Last Word

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Factual: Life Stories

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

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Last Word: Baroness Shirley Williams (pictured), Glynn Lunney, Lyn Macdonald

Baroness Shirley Williams, Glyn Lunney, Lyn Macdonald

Baroness Shirley Williams (pictured), Glynn Lunney, Lyn Macdonald

BBC Radio 4 - Last Word, Baroness Shirley Williams (pictured), Glynn Lunney, Lyn Macdonald

Matthew Bannister on a politician, a Nasa flight director and a historian.

Matthew Bannister on politician Baroness Williams, Nasa flight director Glynn Lunney and historian Lyn Macdonald.

Matthew Bannister on:

The Liberal Democrat peer Baroness Williams of Crosby. As Shirley Williams she was a Labour cabinet minister who abolished the 11-plus exam in many parts of the UK, then a member of the Gang of Four who founded the SDP and later the Lib Dem leader in the House of Lords. Her former colleague Lord Owen pays tribute.

Glynn Lunney, who was the flight director on key American space missions, including the Apollo 11 moon landing and the aborted Apollo 13 mission, during which he played a key role in saving the astronauts' lives. His fellow flight director Gerry Griffin pays tribute.

And Lyn Macdonald, the historian who documented the testimony of ordinary First World War soldiers. The author Sebastian Faulks tells us how she inspired his best-selling novel “Birdsong”. 

Producer: Neil George

Interviewed guest: Julia Langdon 
Interviewed guest: Lord David Owen
Interviewed guest: Gerry Griffin
Interviewed guest: Kevin Fong
Interviewed guest: Sebastian Faulks

Archive clips used: Desert Island Discs - Shirley Williams: Radio 4, TX 3.2.2006; World At One: Launch of SDP: Radio 4, TX 26.3.1981; BBC News: BBC One, TX 29.11.1959; The Reunion – The Gang of Four: Radio 4, TX 17.8.2018; I Died In Hell... They Called It Passchendaele: Radio 4, TX 26.10.1977; Woman's Hour: Radio 4, TX 9.11.1974

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Last Word

Baroness Shirley Williams (pictured), Glynn Lunney, Lyn Macdonald

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