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 4,09 Jun 2023,14 mins

Sir Tim Berners-Lee and Christabel Pankhurst

Close Encounters

Available for over a year

The fifth of Martha Kearney's new series celebrating portraits and portraiture through the eyes of ten Great Britons. Sir Tim Berners-Lee whittled his options down to two, the architect Sir Christopher Wren and his final choice, the Suffragette Christabel Pankhurst. His decision was informed in part by an admiration for a woman who saw a problem and sought to fix it, and also by a desire to pay tribute to his own mother who had her own battle for equal recognition in the world of computer science. In each episode we find out about the subject of the portrait, the moment at which their image was captured for posterity and the importance of image and identity for those who find themselves in the eye of the nation's attention today. Producers: Tom Alban and Mohini Patel

Programme Website
More episodes