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Episode details

Radio 4,05 Jun 2026,28 mins

Larry King: The man behind Billie Jean King’s feminist tennis revolution

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Larry King teamed up with his wife Billie Jean King to start the women’s professional tennis circuit in the USA. Baroness Ramsay was MI6 Head of Station in Helsinki during the Cold War and then became a leading figure in Labour politics. Caroline Marland transformed the financial fortunes of The Guardian newspaper as a senior executive in the 1980s and 90s. Valie Export challenged centuries of misuse of the female body from male artists by exhibiting her own form for controversial performances. Archive used: Women’s Tennis Association, 03/2024; VisNews, 01/05/1981; BBC News, 12/09/1985; Secrets and Spies: A Nuclear Game, BBC Two, 08/05/2024; BBC Parliament, 02/12/2015; The Money Programme, BBC Two, 14/02/1988; Woman’s Hour, BBC Radio 4, 01/06/2000 Presenter: Matthew Bannister Producer: Ben Mitchell Assistant Producer: Ribika Moktan Researcher: Josie Hardy Editor: Andrea Kennedy

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