Icons: The Greatest Person of the 20th Century Meet the Icons
ICONS asks you to assess the achievements of the 20th century's most important and influential figures – men and women who helped shape our world today. Seven programmes, starting on the 8th of January, will be devoted to seven different categories of human excellence, and each one will introduce you to four extraordinary individuals. At the end of each show you will be able to vote for your favourite. Ultimately you get to decide who is the greatest icon of them all, as the category winners go head to head in a live final with a public vote on the 5th of February.
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ARTISTS & WRITERS WINNER
Pablo Picasso
Pioneering, genre-smashing modern artist
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SPORTS STARS WINNER
Muhammad Ali
Legendary Boxer
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ENTERTAINERS WINNER
David Bowie
An innovator constantly at music’s cutting edge
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SCIENTISTS WINNER
Alan Turing
Father of the computer and WW2 code-breaker
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EXPLORERS WINNER
Ernest Shackleton
Polar explorer and pioneer
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LEADERS WINNER
Nelson Mandela
South Africa’s first black president
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LEADERS WINNER
Nelson Mandela
South Africa’s first black president
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Winston Churchill
Britain’s wartime Prime Minister
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Franklin D Roosevelt
America’s longest serving president
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Margaret Thatcher
Britain’s first female Prime Minister
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EXPLORERS WINNER
Ernest Shackleton
Polar explorer and pioneer
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Neil Armstrong
First man on the moon
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Gertrude Bell
The first western woman to map and travel across Arabia
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Jane Goodall
Revolutionised the study of wild chimpanzees
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SCIENTISTS WINNER
Alan Turing
Father of the computer and WW2 code-breaker
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Marie Curie
Discovered radium and polonium
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Albert Einstein
Physicist who helped us to better understand the universe
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Tu Youyou
Discovered a new revolutionary treatment for malaria
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ENTERTAINERS WINNER
David Bowie
An innovator constantly at music’s cutting edge
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Charlie Chaplin
The world’s first global movie star
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Billie Holiday
Jazz singer whose sultry style stirred the world’s soul
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Marilyn Monroe
The actress who defined her times
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ACTIVIST WINNER
Dr Martin Luther King Jr
American civil rights leader
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Mohandas Gandhi
Leader of the Indian independence movement
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Helen Keller
Proved her disability was not debilitating
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Emmeline Pankhurst
Campaigner for women’s votes in Britain
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SPORTS STARS WINNER
Muhammad Ali
Legendary Boxer
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Tanni Grey-Thompson
Paralympian and wheelchair racer
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Billie Jean King
Grand slam-winning tennis player
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The essence of Brazilian football
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ARTISTS & WRITERS WINNER
Pablo Picasso
Pioneering, genre-smashing modern artist
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Alfred Hitchcock
Forward-looking film director
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Andy Warhol
Pop artist who saw art everywhere
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Virginia Woolf
An author who rewrote the rules of writing
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ARTISTS & WRITERS WINNER
SPORTS STARS WINNER
ENTERTAINERS WINNER
SCIENTISTS WINNER
EXPLORERS WINNER
LEADERS WINNER
ACTIVIST WINNER
