| 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.
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.
Broadcast – 8 January 2019
Advocate – Sir Trevor McDonald [2]
| Icon | Occupation | Chosen For | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nelson Mandela | Former President of South Africa | Overcoming imprisonment and leading South Africa out of apartheid | Winner |
| 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 |
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 |
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 |
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 |
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 |
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 |
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 |
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 |
The Icons series attracted controversy after some people were left unhappy with those selected to represent each category. The Entertainers category sparked particular debate regarding the omission of Elvis Presley, The Beatles, and Madonna, [9] and similar critiques were raised regarding Diana, Princess of Wales and John F. Kennedy's absence from the list. [10]
