Actor Laurence Olivier with Derek Jacobi and Tim Walker

Great Lives by BBC

Aug 14, 202627:41Society & Culture

Laurence Olivier, Baron Olivier of Brighton, was born in Dorking in 1907. He's best known these days for roles in films ranging from Wuthering Heights to Spartacus to the ageing Nazi hunter Ezra Lieberman in The Boys fro...

Related Episodes

Continue listening to more episodes from Great Lives.

Pauline Black of The Selecter on Poly Styrene of X-Ray Spex

Aug 15, 2026 - 27:35

Poly Styrene was born Marie Joan Elliot-Said in 1957 and went on to become front woman of X-Ray Spex. Whe...

Cartoonist Naji al-Ali

Jun 2, 2026 - 27:36

Naji al-Ali was one of the best known cartoonists in the Arab world. His creation, a little boy called Ha...

Cleopatra picked by Kate Williams

Jun 1, 2026 - 27:48

"Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale her infinite variety." She's the most famous character in antiqu...

Ade Edmondson on singer Sandy Denny

May 19, 2026 - 27:09

Ade Edmondson - star of The Young Ones, The Comic Strip Presents, Bottom and much more besides - chooses...

Tony Garnett picked by Harry Bradbeer

May 19, 2026 - 27:54

Tony Garnett was born in Birmingham and, after a brief career as an actor, found a new role behind the sc...

Peter Cook picked by Jon Harvey aka Count Binface

May 19, 2026 - 27:40

Peter Cook was at the centre of the satire boom of the early sixties, both on stage with Beyond the Fring...

Coco Khan picks Edith Garrud, the jujitsu fighting suffragette

May 19, 2026 - 27:44

Writer and podcaster Coco Khan nominates the little-known but formidable Edith Garrud, a woman who turned...

William Gladstone, four-time PM

May 19, 2026 - 27:20

"Gladstone became prime minister at 82, and not as a figurehead. That is the Gladstone who has inspired m...