Use BBC.com or the new BBC App to listen to BBC podcasts, Radio 4 and the World Service outside the UK.

Find out how to listen to other BBC stations

Episode details

Radio 4,17 Dec 2019,28 mins

Jeremy Paxman nominates Lord Shaftesbury

Great Lives

Available for over a year

What makes a brilliant politician? What should motivate them? Does having a faith help? Broadcaster and writer Jeremy Paxman chooses the seventh earl of Shaftesbury, Anthony Ashley-Cooper. a Victorian politician whose numerous and wide-ranging social reforms transformed working and living conditions for impoverished children, miners and chimney-sweeps alike. Joining Matthew Parris and Jeremy Paxman is Lord Shaftesbury's great-great-grandson, the twelfth earl, Nick Ashley-Cooper. The three discover more about the Ashley-Cooper dynasty, ponder what makes a good earl and explore how aristocratic life has changed between then and now. Producer: Camellia Sinclair

Programme Website
More episodes