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Episode details

Radio 4,14 Aug 2015,28 mins

David Nobbs, Frances Kelsey, Kyril Zinovieff, Elio Fiorucci, Harry Pitch

Last Word

Available for over a year

Last Word is presented by Reeta Chakrabarti this week. She will be remembering: The comic writer and novelist David Nobbs - we speak to his friend and fellow writer Jonathan Coe about the man who invented the 1970s anti-hero Reginald Perrin; Frances Kelsey, the scientist whose concerns about the drug Thalidomide prevented it from being approved in the US; Kyril Zinovieff, who as a child in Russia saw Rasputin, and as a spy for Britain encountered Hitler; The Italian fashion designer Elio Fiorucci, who introduced the world to skintight vinyl jeans; And the musician Harry Pitch, the harmonica player who performed everywhere from jazz clubs to opera houses. Producer: Neil George.

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