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: Lady Williams of Elvel, Professor John Goodenough, Christine Baker, Lord Palmer

Lady Williams of Elvel, Professor John Goodenough, Christine Baker, Lord Palmer

BBC Radio 4 - Last Word, Lady Williams of Elvel, Professor John Goodenough, Christine Baker, Lord Palmer

Matthew Bannister on a secretary, a materials chemist, a publisher and an aristocrat.

Matthew Bannister on secretary Lady Williams of Elvel, materials chemist Professor John Goodenough, publisher Christine Baker and aristocrat Lord Palmer.

Matthew Bannister on

Lady Williams of Elvel, who, as Jane Portal, was personal secretary to Winston Churchill and the mother of the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby.

Professor John Goodenough, the American materials chemist who won the Nobel prize for his work on developing the rechargeable lithium battery.

Christine Baker, the publisher who specialised in making British children’s books available in France. Sir Michael Morpurgo pays tribute.

Lord Palmer, the aristocrat who worked in the family biscuit making firm Huntley and Palmer before inheriting the 109 room Manderston House and estate in the Scottish borders.

Interviewee: Allen Packwood OBE
Interviewee:  Marnie Chesterton
Interviewee: Sir Michael Morpurgo
Interviewee: Robin Baker
Interviewee: Hugo Palmer

Producer:  Gareth Nelson-Davies

Archive used:

Interviews with Lady Williams, all courtesy of the Churchill Archives Centre;   An Interview with Lady Williams, HTB at Home, HTB.org, YouTube uploaded 18/04/2021;   Winston Churchill speech, The Commonwealth Mourns Its King, BBC Radio, 14/04/1952; Warhorse (2011) Trailer, YouTube uploaded 04/10/2011;   Huntley and Palmers Factory, Reading in the 1930s, Wessex Film and Sound Archive YouTube channel, uploaded 25/08/2011; Lord Palmer Interview, Front Row, BBC 13/02/2004; Lord Palmer interview, BBC Antiques Roadshow Series 28 Manderston, BBC One, 30/10/2005;  Lord Palmer Interview, Posh people: Inside Tatler, BBC Two, 18/12/2014;  Lord Palmer speech in House of Lords, Today at Parliament, BBC Radio 4, 24/03/2021;

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Lady Williams of Elvel, Professor John Goodenough, Christine Baker, Lord Palmer

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