Walter Murch picks Mohammad Mossadegh, prime minister following the nationalisation of the Anglo-Iranian oil company in 1951. Mossadegh was ousted in a coup in 1953.
Murch became fascinated in Mossadegh's life while working on a Sam Mendes film about the first Iraq War. Walter Murch is an editor best known for Apocalypse Now, The Godfather and The Constant Gardener. He also worked on a documentary called Coup 53. This is the first in a new series of Great Lives and includes archive of Kermit Roosevelt, a CIA operative. The British were also heavily involved in the coup. The expert is Professor Ali Ansari of St Andrews University, presenter on Radio 4 of Through Persian Eyes.
The producer in Bristol is Miles Warde
Future programme subjects include singer Eartha Kitt, author JG Ballard, and pioneering British aviator Diana Barnato-Walker who delivered Spitfires in World War Two.
Harry Enfield on Gerard Hoffnung
Alan Freeman picked by Simon Mayo
Actor Niamh Cusack on the life of poet Mary Oliver
Mr Motivator picks Harry Belafonte
Jimmy Wales on Thomas Jefferson
Eartha Kitt proposed by Faye Tozer
John Gray on JG Ballard
Iszi Lawrence on Diana Barnato Walker
Ludwig Koch
Lady Eve Balfour
Ken Loach on Gerrard Winstanley
Chi-chi Nwanoku on Jessye Norman
Ninette de Valois
Sophie Scott on Hattie Jacques
Stamford Raffles, founder of Singapore and London Zoo
Susie Dent on Thomas Mann
Tony Benn
Jon Ronson picks Terry Hall of The Specials
Sir Edward Coke, prosecutor of Guy Fawkes
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