Last Word

This article is about the BBC radio programme. For other uses, see The Last Word.

Last Word is an obituary BBC radio series broadcast weekly on Radio 4. Each week, the lives of recently-deceased famous people are summarised with narration and interviews with people who knew them. The programme is normally presented by Matthew Bannister, although in some occasions, it has been presented by other people such as Kate Silverton or Julian Worricker.

Last Word

Genre	Factual
Running time	28 minutes
Country of origin	England
Home station	BBC Radio 4
Hosted by	Matthew Bannister
Original release	10 February 2006 – present
Website	BBC website page

The programme was first broadcast on 10 February 2006,^[1] with a biography of American songwriter Paul Vance (1929–2022) being broadcast on the edition of 29 September 2006, a rare example of somebody still living being featured as a Last Word subject,^[2][3] with Vance also being interviewed by the programme, after his death was announced in the media by mistake.

References

1. Reynolds, Gillian (10 February 2006). "Today's TV & radio choices". The Daily Telegraph. London. Radio choices by Gillian Reynolds. Retrieved 22 July 2017.
2. "BBC Radio 4 – Last Word, Amanda Claridge, Sidhu Moose Wala (Pictured), Mark Sykes, Paul Vance".
3. Information from Last Word, BBC Radio 4 on 10 June 2022: Matthew Bannister on Amanda Claridge, Sidhu Moose Wala, Mark Sykes and Paul Vance

• BBC Last Word website page