Last Word

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BBC Radio 4 FM

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

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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 O'Cathain, Michael Collins, Sharon Matola, Jim Steinman (pictured, with Meat Loaf)

Baroness O'Cathain, Michael Collins, Sharon Matola, Jim Steinman

Baroness O'Cathain, Michael Collins, Sharon Matola, Jim Steinman (pictured, with Meat Loaf)

BBC Radio 4 - Last Word, Baroness O'Cathain, Michael Collins, Sharon Matola, Jim Steinman (pictured, with Meat Loaf)

Matthew Bannister on a businesswoman, an astronaut, a zoo director, a songwriter.

Matthew Bannister on businesswoman Baroness O’Cathain, astronaut Michael Collins, zoo director Sharon Matola, songwriter Jim Steinman.

Matthew Bannister on

Baroness O’Cathain, the successful businesswoman who became Managing Director of the Barbican Arts Centre in London but left after losing the confidence of staff and artists.

Michael Collins, the Apollo 11 astronaut who stayed in the Apollo command module while Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walked on the moon.

Sharon Matola, the former lion tamer who became an environmentalist in Belize, establishing a zoo to care for the country’s rare and rescued animals.

Jim Steinman, the songwriter whose masterwork “Bat Out Of Hell” became one of the best-selling albums of all time.

Producer: Neil George

Interviewed guest: Lord Faulkner of Worcester
Interviewed guest: Sir Nicholas Kenyon
Interviewed guest: Lou Nicolait 
Interviewed guest: Andrea Polanco
Interviewed guest: Meat Loaf
Interviewed guest: Don Black

Archive clips used: The Farming Week: Radio 4, TX 1.8.1987; Woman's Hour: Radio 4, TX 17.10.1989; 13 Minutes to the Moon: World Service, TX 15.5.2019; Naomi's Nightmares of Nature: CBBC, TX 2.7.2014; Simon Bates interview with Meat Loaf and Jim Steinman, recorded circa 1993, TX unknown; World at One: Radio 4, TX 21.4.2021; I Write the Songs - Series 3: Radio Wales, TX 12.3.2016

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

Baroness O'Cathain, Michael Collins, Sharon Matola, Jim Steinman (pictured, with Meat Loaf)

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