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BBC Radio 4 is a radio channel that started transmitting on the 30th September 1967. It replaced BBC Home Service.

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Great Lives

Discussion & Talk

Factual: Life Stories

Biographical series in which guests choose someone who has inspired their lives.

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Great Lives: Series 23

Great Lives: Episode 4: Sammy Davis Jr

Sammy Davis Jr

Episode 4

Episode 4: Sammy Davis Jr

BBC Radio 4 - Great Lives, Sammy Davis Jr

Dancer and actor Lionel Blair chooses his friend, Sammy Davis Jr.

Dancer and actor Lionel Blair chooses his friend, Sammy Davis Jr, one of the world's great all-round entertainers. With Matthew Parris. From December 2010.

Lionel Blair chooses his friend and dancing partner Sammy Davis Jr. Sammy described himself as a 'one-eyed black Jew' - and he was described by others as one of the greatest all-round entertainers of all time.
Lionel danced and sang with Sammy in a dazzling performance on the stage at the Royal Variety Performance in 1961, and he revisits that memory through an evocative archive recording. Paul Gambaccini is on hand to help presenter Matthew Parris draw out the contradictions and triumphs of Sammy Davis Jr's great American life. 
Producer Beth O'Dea.

Intelligent speech, the most insightful journalism, the wittiest comedy, the most fascinating features and the most compelling drama and readings anywhere in UK radio.

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Episode 4: Sammy Davis Jr

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