The New Elizabethans

The New Elizabethans was a 2012 series on BBC Radio 4 to mark the diamond Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II. A panel of seven academics, journalists and historians, chaired by Chief Executive of the Royal Opera House Tony Hall took suggestions from the general public for people "whose actions during the reign of Elizabeth II have had a significant impact on lives in these islands and given the age its character, for better or worse".

A short piece was written about each of the 60 people selected. These were presented by James Naughtie. The first broadcast was about Edmund Hillary and was first aired at 12:45 p.m. on Monday, 11 June and the series concluded with Queen Elizabeth II on Friday, 7 September 2012.

The list

 * 1) Edmund Hillary
 * 2) Elizabeth David
 * 3) Graham Greene
 * 4) Michael Young
 * 5) Vladimir Raitz
 * 6) Francis Crick
 * 7) Doris Lessing
 * 8) Alan Sainsbury
 * 9) Alfred Hitchcock
 * 10) Laurence Olivier
 * 11) Benjamin Britten
 * 12) Dorothy Hodgkin
 * 13) Harold Pinter
 * 14) Richard Doll
 * 15) Tony Hancock
 * 16) Philip Larkin
 * 17) Barbara Windsor
 * 18) Lord Denning
 * 19) Paul Foot
 * 20) Francis Bacon
 * 21) John Lennon and Paul McCartney
 * 22) Margot Fonteyn
 * 23) Peter Hall
 * 24) Terence Conran
 * 25) Enoch Powell
 * 26) Cicely Saunders
 * 27) Basil D'Oliveira
 * 28) George Best
 * 29) Germaine Greer
 * 30) Robert Edwards
 * 31) Jack Jones
 * 32) Roald Dahl
 * 33) David Bowie
 * 34) Talaiasi Labalaba, Fijian-born NCO and member of SAS
 * 35) Jocelyn Bell Burnell
 * 36) Roy Jenkins
 * 37) Vivienne Westwood
 * 38) Jayaben Desai
 * 39) Stuart Hall
 * 40) David Attenborough
 * 41) Margaret Thatcher
 * 42) David Hockney
 * 43) Billy Connolly
 * 44) Ralph Robins
 * 45) Amartya Sen
 * 46) Salman Rushdie
 * 47) Anita Roddick
 * 48) Norman Foster
 * 49) Charles Saatchi
 * 50) Goldie
 * 51) John Hume and David Trimble
 * 52) Doreen Lawrence
 * 53) Tim Berners-Lee
 * 54) Diana, Princess of Wales
 * 55) Alex Salmond
 * 56) Tony Blair
 * 57) Fred Goodwin
 * 58) Rupert Murdoch
 * 59) Simon Cowell
 * 60) Queen Elizabeth II