Great Lives

Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa was a Roman general best known for his military victories, but he also helped rebuild Rome, providing aqueducts, statues and the original Pantheon. Nominating him is Dr Daisy Dunn, author of The Missing Thread, who dubs him ancient Rome's king of cement. Joining her is Dr Shushma Malik from Cambridge University who throws light on the man who won the battle of Actium and was for many years second in command to the emperor Augustus.The programme is presented by historian Helen Carr and was produced in Bristol by Miles Warde.

Matthew Parris invites a fellow Radio 4 presenter into the studio to nominate a Great Life. Dr Sian Williams, who as well as a broadcaster is a counselling psychologist chooses Anna Freud, daughter of Sigmund and considered by many to be the founder of psychoanalytic child psychology.Anna Freud was born in Vienna in 1895, the youngest child of Sigmund Freud and Martha Bernays. She was brought up in a city alive with pioneering culture and with a father at the forefront of new work in psychoanalysis. Although the youngest of the family, Anna had a close relationship with her father, sitting in on his psychoanalysis meetings from a young age before the conservative limitations of the time lead her into teaching. After the trauma of the 1st World War she started a nursery in VIenna that sought to help the young children of the poorest members of society. With the Anschluss of Austria in 1938 she was arrested by the Gestapo but freed. It was enough to persuade her father, who was dying of cancer, to take the family out of the country. They settled in London but Sigmund died soon after. With the onset of war, and in a completely new environment, Anna rekindled her work with the launch of the Hampstead Nurseries. Again the aim was to provide support and help for very young children who's parents had either been killed or were away in the armed forces. The nurseries pioneered a supportive, observational system, giving children the space to express themselves in play and without the threat of punishment. Her reputation survives her in the form of the Anna Freud National Centre for Children and Families.Matthew and Sian are joined by Nick Midgley, Professor of Psychological Therapies for Children and Young People in the Research Department of Clinical, Educational, and Health Psychology at University College London as well as working at Anna Freud.Producer; Tom Alban

Matthew Paris is joined by the pianist and broadcaster Keelan Carew, who nominates the Great Life of the early 20th century composer Nicolai Medtner.It’s often the case that in a world of strong contenders, there are 'Great Lives' hidden by the scale and success of their contemporaries. That’s certainly a case that can be made in the case of Nicolai Medtner. Born towards the end of the 19th century in Moscow he followed in the immediate footsteps of Sergei Rachmaninov who would state later in life that 'in my opinion, [Medtner] was the greatest composer of our time.' Many have begged to differ since, but Medtner's was undoubtedly an extraordinary life and he has a particular hold over pianists stretching back over the last hundred years. After the Russian revolution Rachmaninov himself would help and support Medtner as he tried to establish himself in the west. However, where Rachmaninov acceded to the requests made of him, Medtner was fiercely conservative in his tastes at a time when modernism held sway in Europe. To help tell his story Matthew and Keelan are joined by pianist and composer, Francis Pott, another Medtner enthusiast who has explored a life that took Nicolai from pre-revolutionary Russia to a house in north London where he eventually settled in the 1930s. His reputation and output might have languished were it not for the support of the Maharajah of Mysore, who founded the Medtner society and funded the recording of many of Medtner's works including his piano concertos and songs, the former played by the now elderly composer. As well as the music, illustrated from the keyboard by Keelan himself, Nicolai's personal life involved marrying the wife of his brother. The three lived together for many years. We also hear from the last person who knew Medtner and recalls taking the composer on countryside trips in the 1950s where he loved nothing better than to sit by the river Thames eating ice-cream.Producer: Tom Alban

Born Joan Molinsky in 1933, Joan Rivers shot to fame on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, who she later infuriated by hosting a late night chat show of her own. Comedian and writer Helen Lederer, author of Not That I Am Bitter, picks Joan for her fearless ability to take on the men, particularly those who interviewed her. "In 1984 I went to see an Audience with Joan Rivers, and she was like this angel with blonde hair and glitter ... with gags, with content, ferocious, aggressive, intelligent."Joining the discussion from New York is the critic Joe Queenan, twice a guest on Joan Rivers' show. "She told the audience in no uncertain terms, you better laugh at everything he says. She radiated this affection, she was great."Presented by Kirsty Lang and produced in Bristol by Miles Warde for BBC Studios.

Johnny Green was a hippy, a driver, a writer, a father and the road manager of The Clash. He wrote about this experience in a memorable book, A Riot of Our Own. Then he found a new passion, cycling, and so he wrote Push Yourself a Little Bit More: Backstage at the Tour de France. Both books are gonzo and stylish, as was Johnny Green. Nominating him is John Cooper Clarke, punk poet and bard of Salford, who hired Johnny as his driver and gentleman travelling companion on the road. "I think about him every day," he says.With contributions from Topper Headen, drummer with The Clash; plus Chris Salewicz the author of Redemption Song, a biography of Joe Strummer. He says Strummer helped Johnny Green financially with his cycling book. There are multiple, memorable contributions from Johnny Green himself, who was an occasional visitor to Radio 4; and joining John Cooper Clarke and Matthew Parris in studio are two of his daughters, Polly and Ruby Broad.The producer is Miles Warde who also produced Fear and Loathing in Harrogate. This was a Radio 4 show about a group of punk poets responding to the opening day of the Tour de France.