The New Elizabethans


The New Elizabethans was a 2012 series on BBC Radio 4 to mark the diamond Jubilee of [Queen Elizabeth II]. A panel of seven academics, journalists and historians, chaired by Chief Executive of the Royal Opera House Tony Hall, [Baron Hall of Birkenhead|Tony Hall] took suggestions from the general public for people "whose actions during the reign of Elizabeth II have had a significant impact on lives in these islands and given the age its character, for better or worse".
A short piece was written about each of the 60 people selected. These were presented by James Naughtie. The first broadcast was about Edmund Hillary and was first aired at 12:45 p.m. on Monday, 11 June and the series concluded with Queen Elizabeth II on Friday, 7 September 2012.

The list

  1. Edmund Hillary
  2. Elizabeth David
  3. Graham Greene
  4. Michael Young, [Baron Young of Dartington|Michael Young]
  5. Vladimir Raitz
  6. Francis Crick
  7. Doris Lessing
  8. Alan Sainsbury
  9. Alfred Hitchcock
  10. Laurence Olivier
  11. Benjamin Britten
  12. Dorothy Hodgkin
  13. Harold Pinter
  14. Richard Doll
  15. Tony Hancock
  16. Philip Larkin
  17. Barbara Windsor
  18. Lord Denning
  19. Paul Foot
  20. Francis Bacon
  21. John Lennon and Paul McCartney
  22. Margot Fonteyn
  23. Peter Hall
  24. Terence Conran
  25. Enoch Powell
  26. Cicely Saunders
  27. Basil D'Oliveira
  28. George Best
  29. Germaine Greer
  30. Robert Edwards
  31. Jack Jones
  32. Roald Dahl
  33. David Bowie
  34. Talaiasi Labalaba, Fijian-born NCO and member of SAS
  35. Jocelyn Bell Burnell
  36. Roy Jenkins
  37. Vivienne Westwood
  38. Jayaben Desai
  39. Stuart Hall
  40. David Attenborough
  41. Margaret Thatcher
  42. David Hockney
  43. Billy Connolly
  44. Ralph Robins
  45. Amartya Sen
  46. Salman Rushdie
  47. Anita Roddick
  48. Norman Foster
  49. Charles Saatchi
  50. Goldie
  51. John Hume and David Trimble
  52. Doreen Lawrence
  53. Tim Berners-Lee
  54. Diana, [Princess of Wales]
  55. Alex Salmond
  56. Tony Blair
  57. Fred Goodwin
  58. Rupert Murdoch
  59. Simon Cowell
  60. Queen Elizabeth II