Bowie Shortlisted In 100 Greatest Britons

Battle For Britons…

What do Aneurin Bevan, Winston Churchill, Aleister Crowley, John Lennon and Emmeline Pankhurst all have in common? Well apart from the fact that they all make an appearance in the lyrics of David Bowie songs*, they are also all listed in the BBC’s 100 greatest Britons shortlist, along with David Bowie himself.

Great Britons, is “a major new series this Autumn on BBC TWO that begins by revealing the British public’s top 100 nominations. The top ten will then feature in a series of one-hour programmes asking: what does it take to be seen as the greatest?”

All of this morning’s press in the UK have large features on the top 100 list, even if they have taken the whole thing a little too seriously. I’m staying tight-lipped on the selection myself, though I have to say it’s nice to see the inclusion of Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web, without whom etc., etc.

Here’s that full list, and no, they’re not my descriptions in brackets:

Alfred the Great (Former monarch)
Julie Andrews (Entertainer)
King Arthur (Former Monarch)
David Attenborough (Wildlife expert)
Jane Austen (Author)
Charles Babbage (Inventor)
Lord Baden Powell (Founder of the Scouts)
Douglas Bader (Spitfire pilot)
David Beckham (Soccer player)
Alexander Graham Bell (Inventor of telephone)
Tony Benn (Former Labor leader)
Tim Berners Lee (Father of the internet)
Aneurin Bevan (Politician)
Tony Blair (Prime Minister)
William Blake (Poet)
William Booth (Salvation Army founder)
Boudicca (Warrior Queen)
David Bowie (Entertainer)
Richard Branson (Entrepreneur)
Robert the Bruce (Scottish )
Isambard Kingdom Brunel (Inventor: locomotive)
Richard Burton (Actor)
Donald Campbell (Waterspeed record)
William Caxton (Printing press inventor)
Charlie Chaplin (Entertainer)
Geoffrey Chaucer (Canterbury Tales)
Leonard Cheshire (Advocate for ill/disabled)
Winston Churchill (Former PM))
James Connelly
Captain James Cook (Explorer who claimed Australia)
Michael Crawford (Entertainer)
Oliver Cromwell (Warrior statesman)
Aleister Crowley (Magician)
Charles Darwin (Scientist)
Diana, Princess of Wales
Charles Dickens (Author)
Francis Drake (Explorer)
King Edward I (Former monarch)
Edward Elgar (Composer)
Queen Elizabeth I
Queen Elizabeth II
Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother
Michael Faraday (Physicist)
Guy Fawkes (Tried to burn down Parliament)
Alexander Fleming (Inventor penicillan)
Bob Geldof (Singer/activist)
Owain Glyndwr (Welsh activist)
George Harrison (Beatle)
John Harrison (Mathematician)
Stephen Hawking (Astro-physicist)
King Henry II (Former monarch)
King Henry V (Former monarch)
King Henry VIII (Former monarch)
Paul Hewson (Bono)
Edward Jenner (Discovered vaccination)
TE Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia)
John Lennon (Beatle)
David Livingstone (Explorer)
David Lloyd George (Former PM)
John Logie Baird (TV inventor)
John Lydon (Johnny Rotten)
James Clerk Maxwell (Physicist)
Paul McCartney (Beatle)
Freddie Mercury (Queen lead-singer)
Field Marshall Bernard Montgomery
Bobby Moore (Soccer player)
Thomas More (Chancellor/author)
Eric Morecambe (Entertainer)
Admiral Horatio Nelson
Isaac Newton (Scientist)
Florence Nightingale (Nurse)
George O’Dowd (Boy George)
Thomas Paine (Anti-slavery activist)
Emmeline Pankhurst (Suffragette)
John Peel (Broadcaster)
Enoch Powell (Politician)
Walter Raleigh (Explorer)
Steve Redgrave (Olympic Rower)
King Richard III (Former monarch)
Cliff Richard (Entertainer)
JK Rowling (Author)
Robert Falcon Scott (Explorer)
Ernest Shackleton (Arctic explorer)
William Shakespeare (Author)
George Stephenson (Inventor: steam engine)
Marie Stopes (Family planning pioneer)
Margaret Thatcher (First female PM)
William Tindale (New Testament)
JRR Tolkien (Author)
Alan Turing (Mathematician)
Queen Victoria (Former monarch)
William Wallace (Scottish nationalist)
Barnes Wallis (Aircraft engineer)
James Watt (Inventor)
Unknown soldier
Duke of Wellington
John Wesley (Founder of Methodist church)
Frank Whittle (Father of the jet engine)
William Wilberforce (Anti-slavery activist)
Robbie Williams (Singer)

* For those of you that can’t place all of the names to a Bowie lyric, here ya go:

Aneurin Bevan ? “Bevan tried to change the nation” ? Star
Winston Churchill ? “Living proof of Churchill’s lies” ? Quicksand
Aleister Crowley ? “Immersed in Crowley’s uniform” ? Quicksand
John Lennon – “‘Cause Lennon’s on sale again” – Life On Mars?
Emmeline Pankhurst – OK, so she’s not mentioned by name, but David did write Suffragette City! };-)