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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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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: Sir David Weatherall, Penny Marshall, Evelyn Berezin, Zhores Medvedev, Nancy Wilson

21/12/2018

Sir David Weatherall, Penny Marshall, Evelyn Berezin, Zhores Medvedev, Nancy Wilson

BBC Radio 4 - Last Word, Sir David Weatherall, Penny Marshall, Evelyn Berezin, Zhores Medvedev, Nancy Wilson

Matthew Bannister on a haematologist, a film director, an inventor, a dissident, a singer

Matthew Bannister on haematologist Sir David Weatherall, film director Penny Marshall, inventor Evelyn Berezin, Soviet dissident Zhores Medvedev and singer Nancy Wilson.

Pictured: Nancy Wilson

Matthew Bannister on

Sir David Weatherall, the world renowned haematologist and geneticist who pioneered molecular approaches to medicine.

Penny Marshall, the first woman to direct a film which grossed more than a hundred million dollars. She also starred in the US TV sitcom Laverne and Shirley. 

Evelyn Berezin who invented the first computerised word processor for secretarial use.

Zhores Medvedev, the Soviet scientist who revealed the use of psychiatric hospitals to lock up political dissidents.

Nancy Wilson the versatile Grammy award winning singer who recorded jazz, pop and R&B songs.

Interviewed guest: Tom Soloman
Interviewed guest: Larushka Ivan-Zadeh
Interviewed guest: Matthew Kirschenbaum
Interviewed guest: Jonathan Steele
Interviewed guest: Tina May

Producer: Neil George

Archive clips from: Eureka: David Weatherall, Radio 4 03/12/95; Science at War: Hydrogen Bomb, BBC Two 10/12/98; Newsnight, BBC Two 21/03/84; Newsnight, BBC Two 28/04/86; Happy Days, Henderson Productions/Miller-Milkis-Boyett Productions/Paramount Television; Big, American Entertainment Partners II LP/Gracie Films/Twentieth Century Fox, 1988; The Talk of the Town, BBC TV 30/04/72; Oral History of Evelyn Berezin, Computer History Museum, Interviewed by Gardner Hendrie 10/03/14 in New York.

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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Last Word

Sir David Weatherall, Penny Marshall, Evelyn Berezin, Zhores Medvedev, Nancy Wilson

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