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.
First Labour Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald
Caroline Quentin nominates Sir John Vanbrugh
Laura Marling on Lou Andreas-Salome
Robinson Crusoe
Ed Balls nominates Herbert Howells
Kamila Shamsie chooses Asma Jahangir
Shirley Collins on Alan Lomax
Jeremy Deller on The Beatles' manager Brian Epstein
Caroline Criado-Perez on Jane Austen
Kirill Gerstein on Ferruccio Busoni
Malcolm Lowry, nominated by Ian McMillan
Catherine de Medici nominated by Helen Lewis
Aethelflaed, Lady of the Mercians, chosen by Tom Holland
Shappi Khorsandi on Emma, Lady Hamilton
Matt Lucas on Freddie Mercury
Rohan Silva on Colin Chapman
Suzanne O'Sullivan on Oliver Sacks
Nikesh Shukla on the Great Gama
Sathnam Sanghera on Alexander Gardner
Mark Steel on Charlie Chaplin
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