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: Mel Parry, Professor Alice Coleman, Hugh Callaghan, Cynthia Weil

Mel Parry, Professor Alice Coleman, Hugh Callaghan, Cynthia Weil

BBC Radio 4 - Last Word, Mel Parry, Professor Alice Coleman, Hugh Callaghan, Cynthia Weil

Matthew Bannister on an SAS veteran, a geographer, a labourer and a songwriter.

Matthew Bannister on SAS veteran Mel Parry, geographer Professor Alice Coleman, labourer Hugh Callaghan and songwriter Cynthia Weil.

Matthew Bannister on

Mel Parry, the SAS veteran who was part of the team that stormed the Iranian embassy in London in 1980.

Professor Alice Coleman, the geographer whose modifications to modernist high rise estates won the support of Margaret Thatcher.

Hugh Callaghan, the labourer who was one of six men arrested after the Birmingham pub bombings of 1974.   He served 16 years in prison for a crime he didn’t commit. 

Cynthia Weil, the American songwriter behind hits like The Righteous Brothers’  “You’ve Lost That Loving Feeling”, The Animals’ “We Gotta Get Out Of This Place” and Dolly Parton’s “Here You Come Again”.

Interviewee: Bob Shepherd
Interviewee: Jo Kendall
Interviewee: Professor Loretta Lees
Interviewee: Chris Mullin

Producer: Gareth Nelson-Davies

Archive used:
Iranian Embassy Siege, News bulletin, BBC Radio 4, 30/04/1980;  Iranian Embassy Siege, Reports and interviews,  BBC Radio 4, 01/05/1980;   Iranian Embassy Siege, Reports and interviews, BBC Radio 4, 03/05/1980; Iranian Embassy Siege in London, News report, BBC Radio 4, 05/05/1980; Cynthia Weil interview: writing songs for male performers, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, YouTube uploaded 14/03/2016; Cynthia Weil and Barry Mann interview, Sunday Morning, CBS, 08/02/2015; Alice Coleman interview, The Friday Report: A Design for Living, BBC Two, 05/02/1988;  1974 Birmingham Pub Bombings report, BBC News, 15/08/1975; Birmingham bombings, 21 Dead And 182 Injured In Birmingham, RTE News Archive, 21/11/1974; Hugh Callaghan interview, World In Action, Granada Television, 18/03/1991; Hugh Callaghan interview, BBC Radio Ulster, 08/12/1996; Birmingham Six freed, News reports, BBC Newsnight, 11/03/1991; Hugh Callaghan singing, Songs of Love and Emigration: Two, The Irish Pensioners Choir, 2023;

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Mel Parry, Professor Alice Coleman, Hugh Callaghan, Cynthia Weil

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