BBC's 100 Greatest Britons

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In 2002, the BBC conducted a vote to discover the 100 Greatest Britons of all time. The poll resulted in some unlikely candidates including Guy Fawkes, Aleister Crowley, Boy George, and Robbie Williams. It also included two living Irish nationals (Bono and Bob Geldof) and James Connolly, the Irish nationalist who was shot by the British in 1916 (although Connolly was born in Scotland). Some Irish people have complained the BBC's habit of including Irish nationals in "British" lists and more recently e-mail campaigns to the BBC have registered the displeasure of Irish people at being referred to as British (several of the others, such as Sir Ernest Shackleton and the Duke of Wellington were of predominantly Irish ancestry). The highest-placed Scottish entry was Alexander Fleming in 20th place, with the highest Welsh entry Owain Glyndwr in 23rd. The only Briton of Asian origin on the list was Freddie Mercury . There was also some controversy and complaints over the method of voting for the top ten, with large scale organised multiple phone votes being identified as being placed by students at Churchill College and Brunel University for their namesakes, which gave these two figures far more votes than any other candidates.

The resulting series, Great Britons, included individual programmes on the top ten, with viewers having further opportunities to vote after each programme. It concluded with a debate.

Contents

Other editions

Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, and South Africa all produced similar shows locally. Germany ran their version on ZDF and called it Unsere Besten (Our Best). The CBC ran The Greatest Canadian in 2004. KRO (part of Omroep) ran the De Grootste Nederlander [1] (The Greatest Dutchman). The South African Broadcasting Corporation ran the Great South Africans. In Finland, YLE made a copycat called Suuret Suomalaiset (Great Finns) [2]. The US held one in May 2005 called The Greatest American [3]. France has a version of the show, called Le Plus Grand Français (The Greatest Frenchman) on France 2.

See also: Greatest Britons spin-offs

The Greatest Britons List

Due to the nature of the poll used to select and rank the Britons, the results do not pretend to be an objective assessment. They are as follows:

  1. Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965), Prime Minister during World War II
  2. Isambard Kingdom Brunel (1806-1859), engineer, creator of Great Western Railway and other significant works
  3. Diana, Princess of Wales (1961-1997), first wife of HRH Charles, Prince of Wales (1981-1996) and mother of Princes William & Harry of Wales.
  4. Charles Darwin (1809-1882), naturalist, originator of the theory of evolution through natural selection and author of The Origin of Species.
  5. William Shakespeare (1564-1616), English poet and playwright, thought of by many as the greatest of all writers in the English language.
  6. Sir Isaac Newton, physicist
  7. Queen Elizabeth I of England, monarch
  8. John Lennon, musician
  9. Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson, naval commander
  10. Oliver Cromwell, Lord Protector
  11. Sir Ernest Shackleton, polar explorer
  12. Captain James Cook, explorer
  13. Robert Baden-Powell, 1st Baron Baden-Powell, founder of the Boy Scouts
  14. Alfred the Great, King of Wessex
  15. Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, military commander and statesman
  16. Margaret, Baroness Thatcher, Prime Minister
  17. Michael Crawford, actor
  18. Queen Victoria, monarch
  19. Sir Paul McCartney, musician
  20. Sir Alexander Fleming, pharmaceutical innovator
  21. Alan Turing, pioneer of computing
  22. Michael Faraday, scientist
  23. Owain Glyndwr, Prince of Wales
  24. Queen Elizabeth II, monarch
  25. Professor Stephen Hawking, theoretical physicist
  26. William Tyndale, English translator of the Bible
  27. Emmeline Pankhurst, suffragette
  28. William Wilberforce, humanitarian
  29. David Bowie, musician
  30. Guy Fawkes, English revolutionary
  31. Leonard Cheshire, Baron Cheshire, aviator and charity organiser
  32. Eric Morecambe, comedian
  33. David Beckham, footballer
  34. Thomas Paine, political philosopher
  35. Boudicca, leader of celtic resistance to the Roman Empire
  36. Sir Steve Redgrave, olympic rower
  37. Sir Thomas More, English lawyer and politician
  38. William Blake, author and printer
  39. John Harrison, clock designer
  40. King Henry VIII of England, monarch
  41. Charles Dickens, author
  42. Sir Frank Whittle, jet engine inventor
  43. John Peel, broadcaster
  44. John Logie Baird, television pioneer
  45. Aneurin Bevan, politician
  46. Boy George, musician
  47. Sir Douglas Bader, aviator and charity campaigner
  48. Sir William Wallace, Guardian of Scotland
  49. Sir Francis Drake, English naval commander
  50. John Wesley, methodist leader
  51. King Arthur, semi-mythical celtic monarch
  52. Florence Nightingale, nurse and charity campaigner
  53. T. E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia), Arabist and soldier
  54. Sir Robert Falcon Scott, polar explorer
  55. Enoch Powell, politician
  56. Sir Cliff Richard, musician
  57. Alexander Graham Bell, telephone pioneer
  58. Freddie Mercury, musician
  59. Dame Julie Andrews, actress and singer
  60. Sir Edward Elgar, composer
  61. Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, Queen consort
  62. George Harrison, musician
  63. Sir David Attenborough, broadcaster
  64. James Connolly, Irish revolutionary
  65. George Stephenson, railway pioneer
  66. Sir Charlie Chaplin, comic actor
  67. Tony Blair, politician
  68. William Caxton, English printer
  69. Bobby Moore, footballer
  70. Jane Austen, author
  71. William Booth, founder of the Salvation Army
  72. King Henry V of England, monarch
  73. Aleister Crowley, mystic
  74. Robert I, King of Scots
  75. Bob Geldof, Irish charity campaigner and musician
  76. The Unknown Warrior, soldier of the Great War
  77. Robbie Williams, musician
  78. Edward Jenner, pioneer of vaccination
  79. David Lloyd George, 1st Earl Lloyd George, prime minister
  80. Charles Babbage, mathematician and pioneer of computing
  81. Geoffrey Chaucer, English author
  82. King Richard III of England, monarch
  83. J.K. Rowling, author
  84. James Watt, developer of the steam engine
  85. Sir Richard Branson, businessman and adventurer
  86. Bono, Irish musician
  87. John Lydon (Johnny Rotten), musician
  88. Bernard Law Montgomery, 1st Viscount Montgomery of Alamein, military commander
  89. Donald Campbell, water speed world record challenger
  90. King Henry II of England, monarch
  91. James Clerk Maxwell, physicist
  92. J.R.R. Tolkien, author and linguistics professor
  93. Sir Walter Raleigh, English explorer
  94. King Edward I of England, monarch
  95. Sir Barnes Wallis, aviation technology pioneer
  96. Richard Burton, actor
  97. Tony Benn, politician
  98. David Livingstone, missionary and explorer
  99. Sir Tim Berners-Lee, internet pioneer
  100. Marie Stopes, promoter of birth control

Great Britons series

British television personality Anne Robinson hosted the ten Great Britons documentaries. Each show reviewed the life of one of the top ten Britons, concluding with a debate on the merits of each selected Briton, with another British celebrity supporting their "candidate":

No. Great Briton Celebrity Supporter
1 Sir Winston Churchill Mo Mowlam
2 Isambard Kingdom Brunel Jeremy Clarkson
3 Diana, Princess of Wales Rosie Boycott
4 Charles Darwin Andrew Marr
5 William Shakespeare Fiona Shaw
6 Sir Isaac Newton Tristram Hunt
7 Queen Elizabeth I Michael Portillo
8 John Lennon Alan Davies
9 Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson Lucy Moore
10 Oliver Cromwell Richard Holmes

See also

External links

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