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.
Marcus du Sautoy on Jorge Luis Borges
Sir Mark Walport on Sir Hans Sloane
Ian Curtis
Sarah Vine on Dante
Evelyn Glennie on Jacqueline Du Pre
DJ Sara Cox nominates singer Lisa 'Left Eye' Lopes
Mark Constantine on Kahlil Gibran
Meg Rosoff on Isabella Bird
Dave Allen chosen by Adil Ray
David Baddiel on John Updike
Sir David Chipperfield on Le Corbusier
Michael Horovitz on Allen Ginsberg
Ricky Ross on Hank Williams
Nina Simone
Nancy Mitford
Al Murray on Bernard Montgomery
Sir Brendan Barber on John Steinbeck
Konnie Huq on Ada Lovelace
Peter Bowles on George Devine
Paul Mason on Louise Michel
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