening. To mark the occasion the gallery, along with BBC Radio 4 have launched a celebration of great Briton's, with Martha Kearney hosting a Close Encounter between the likes of Sir Tim Berners-Lee, Edward Enninful and Arlo Parks and a portrait they choose to champion. For Sir TIm Berners-Lee it's the Suffragette campaigner Christabel Pankhurst.

In each episode we find out about the subject of the portrait, the moment at which their image was captured for posterity and the importance of image and identity for those who find themselves in the eye of the nation's attention today.

Producers: Tom Alban and Mohini Patel Show less