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.
Tim Smit on Humphrey Jennings
Russell Kane on Evelyn Waugh
Samira Ahmed on Laura Ingalls Wilder
Christina Lamb on Benazir Bhutto
Helen Glover on Alison Hargreaves
Mark Carwardine on Douglas Adams
Cherie Blair on Dame Rose Heilbron
Greg Jenner on Gene Kelly
Patricia Greene on Bess of Hardwick
Simon Evans on JS Mill
Erica Wagner on Roald Amundsen
Hanif Kureishi on David Bowie
Barbara Stocking on Catherine the Great
Suzy Klein on Hedy Lamarr
Mica Paris on Josephine Baker
Simon Callow on Orson Welles
Ayesha Hazarika on Jayaben Desai
Tej Lalvani on Richard Feynman
Laura Serrant on Audre Lorde
Adrian Utley of Portishead on Miles Davis
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