Last Word

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BBC Radio 4 LW

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: Yvonne Blenkinsop (pictured), Dr Margaret Carswell, Mikhail Vasenkov, Denise Coffey

Yvonne Blenkinsop (pictured), Dr Margaret Carswell, Mikhail Vasenkov, Denise Coffey

BBC Radio 4 - Last Word, Yvonne Blenkinsop (pictured), Dr Margaret Carswell, Mikhail Vasenkov, Denise Coffey

Matthew Bannister on a campaigner, an ornithologist, a spy, an actor

Matthew Bannister on campaigner Yvonne Blenkinsop, ornithologist Dr. Margaret Carswell, spy Mikhail Vasenkov, actor Denise Coffey.

Matthew Bannister on

Yvonne Blenkinsop, one of the four so-called 'Headscarf Revolutionaries' from Hull who campaigned for better safety regulations on fishing trawlers after three were lost at sea in 1968.

Margaret Carswell, the doctor and ornithologist who treated survivors of the Ugandan civil war and in her spare time compiled the definitive guide to the country’s bird population.

Mikhail Vasenkov, the Russian spy who assumed a South American identity and lived undercover in the United States for decades.

Denise Coffey, the talented comic actor who made her name in the TV show 'Do Not Adjust Your Set'.


Producer: Emily Finch

Interviewed guest: Nell Carswell
Interviewed guest: Grace Carswell
Interviewed guest: Gordon Corera
Interviewed guest: Dr. Brian W. Lavery
Interviewed guest: Humphry Barclay
Interviewed guest: Michael Coveney
Interviewed guest: Miriam Margolyes

Archive clips used: British Pathé, Hull - Trawlers Lost At Sea - Wives Demand Stricter Safety Measures 1968; BBC World Service, Witness - Hull's Headscarf Revolutionaries 12/02/2018; BBC TV, Look North - Yvonne Blenkinsop gets freedom of the city of Hull 20/12/2018; YouTube, Triple Trawler Disaster - Hull 1968; xeno-canto, XC292779 Speckled Tinkerbird / XC291649 Woodland Warbler; BBC World Service, Witness - The Fall of Idi Amin 29/04/2014; BBC News 24, Russia/US Spy Swap 09/07/2010; Rediffusion, Do Not Adjust Your Set Ep 05 25/01/1968; BBC Radio 4 Extra, Alison and Maud 20/05/2009.

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Last Word

Yvonne Blenkinsop (pictured), Dr Margaret Carswell, Mikhail Vasenkov, Denise Coffey

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