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 executed by the British in 1916. The highest-placed Scottish entry was Alexander Fleming in 20th place, with the highest Welsh entry Owain Glyndwr in 23rd. 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.
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Other editions
Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, and South Africa all produced copies of the show locally. Germany ran it 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] (http://www.degrootstenederlander.nl/start.php) (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] (http://www.yle.fi/suuretsuomalaiset/). The US held one in May 2005 called The Greatest American [3] (http://tv.channel.aol.com/greatestamerican). 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 are of dubious statistical quality. They are as follows:
- Sir Winston Churchill
- Isambard Kingdom Brunel
- Diana, Princess of Wales
- Charles Darwin
- William Shakespeare
- Sir Isaac Newton
- Queen Elizabeth I
- John Lennon
- Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson
- Oliver Cromwell
- Ernest Shackleton
- Captain James Cook
- Robert Baden-Powell, 1st Baron Baden-Powell
- King Alfred the Great
- Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington
- Margaret, Baroness Thatcher
- Michael Crawford
- Queen Victoria
- Sir Paul McCartney
- Sir Alexander Fleming
- Alan Turing
- Michael Faraday
- Owain Glyndwr
- Queen Elizabeth II
- Professor Stephen Hawking
- William Tyndale
- Emmeline Pankhurst
- William Wilberforce
- David Bowie
- Guy Fawkes
- Leonard Cheshire, Baron Cheshire of Woodall
- Eric Morecambe
- David Beckham
- Thomas Paine
- Boudicca
- Sir Steve Redgrave
- Sir Thomas More
- William Blake
- John Harrison
- King Henry VIII
- Charles Dickens
- Sir Frank Whittle
- John Peel
- John Logie Baird
- Aneurin Bevan
- Boy George
- Sir Douglas Bader
- Sir William Wallace
- Sir Francis Drake
- John Wesley
- King Arthur
- Florence Nightingale
- T. E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia)
- Sir Robert Falcon Scott
- Enoch Powell
- Sir Cliff Richard
- Sir Alexander Graham Bell
- Freddie Mercury
- Dame Julie Andrews
- Sir Edward Elgar
- Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother
- George Harrison
- Sir David Attenborough
- James Connolly
- George Stephenson
- Sir Charlie Chaplin
- Tony Blair
- William Caxton
- Bobby Moore
- Jane Austen
- William Booth
- King Henry V
- Aleister Crowley
- King Robert the Bruce
- Bob Geldof
- The Unknown Warrior
- Robbie Williams
- Edward Jenner
- David Lloyd George, 1st Earl Lloyd George
- Charles Babbage
- Geoffrey Chaucer
- King Richard III
- J.K. Rowling
- James Watt
- Sir Richard Branson
- Bono
- John Lydon (Johnny Rotten)
- Bernard Law Montgomery, 1st Viscount Montgomery of Alamein
- Donald Campbell
- King Henry II
- James Clerk Maxwell
- J.R.R. Tolkien
- Sir Walter Raleigh
- King Edward I
- Sir Barnes Wallis
- Richard Burton
- Tony Benn
- David Livingstone
- Sir Tim Berners-Lee
- Marie Stopes
Great Britons series
British game show host 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 |
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| 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
- BBC Great Britons Website (http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/programmes/greatbritons.shtml)
- BBC Great Britons book and links at National Portrait Gallery (http://www.npg.org.uk/live/greatbritop100.asp)
- 100 great British heroes (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/tv_and_radio/2208671.stm) - BBC News article, dated Wednesday, August 21, 2002 (contains the top 100, sorted alphabetically)
- BBC reveals 100 great British heroes (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/tv_and_radio/2208532.stm) - BBC News article, dated Thursday, August 22, 2002
- Ten greatest Britons chosen (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/tv_and_radio/2341661.stm) - BBC News article, dated Sunday, October 20, 2002de:100 Greatest Britons