Great Lives Folgen

From Banking, to air traffic control systems and to controlling the United States defence department, there's a computer language called 'Ada'.It's named after Ada Lovelace – a 19th century mathematician and daughter of Lord Byron and now championed as a Great Life. She's been called many things.But perhaps most poetically by Charles Babbage - whom she worked with on a steam-driven calculating machine called the Difference Engine - an 'enchantress of numbers'. Lord Byron called her similarly mathematical mother a "princess of parallelograms". Augusta 'Ada' Byron was born in 1815 but her parents marriage was short and unhappy. They separated when Ada was one month old and she never saw her father, who died when was eight years old. Her mother, Annabella concerned Ada might inherit Byron's "poetic tendencies" had her schooled her in maths and science to try to combat any madness inherited from her father. She's championed by TV presenter and writer – Konnie Huq, most well known for presenting the BBC TV's children's programme - 'Blue Peter'.Together with expert– Suw Charman- Anderson, a Social technologist, they lift the lid on the life of this mathematician, now regarded as the first computer programmer. Presented by Matthew Parris. Producer: Perminder KhatkarFirst broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in September 2013.

Matthew Parris is joined by actor Peter Bowles who nominates George Devine, groundbreaking artistic director of the Royal Court Theatre. Devine battled against the theatrical establishment, repressive censorship, helped the careers of actors like Laurence Olivier and Peggy Ashcroft, and by discovering writers like John Osborne and other 'Angry Young Men' - he changed British theatre forever. Helping guide us through the post-war landscape of Devine's life, is Philip Roberts, Emeritus Professor of Drama and Theatre Studies at the University of Leeds.Produced in Bristol by Melvin RickarbyFirst broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in September 2013.

TV journalist and writer Paul Mason talks to Matthew Parris about the 19th Century French anarchist, Louise Michel, heroine of the Paris Commune. They're joined by historian Carolyn Eichner who says that Michel "expounded action and aggression with a theatrical, infectious elegance."Known as 'the Red Virgin of Montmartre', Michel fought on the barricades in the short-lived revolution of 1871. Captured and tried by the French government, she told her accusers: "Since it seems that every heart that beats for freedom has no right to anything but a little lump of lead, I demand my share. If you let me live, I shall never cease to cry for vengeance and l shall avenge my brothers. If you are not cowards, kill me!"She served seven years in a penal colony in the South Pacific and seven thousand Parisians turned out to welcome her home. She was a school teacher, writer, orator, anthropologist, feminist and cat-lover. She wrote some moving poems – and an opera about the destruction of the world. Producer: Peter EverettFirst broadcast on BBC Radio 4in 2013.