Close Encounters

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Martha Kearney hosts British celebrities past and present at the National Portrait Gallery

Martha Kearney invites ten leading figures of today to the newly refurbished National Portrait Gallery to champion a favourite picture from the Gallery's star-studded collection.

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Close Encounters: Sir Chris Whitty and Dr Edward Jenner

Sir Paul Smith & Cecil Beaton

Sir Chris Whitty and Dr Edward Jenner

BBC Radio 4 - Close Encounters, Sir Chris Whitty and Dr Edward Jenner

The latest in Martha Kearney's new series celebrating portraits and portraiture through the eyes of ten Great Britons.
Her guest this time became a familiar face to anyone keeping abreast of developments during the COVID pandemic.  The UK's Chief Medical Adviser Professor Sir Chris Whitty has chosen a fellow medical scientist and son of Gloucestershire, Edward Jenner, the man who's work developing Vaccination made it possible to start on the road to eradicating Smallpox.

After three years of closure for major refurbishment and expansion the National Portrait Gallery, just off London's Trafalgar Square is set for re-opening.  To mark the occasion the gallery, along with BBC Radio 4 have launched a celebration of great Briton's, with Martha Kearney hosting a Close Encounter between the likes of Sir Tim Berners-Lee, Dame Katherine Grainger, Edward Enninful and Arlo Parks and a portrait they choose to champion.  For Sir Tim Berners-Lee it's the Suffragette campaigner Christabel Pankhurst, for Dame Katherine Grainger it's the first English woman to swim the channel, the largely forgotten Mercedes Gleitze.  

In each episode we find out about the subject of the portrait, the moment at which their image was captured for posterity and the importance of image and identity for those who find themselves in the eye of the nation's attention today.


Producers:  Tom Alban and Mohini Patel

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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Close Encounters

Sir Chris Whitty and Dr Edward Jenner

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