''Last Word'' is an

obituary An obituary ( obit for short) is an article about a recently deceased person. Newspapers often publish obituaries as news articles. Although obituaries tend to focus on positive aspects of the subject's life, this is not always the case. Ac ...

BBC radio BBC Radio is an operational business division and service of the British Broadcasting Corporation (which has operated in the United Kingdom under the terms of a royal charter since 1927). The service provides national radio stations covering ...

series broadcast weekly on Radio 4. Each week the lives of several famous people who have recently died are summarised with narration, and interviews with people who knew them. The programme is normally presented by

Matthew Bannister Richard Matthew Bannister (born 16 March 1957) is a British media executive and broadcaster. Early career After attending King Edward VII School, Sheffield, he graduated in law at the University of Nottingham in 1978, and joined BBC Radio Not ...

, although on odd occasions it has been presented by other people such as

Kate Silverton Kate Silverton (born 4 August 1970) is an English journalist. She formerly worked as a broadcaster and newsreader for the BBC. Silverton was a regular presenter of '' BBC News at One'' and ''BBC Weekend News'', as well as making occasional app ...

or Julian Worricker. The programme was first broadcast on 10 February 2006, with a biography of American songwriter

Paul Vance Joseph Paul Florio (November 4, 1929 – May 30, 2022), known professionally as Paul Vance, was an American songwriter and record producer, primarily from the 1950s until the 1970s. His most successful song compositions, all written with Lee Po ...

(1929–2022) being broadcast on the edition of 29 September 2006, a rare example of somebody still living being featured as a ''Last Word'' subject,Information from ''Last Word'', BBC Radio 4 on 10 June 2022: Matthew Bannister on Amanda Claridge, Sidhu Moose Wala, Mark Sykes and Paul Vance with Vance also being interview by the programme, after his death was announced in the media by mistake.

References

BBC ''Last Word'' website page
BBC Radio 4 programmes {{BBC-radio-stub