Lucy Jones, author of Matrescence, chooses the writer Sylvia Plath.

Sylvia Plath was a precocious, prize-winning child,. Her mother had high expectations for her. Her father had died when she was 8 (but could have been saved if only he'd gone to see a doctor).

When she was well, Plath was energetic, fun, bright, attractive, funny and incredibly smart.

Her first depressive episode at the age of 20, was 'treated' with botched electric shock therapy. She was awake throughout the ordeal, which left her terrified and traumatised.

Lucy Jones believes that Plath has an unfair reputation as a depressing writer, because of the shadow that her suicide casts backwards over her life. But Jones finds Plath's poetry incredibly alive, brave, comforting and inspiring. "I don't think I would have been able to write Matrescence without Plath's work"

Both Lucy Jones and Plath's biographer, Heather Clark, believe that at the end of her life, recently separated and struggling through a particularly bad winter with two very small children, she may have been suffering from post-natal depression.

With archive recordings of Sylvia Plath reading her poems Daddy and Mushrooms, as well as being interviewed with Ted Hughes.

Produced in Bristol by Ellie Richold and presented by Matthew Parris

"One of the things that she claimed was that her mother had been impregnated by the sun god Amon-Ra." Elizabeth Day's interest in the female pharaoh Hatshepsut was sparked by a trip to Egypt less than a year ago. What intrigued her was how this woman survived and thrived as ruler in a traditionally male role. Joining her in discussion is Professor Joyce Tyldesley, recent winner of archaeologist of the year. She says that Hatshepsut changed her life when she wrote her biography. Matthew Parris presents.

Elizabeth Day is the author of six novels and host of How to Fail. The producer for BBC Studios in Bristol is Miles Warde

"The area I mostly work in is generally known as free - the free music area. And free is one of those four letter words, like rock or jazz or punk maybe. It started out meaning something." Derek Bailey

Born in 1930 in Sheffield, Bailey worked as a session musician in dance bands and orchestras before turning his back on that world. Free improvisation was where he made his name, and he took inspiration from whatever he heard. Stewart Lee first heard him in the 1990s and spoke at his funeral in 2005.

"Are there any parallels between his approach and yours?" "There probably are ... in that I've copied him."

Also contains the voices of Ian Greaves and Tim Fletcher, a brief clip of Mastermind, and a recording of Derek Bailey's collaborator in the Joseph Holbrooke Trio, Gavin Bryars. Stewart Lee is a comedian and writer, the presenter is Matthew Parris and the producer for BBC Studios is Miles Warde.

We regret that this description barely scrapes the surface of the wonder of this episode - the ideas, the music, the archive, the brief row.

Jock Stein, first British football manager to win the European Cup, picked by composer Sir James MacMillan and aided by Jock Stein’s biographer, Archie MacPherson. Jock Stein was manager of Celtic FC when they won the European Cup in Lisbon in 1967. He later died while managing Scotland in a world cup qualifier against Wales – the date, September 1985, exactly forty years ago.

"I saw in my grandfather and my father certain characteristics that I saw in Jock Stein." Sir James MacMillan

Includes archive of Jock Stein, Gordon Strachan and Billy Connolly, a big fan of the European Cup winning Celtic team.

Archie MacPherson is the author of Jock Stein: The Definitive Autobiography, and a familiar face to viewers of Scottish football in the eighties and nineties and beyond. The presenter is Matthew Parris and the producer for BBC Studios is Miles Warde

Matthew Parris heads to the house where Benjamin Franklin lived for almost 17 years to meet banker and philanthropist John Studzinski.

Franklin was born in Boston when it was still a part of the British empire, ran away to Philadelphia and lodged near Charing Cross at 36 Craven Street in London for over a decade. He was an agent for the Pennsylvania assembly, and also an ambassador to Paris where he helped persuade the French to join the breakaway American states in their war against the British. His nominator John Studzinski is chair of the board that runs the Benjamin Franklin House in London and says that he would have loved to have been the great man's apprentice. Joining the conversation is Professor Kathleen Burk who admires Franklin the enlightened writer but is less sure about his treatment of his wife. Kathleen Burk is author of Old World, New World: Great Britain and America from the Beginning.

The producer for BBC Studios Audio in Bristol is Miles Warde

"I find his novels extraordinarily beautiful .. and they're an excellent length."

Miles Jupp picks an author he loves, but knows little about. JL Carr was born in Yorkshire and was a teacher, mapmaker, and an eccentric. Joining the comedian in studio to discuss Carr is a man who knew him well - DJ Taylor - who paints a picture of a man who hated London literary parties and knew how to have fun with anyone sent to interview him. A delightful episode that includes archive of Carr himself, plus Kenneth Branagh reading from his biography, God's Englishman by Byron Rogers.

Carr's novel - A Month in the Country - was shortlisted for the Booker and turned into a film starring Kenneth Branagh, Colin Firth and Natasha Richardson in 1987.

The producer for BBC Studios in Bristol is Miles Warde

Today's great life is possibly more famous as a Shakespearean character - King Richard II who was deposed by his cousin Henry Bolingbroke in 1399. He's been chosen by historian Helen Castor, author of The Eagle and the Hart, who shines a light on what really happened towards the end of his reign. Also helping is Professor Emma Smith who explains why the play was a hit two hundred years later under Elizabeth I. With archive of John Hurt as Richard and David Suchet as his cousin and usurper, Henry Bolingbroke.

The producer for BBC Studios Audio in Bristol is Miles Warde

DJ Deb Grant picks US mailman turned country-folk singer John Prine, whose beautiful songs captured the world in which he lived. Bob Harris, who first met him on the Old Grey Whistle Test, adds to the conversation.

"I came to know him through him speaking about his own music - it's his character, his personality and his attitude that I fell for," says Deb Grant. "When he died I was absolutely inconsolable."

Programme includes archive of John and his wife, talking after her husband died of complications arising from covid. There's also a reading of the lyrics from Sam Stone, his tale of a Vietnam vet returning from the war. "There's a hole in daddy's arm where all the money goes," he sings.

This is series 67 of Great Lives and future guests include Miles Jupp, Stewart Lee and Elizabeth Day.

The producer for BBC Studios Audio in Bristol is Miles Warde

Seretse Khama was born in 1921 in Bechuanaland when it was still a British Protectorate. In 1966 he became Botswana's first president. In between he married a white Londoner, Ruth Williamson, was exiled by the British, and made to renounce his interest in succeeding as head of the Bangwato. It's an extraordinary and notable life, and he's been nominated by Professor Mike Bode, an astrophysicist and visiting professor to Botswana.

As well as archive of Seretse Khama, the programme includes contributions from Bishop Trevor Mwamba and Susan Williams, author of Colour Bar: The Triumph of Seretse Khama and His Nation.

The producer for BBC Studios Audio in Bristol is Miles Warde

For over a hundred years no one thought too much about the origins of the RSPB, but among its founders was a woman in Didsbury opposed to the use of feathers in fashionable hats. Emily Williamson was outraged by the widespread slaughter of egrets and the crested grebe. She had tried to join the all-male British Ornithological Union, and when that failed she established her own Society for the Protection of Birds. Nominating Emily is Hannah Bourne-Taylor, author of Fledgling and Nature Needs You, which is about her own campaign for the introduction of swift bricks into all new buildings. Helping Hannah discover more about this little known life is author Tessa Boase, who discovered Emily's role; plus Beccy Speight the current head of the RSPB. Matthew Parris presents. The producer in Bristol for BBC Studios Audio in Miles Warde.

Rock Icon Tina Turner proposed by the actress and author Rebecca Humphries. Tina Turner began life as Anna Mae Bullock in Nutbush, Tennessee, joining Ike Turner's band in St Louis at the age of 17. Her presence, her performances and her voice captivated audiences, but this is really a story of triumph over abuse. After she left Ike Turner with nothing but her name, she built a successful solo career in her 40s and rose to become one of the best-selling artists of all time, filling arena into her 70s. Tina Turner is nominated by Rebecca Humphries. Presented by Matthew Parris, produced in Bristol for BBC Studios Audio by Ellie Richold

The chef Raymond Blanc nominates his mentor and friend, the physicist Professor Nicholas Kurti. Kurti was born in Hungary but fled to Oxford when Hitler came to power. Pushing the frontiers of low-temperature physics during his career, he went on to create‘molecular gastronomy’ in retirement. Raymond Blanc approached Kurti after a lecture the professor gave in his 80s. Blanc asked to help him understand the science behind his trials with leaky puff pastry and souffles that wouldn’t rise. Kurti agreed and so began a friendship of fun and great respect.

As Raymond Blanc says; “Imagine! Two complete geniuses!”

Raymond Blanc also promises to give Matthew “The best steak of your life”.

Presented by Matthew Parris and produced by Ellie Richold in Bristol for BBC Studios Audio

At the age of 10 Dervla Murphy was given an atlas and a bicycle, and so began an adventurous life. Her account of a journey to India became a classic called Full Tilt but she also went to Cuba, Ethiopia and the Andes where our guest first met her in a doss house. Hilary Bradt is the founder of the Bradt Travel Guides and is picking Dervla Murphy as a great example of the adventurous female traveller, never afraid of a little hardship. Joining her in studio is Rose Baring who edited Dervla's last three books. A joyful episode which includes some excellent archive of Dervla Murphy plus the writer Antonia Quirke.

The producer for BBC studios Audio in Bristol is Miles Warde

We don't even know if Ned Ludd was real, but perhaps that was the point. "You could say he was everyone and no one - and that's what made him so terrifying for the authorities." Leader of the Luddites, who often signed letters and proclamations Ned Ludd, he is shown in one engraving wearing mismatched shoes and a blue polka dot dress, suggesting a world turned upside down. He's been picked by the popular historian Alex von Tunzelmann, and joining her in studio to discuss Ned and the Luddites (and the neo-Luddites too) is Katrina Navickas, historian of protest; plus the playwright Joe Ward-Munrow who recently staged The Legend of Ned Ludd at the Liverpool Playhouse.

Alex von Tunzelmann is the author of Fallen Idols and presenter of The Lucan Obsession on Radio 4. The presenter is Matthew Parris and the producer for BBC Studios Audio in Bristol is Miles Warde

Richey was, beautiful says Cummins, a natural icon and a gift to photograph. He also believes his writing has been overshadowed by the fact of his disappearance in 1995. "I think nobody has looked beyond that for quite a long time.”

Manic Street Preachers biographer, Simon Price, also knew Richey Edwards and says he was "the most intelligent rock star I've ever met".

This programme covers alcoholism, anorexia, and self-harm, but it also celebrates Richey’s sensitivity and, as Price says, the fact that he is one of those "icons of alienation" like Ian Curtis and Kurt Cobain who will " always be there for people to discover the genius of his work".

Presented by Matthew Parris and produced for BBC Studios by Ellie Richold.

Biography show in which the guest picks someone they admire. Benny Hill is a thorny choice but playwright Jonathan Maitland is determined that - despite accusations of sexism and racism later in his career - Britain's most successful comedian deserves a second look. Benny was fired by Thames TV in 1989. "The show was past its sell-by date," was the official line. Critics had been questioning The Benny Hill Show for almost a decade, but in the 1950s and 1960s he was seen as a pioneer, particular for his work on TV. Joining the discussion is the comedian and writer Helen Lederer, bringing a little nuance to the show. Contains archive of Ruth Jones, Barry Cryer, David Cameron and Benny himself.

The producer in Bristol is Miles Warde

“Henrietta's eyes looked into one's soul at the same time exposing her own. She posed for me most Mondays for the last seven months until two days before she died.”

In a raw and very funny opener to the new series of Great Lives, painter and sculptor Maggi Hambling chooses someone she knew extremely well - her lover Henrietta Moraes. Born in India, Henrietta was rejected by both her parents and the grandmother she grew up with in Britain. She found a new home in post war Soho, was painted by Francis Bacon and Lucien Freud, and took on various jobs including gypsy storyteller and cat burglar. According to one obituary she was, "foul-mouthed, amoral, a thief, a violent drunkard and a drug addict. Yet she was witty, wonderfully warm and lovable. Her presence in any room immediately told you that life is more thrilling than we dull folk imagine.”

Maggi Hambling is best known for her public works including A Sculpture for Mary Wollstonecraft and the Scallop made of steel on Aldeburgh Beach. She is joined in studio by painter Darren Coffield who has developed a second career as an entertaining historian of Soho with books such Queens of Bohemia and Other Misfits.

The producer in Bristol is Miles Warde

The legendary opera star Maria Callas was lauded for her magnetic stage presence and extraordinary vocal range. Born in New York in 1923 to Greek immigrant parents, she moved with her mother and sister to Greece aged 13. In 1939 she attended the Athens Conservatoire where she embarked on a rigorous vocal training in the Italian "bel canto" tradition. After the Second World War she moved to Italy, where she was mentored by the leading conductor Tullio Serafin, and became one of the most celebrated opera stars of the day, making triumphant appearances at La Scala in Milan, Covent Garden in London and the Metropolitan in New York.

Labour MP and former Deputy Prime Minister Harriet Harman is a lifelong fan, who says that despite Callas' tremendous talent and hard work she was unfairly vilified for behaving like a "diva" in the pejorative sense. She says that Callas was one of the first celebrities to get the full "tabloid treatment", and endured prurient press interest in her relationship with the Greek shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis. We hear from Robert Sutherland, a pianist who accompanied Maria Callas during her world tour in 1973-1974, about their friendship. Joining Harriet and Matthew in the studio is singer, musician, teacher and researcher Nina Horrocks, also known by her stage name Ziazan. She specialises in the "bel canto" technique that Callas trained in, and has a YouTube channel dedicated to the subject called Phantoms of the Opera (https://www.youtube.com/c/PhantomsoftheOpera).

Archive includes: Maria Callas in conversation with Edward Downes, 1967, Angel Records Maria Callas: Today interview with Barbara Walters, 1974, NBC

Presenter: Matthew Parris Producer: Beth McLeod for BBC Studios Audio

Born in Illinois in 1941, Dana Meadows studied Chemistry and Molecular Biology, before turning her back on a post doc position at Harvard, to pursue environmentalism.

She joined her husband Dennis Meadows as part of the team working on Professor Jay Forester's World3 computer model of the world economy at MIT and wrote the report on the results of that model, which predicted overshoot and collapse if economic growth were not curbed. The report, called Limits to Growth, was published in 1972 to much publicity, alarm and ridicule.

Donella said "We were at MIT. We had been trained in science. The way we thought about the future was utterly logical: if you tell people there’s a disaster ahead, they will change course. If you give them a choice between a good future and a bad one, they will pick the good. They might even be grateful. Naive, weren’t we?"

Following the publication of Limits to Growth, Dana dedicated her life to living by the principles of sustainability (a word coined by the Limits to Growth team) and to teaching the principles of 'systems' thinking, which she believed could help people understand and live more harmoniously with the planet.

Choosing Dana is Economist Kate Raworth, who believes that economics needs a broader, more holistic model to be fit for the 21st century. To this end, she founded the Doughnut Economics Action Lab, which champions regenerative and distributive economics, that can meet the needs of people within the means of the living planet. Kate never met Dana, but felt an immediate kinship when she picked up her book, Thinking in Systems, and now believes that all children should be taught to think about the balancing and reinforcing loops of systems.

Produced for BBC Audio in Bristol by Ellie Richold.

George Harrison was a musician, singer and songwriter who became one of the most famous people in the world as one quarter of the Beatles. That alone would merit a place in the Great Lives pantheon, but his work in the decades after the band broke up indicates a man of diverse and arguably underestimated talents.

Erupting onto the pop music scene in the 1960's, the Beatles' success was swift and dizzying; and for the rather private George, sometimes dubbed ‘the quiet Beatle’, this celebrity and adulation seems to have never quite sat comfortably. Nevertheless, he became a musical icon: responsible for a captivating collection of songs, from those he wrote with the Beatles through to his solo work; collaborating with a host of international artists; popularising Indian music and instruments; and even venturing into the movie-making business. At the same time, like many others thrust into the spotlight, George appears to have struggled with balancing success and the celebrity lifestyle with a more meaningful and spiritual existence.

This tension and how it drove George Harrison as an artist is part of what attracts crime writer, occasional musician and self-professed Beatles fanatic Mark Billingham to his story, and why he's nominated him today. Also in the studio to offer her insights is Dr Holly Tessler, a senior lecturer in music industries at the University of Liverpool, where she leads their MA programme: 'Beatles, Music Industry and Heritage'.

Presented by Matthew Parris and produced for BBC Studios Audio by Lucy Taylor.