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.
Michael Dobbs on Guy Burgess
Philippa Langley on Richard III
Tom Solomon on Roald Dahl
Brian Eno on Lord Young of Dartington
Laura Bates on Louisa May Alcott
Arthur Smith on Emil Zátopek
Professor Edith Hall on Lucille Ball
Andrew Adonis on Joseph Bazalgette
Stella Rimington on Dorothy L Sayers
Labi Siffre on Arthur Ransome
Tom Shakespeare on Gramsci
Ray Mears on Rommel
Baroness Oona King on Ida B Wells
Jazzie B on James Brown
Jonathan Meades on Edward Burra
Ernest Hemingway
John Craven on Brunel
Isy Suttie on Jake Thackray
Emma Kirkby on Henry Purcell
Deborah Moggach on Arnold Bennett
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
The Modern West
Global News Podcast
The Infinite Monkey Cage
Friday Night Comedy from BBC Radio 4
You’re Dead to Me
Elis James and John Robins