Pictured: Charles Aznavour

Matthew Bannister on

Charles Aznavour, the French singer who "made despair popular". The lyricist Don Black, who worked with him, pays tribute.

Dr. Charles Kao, the Nobel prize winning physicist who developed fibre optic technology, so paving the way for the world wide web.

Elizabeth de Mauny Wainwright, the pioneering foreign correspondent who helped to smuggle an interview with Solzhenitsyn out of Soviet Russia.

John Cunliffe, the writer who delighted generations of children by creating Postman Pat and Rosie and Jim.

Interviewed guest: Don Black
Interviewed guest: Jeff Hecht
Interviewed guest: Marc de Mauny
Interviewed guest: Rachel Feldberg
Interviewed guest: Nigel P. Harris

Archive clips from:
The Typically French Armenian, Radio 4 02/02/1977; Desert Island Discs, Radio 4 01/01/1978; Aznavour at Eighty, Radio 2 12/03/2004; Treasure Islands, Radio 4 05/04/1992; Postman Pat’s Finding Day, BBC One 16/9/1981; Bookshelf, Radio 4 20/03/1986; Rosie and Jim, ITV 1991; Postman Pat Takes the Bus, BBC One 25/12/1991; Postman Pat’s Secret Birthday, BBC One 30/09/1981; Postman Pat’s Rainy Day, BBC One 07/10/1981; Charles Kao interview with FiberStory, 22/03/2010; Look East, BBC Norwich 06/10/2009; Look East, BBC Norwich 27/01/2006; Radio 4 News, 12/02/1974; Tomorrow's World, BBC One 1994.