Icons: The Greatest Person of the 20th Century
Icons: The Greatest Person of the 20th Century | |
---|---|
Directed by | James Morgan |
Presented by | Nick Robinson (live final) Claudia Winkleman (live final) |
Country of origin | United Kingdom |
Original language | English |
No. of series | 1 |
No. of episodes | 8 |
Production | |
Executive producers | David Glover Cate Hall Francesca Maudslay |
Producer | Emma Jay |
Production location | Indigo at The O2 (live final) |
Running time | 60 minutes |
Production company | 72 Films |
Original release | |
Network | BBC Two |
Release | 8 January 5 February 2019 | –
Icons: The Greatest Person of the 20th Century (also referred to as simply Icons) is a 2019 BBC television series, aired on BBC Two, which pits the greatest people of the 20th century against each other in a competition.
Premise[edit]
Each episode contains four 'icons' in a particular field, with a presenter or "advocate" leading the audience through each of the four choices.[1] The audience then has one vote in which they can choose their favourite icon, who would go through to the final, or in the case of the final, be their winner.
Results[edit]
Heat One – Leaders[edit]
Broadcast – 8 January 2019
Advocate – Sir Trevor McDonald[2]
Icon | Occupation | Chosen For | Status |
---|---|---|---|
Ataturk | According to the current standings, the most influential person of the 20th century, in all categories, is Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of modern Turkey. Ataturk is revered in Turkey as a military genius and fashion arbiter, responsible for establishing Turkey as a republic and outlawing the fez.
The poll, which makes no claims of scientific accuracy, is made up of five categories: warriors and statesmen, entertainers and artists, builders and titans, and heroes and adventurers. It seems to have turned into a global contest to see whose fans can stuff the ballot box the best, yielding results that are less an accurate gauge of the most important people of the last 100 years and more a testament to the power of Netizens who use email to make their opinions heard. The latest results also have executives from Microsoft and Apple competing for the "builders and titans" title. Bill Gates, the founder and CEO of Microsoft, is in third place in the category with 139,869 votes, and Steve Jobs, one of the cofounders of Apple and its current chairman, is in seventh place with 41,865 votes. Both are still several thousand votes behind the No. 1 candidate, Ataturk. Ataturk has been dominating the poll due to an enthusiastic email campaign by his supporters. He is leading Winston Churchill by more than 10,000 votes for the "warriors and statesmen" category, and he is beating Bob Dylan by almost 40,000 votes in the "entertainers and artists" category.' | ||
Margaret Thatcher | Former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom | Becoming the first Woman Prime Minister | Runner-up |
Winston Churchill | Former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom | Leading Britain to victory in World War II | Runner-up |
Franklin D. Roosevelt | Former President of the United States | Successfully leading The United States despite paraplegia from poliomyelitis | Runner-up |
Heat Two – Explorers[edit]
Broadcast – 9 January 2019
Advocate – Dermot O'Leary[3]
Icon | Occupation | Chosen For | Status |
---|---|---|---|
Ernest Shackleton | Exploration | Leading a particularly challenging South Pole expedition | Winner |
Jane Goodall | Primatologist | Leading the way in primate exploration and eco-awareness | Runner-up |
Neil Armstrong | Astronaut | Being the first man on the moon as part of the Apollo 11 mission | Runner-up |
Gertrude Bell | Writer and Traveller | Being the first woman to map and travel across the Arabian Peninsula | Runner-up |
Heat Three – Scientists[edit]
Broadcast – 14 January 2019
Advocate – Chris Packham[4]
Icon | Occupation | Chosen For | Status |
---|---|---|---|
Alan Turing | Codebreaker | Deciphering the Enigma machine and aiding an allied victory in World War II | Winner |
Marie Curie | Radiologist | Discovering radium and becoming the first female recipient of the Nobel Prize for Physics and Chemistry | Runner-up |
Albert Einstein | Physicist | Penning the theory of relativity and the equation of mass–energy equivalence | Runner-up |
Tu Youyou | Chemist | Inventing the malaria vaccine in a time of Chinese social turmoil | Runner-up |
Heat Four – Entertainers[edit]
Broadcast – 15 January 2019
Advocate – Kathleen Turner[5]
Icon | Occupation | Chosen For | Status |
---|---|---|---|
David Bowie | Musician and actor | Breaking boundaries as a cutting-edge, bisexual musician | Winner |
Charlie Chaplin | Actor and film director | Becoming the world's first global movie star | Runner-up |
Marilyn Monroe | Actress and model | Defining her era through her modelling and acting work | Runner-up |
Billie Holiday | Singer-songwriter | Successfully changing the world of jazz despite segregation | Runner-up |
Heat Five – Activists[edit]
Broadcast – 21 January 2019
Advocate – Sanjeev Bhaskar[6]
Icon | Occupation | Chosen For | Status |
---|---|---|---|
Martin Luther King Jr. | civil rights campaigner | Successfully ending racial segregation in the United States through nonviolence | Winner |
Helen Keller | Author and activist | Used her status as a successful author to fight for peace despite being deafblind | Runner-up |
Emmeline Pankhurst | Women's rights campaigner | Successfully led the suffragette movement and got women the right to vote | Runner-up |
Mahatma Gandhi | Leader of the Indian independence movement | Successfully led the Indian independence movement through nonviolence | Runner-up |
Heat Six – Sports Stars[edit]
Broadcast – 22 January 2019
Advocate – Clare Balding[7]
Icon | Occupation | Chosen For | Status |
---|---|---|---|
Muhammad Ali | Boxer | His outstanding contribution to boxing and his anti-Vietnam war stance despite repercussions | Winner |
Tanni Grey-Thompson | Paralympian and Baroness | Her outstanding contribution to Paralympic sports and disability rights campaigning in the House of Lords | Runner-up |
Billie Jean King | Tennis player | Her outstanding contribution to tennis and her campaigning for women's rights within the sport | Runner-up |
Pelé | Footballer | His outstanding contribution to football | Runner-up |
Heat Seven – Artists and Writers[edit]
Broadcast – 29 January 2019
Advocate – Lily Cole[8]
Icon | Occupation | Chosen For | Status |
---|---|---|---|
Pablo Picasso | Artist | His outstanding contribution to painting and standing up in the face of war – in the case of Guernica. | Winner |
Alfred Hitchcock | Filmmaker | Changing the world of directing and inventing the horror genre | Runner-up |
Virginia Woolf | Writer | Modernising writing despite mental illness | Runner-up |
Andy Warhol | Artist | His outstanding contribution to the Pop art movement | Runner-up |
Episode Eight – The Final[edit]
This episode was broadcast live from Indigo at The O2, hosted by Nick Robinson and Claudia Winkleman on 5 February 2019.
Icon | Category | Occupation | Chosen For | Status |
---|---|---|---|---|
Nelson Mandela | Leaders | Former President of South Africa | Overcoming imprisonment and leading South Africa out of apartheid | Finalist |
Ernest Shackleton | Explorers | Explorer | Leading a particularly challenging South Pole expedition | Finalist |
Alan Turing | Scientists | Codebreaker | Deciphering the Enigma machine and aiding an allied victory in World War II | Winner |
David Bowie | Entertainers | Musician and actor | Breaking boundaries as a cutting-edge, Bisexual musician | Finalist |
Martin Luther King Jr. | Activists | Civil Rights Campaigner | Successfully ending segregation in the United States through nonviolence | Finalist |
Muhammad Ali | Sports Stars | Boxer | His outstanding contribution to boxing and his anti-Vietnam war stance despite repercussions | Finalist |
Pablo Picasso | Artists and Writers | Artist | His outstanding contribution to painting and standing up in the face of war – in the case of Guernica. | Finalist |
Controversy[edit]
The Icons series attracted controversy after some people were left unhappy with those selected to represent each category. The Entertainers category sparked particular debate through the omission of Elvis Presley, The Beatles, and Madonna,[9] while Diana, Princess of Wales, and John F. Kennedy also received support.[10]
References[edit]
- ^ "BBC Two – Icons: The Greatest Person of the 20th Century – Meet the Advocates". BBC. Retrieved 27 January 2019.
- ^ "BBC Two – Icons: The Greatest Person of the 20th Century – Sir Trevor McDonald". BBC. Retrieved 27 January 2019.
- ^ "BBC Two – Icons: The Greatest Person of the 20th Century – Dermot O'Leary". BBC. Retrieved 27 January 2019.
- ^ "BBC Two – Icons: The Greatest Person of the 20th Century – Chris Packham". BBC. Retrieved 27 January 2019.
- ^ "BBC Two – Icons: The Greatest Person of the 20th Century – Kathleen Turner". BBC. Retrieved 27 January 2019.
- ^ "BBC Two – Icons: The Greatest Person of the 20th Century – Sanjeev Bhaskar". BBC. Retrieved 27 January 2019.
- ^ "BBC Two – Icons: The Greatest Person of the 20th Century – Clare Balding". BBC. Retrieved 27 January 2019.
- ^ "BBC Two – Icons: The Greatest Person of the 20th Century – Lily Cole". BBC. Retrieved 27 January 2019.
- ^ Harp, Justin (15 January 2019). "BBC's Icons sparks huge debate by leaving out some legends". Digital Spy. Retrieved 27 January 2019.
- ^ Sherwin, Adam (28 December 2018). "BBC Icons: No Michael Jackson, Princess Diana, Elvis or Beatles in top 20th Century figure TV vote". inews.co.uk. Retrieved 27 January 2019.