In September 1946 the Nuremberg tribunal reached its climax … One of the accused was Albert Speer: while the others clung to their plea they had nothing to answer for in this victor’s show trial, Speer, alone of them all, was going to become the Nazi Who Said Sorry. Reputations: Albert Speer: The Nazi Who Said Sorry, BBC 2nd May 1996
After politics, architecture was his passion. ibid.
Speer understood what was required of Nazi architecture. ibid.
Speer was now minister for arms production. ibid.
The charge against him was quite specific: the criminal use of slave labour. ibid.
He now had twenty years alone with his conscience. ibid.
Reputations: Martin Luther King, BBC 30th July 1997
Mount Everest. At 29,028 feet the highest point on Earth. Before 1953 it as thought to be an unassailable peak. Reputations: Hillary & Tenzing: Everest & After, BBC 18th June 1997
Beyond the Himalayas Hillary and Tenzing would encounter hazards every treacherous as their journey up the slopes of Everest. ibid.
Tenzing’s life was increasingly one of personal unhappiness. ibid.
[Oliver Stone]: ‘When you look back at his life you see nothing but contradiction.’ Reputations: John Wayne: The Unquiet American, BBC 9th July 1997
It was Ford who rescued Wayne from the B-Movie treadmill. ibid.
‘He drank like a fish.’ ibid. Harry Jackson, friend
Wayne would always be deeply insecure about his failure to serve. ibid.
‘He loved women.’ ibid. Harry Jackson
Wayne threw him and his film [The Alamo] into the Republican cause. ibid.
Wayne’s right-wing opinions were becoming increasingly extreme. He defended the taking of Indian land and attacked the civil rights movement. ibid.
Kenneth Williams’ memorable performances on radio, television and film made him one of the best loved comedians of his generation. Reputations s5e4: Kenneth Williams: Seriously Outrageous, BBC 25th May 1998
‘He was a melancholic depressed man shot through with moments of delight.’ ibid. Miriam Margoyles
One of the more unlikely soldiers in the British army. ibid.
Round the Horne was the most popular radio show of the day. ibid.
Williams was in big demand … A master at controlling an audience. ibid.
Williams’ comic persona was now a form of self protection. ibid.
By the mid-1960s Kenneth Williams’ flared nostrils, elastic vocal chords and distinct brand of comic hysteria had made him a unique performer. Nowhere more so than in the Carry On films. Reputations s5e5: Kenneth Williams: Desperately Funny, 1st June 1998
He became his own material. ibid.
He [Orton] urged Kenneth to shed his inhibitions. ibid.
He could be appalled by his own behaviour but the reaction it generated filled an emotional gap in his life. ibid.
Just a Minute was more than just a game show to Williams. ibid.
But in real life Williams could be far ruder and far angrier. ibid.
The television chat show and Williams became its king. ibid.
He had mused on suicide since his earliest days. ibid.
He never wished to be king nor dreamed he would be. He was desperately shy, highly strung and prone to outbursts of uncontrollable rage ... Churchill called him a simpleton. Reputations: George VI: The Reluctant King, BBC 10th May 1999
When Edward gave up the throne for love and became Duke of Windsor a rift followed that was never healed. ibid.
He was bullied ... His time in the Navy was made retched by mental depression and physical pain. ibid.
The Prince of Wales, eighteen months older, was everything his brother was not: raffish, charming when he wanted to be, a follower of fashion, a man who loved the life of glamour and the adulation of the public. ibid.
In 1935 King George V and Queen Mary celebrated their silver jubilee. ibid.
Relations between the brothers and their partners were strained. There were in effect two royal courts. ibid.
The monarchy had survived its worst crisis since 1688. ibid.
The fact that the Duke of Windsor had lied about money broke the tie between the two brothers. ibid.
Palace officials were so concerned about the fits of rage that in 1947 they consulted the royal doctor. He advised that nothing could be done. ibid.
First, as they toured the bomb-damaged East End, they were not always welcomed ... ‘Now we can look the East End in the face’. ibid.
He also suffered from phobias. ibid.
The King’s relationship with his prime minister was not always harmonious. ibid.
The King was happiest when out of the limelight. ibid.
He was diagnosed as suffering from lung cancer but not told of the disease. ibid.
The King was found dead in his bed at Sandringham. ibid.
It was the very ordinariness of George VI, the reluctant king. ibid.
May 1916: As the Great War shook Europe a knot of dishevelled prisoners were led from their cells in Dublin’s Kilmainham jail into a prison yard. A firing squad readied itself … De Valera had his death sentence commuted to imprisonment. Reputations: Eamon de Valera: Ireland’s Hated Hero, BBC 7th June 1999
At every turn he was has admired and hated with equal intensity. ibid.
He took over leadership of the nationalist party, Sinn Fein. ibid.
What followed was infighting, and a squalid war of Irishmen against Irishmen that wrecked the economy and blew apart his own political career. ibid.
In the flush of victory Churchill vented his pent-up disdain. ibid.