Original version

BBC Radio 4 FM

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

BBC Radio 4

Radio 4

Radio 4 (FM)

Last Word

Factual: Life Stories

Radio 4's weekly obituary programme, telling the life stories of those who have died recently

BBC Radio 4 LW

Last Word: Charles Aznavour, Dr Charles Kao, Elizabeth de Mauny Wainwright, John Cunliffe

05/10/2018

Charles Aznavour, Dr Charles Kao, Elizabeth de Mauny Wainwright, John Cunliffe

BBC Radio 4 - Last Word, Charles Aznavour, Dr Charles Kao, Elizabeth de Mauny Wainwright, John Cunliffe

Matthew Bannister on a singer, a physicist, a journalist and a writer

Matthew Bannister on singer Charles Aznavour, physicist Dr Charles Kao, journalist Elizabeth de Mauny Wainwright and writer John Cunliffe

Pictured: Charles Aznavour

Matthew Bannister on

Charles Aznavour, the French singer who "made despair popular". The lyricist Don Black, who worked with him, pays tribute. 

Dr. Charles Kao, the Nobel prize winning physicist who developed fibre optic technology, so paving the way for the world wide web. 

Elizabeth de Mauny Wainwright, the pioneering foreign correspondent who helped to smuggle an interview with Solzhenitsyn out of Soviet Russia.

John Cunliffe, the writer who delighted generations of children by creating Postman Pat and Rosie and Jim.

Interviewed guest: Don Black 
Interviewed guest: Jeff Hecht 
Interviewed guest: Marc de Mauny
Interviewed guest: Rachel Feldberg
Interviewed guest: Nigel P. Harris

Archive clips from:
The Typically French Armenian, Radio 4 02/02/1977; Desert Island Discs, Radio 4 01/01/1978; Aznavour at Eighty, Radio 2 12/03/2004; Treasure Islands, Radio 4 05/04/1992; Postman Pat’s Finding Day, BBC One 16/9/1981; Bookshelf, Radio 4 20/03/1986; Rosie and Jim, ITV 1991; Postman Pat Takes the Bus, BBC One 25/12/1991; Postman Pat’s Secret Birthday, BBC One 30/09/1981; Postman Pat’s Rainy Day, BBC One 07/10/1981; Charles Kao interview with FiberStory, 22/03/2010; Look East, BBC Norwich 06/10/2009; Look East, BBC Norwich 27/01/2006; Radio 4 News, 12/02/1974; Tomorrow's World, BBC One 1994.

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

Accessibility links

Programme Index

Last Word

Charles Aznavour, Dr Charles Kao, Elizabeth de Mauny Wainwright, John Cunliffe

Genres

Brand

BBC Radio 4 FM

About BBC Radio 4