100 Greatest Britons

In 2002, the BBC conducted a poll to discover the 100 Greatest Britons of all time. The poll resulted in some unlikely canditates including Guy Fawkes, Aleister Crowley, Boy George and Robbie Williams. It also included two living Irish nationals (Bono and Bob Geldof) and James Connolly the Irish nationalist who was executed by the British in 1916. The resulting series, "Great Britons", included individual programmes on the top ten, with viewers having further opportunities to vote after each programme. It concluded with a debate. The results were as follows:

1. Sir Winston Churchill
2. Isambard Kingdom Brunel
3. Diana, Princess of Wales
4. Charles Darwin
5. William Shakespeare
6. Sir Isaac Newton
7. Elizabeth I of England
8. John Lennon
9. Horatio Nelson
10. Oliver Cromwell
11. Ernest Shackleton
12. Captain James Cook
13. Robert Baden-Powell
14. King Alfred the Great
15. Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington
16. Margaret Thatcher (Baroness Thatcher)
17. Michael Crawford
18. Queen Victoria
19. Sir Paul McCartney
20. Sir Alexander Fleming
21. Alan Turing
22. Michael Faraday
23. Owain Glyndwr
24. Queen Elizabeth II
25. Professor Stephen Hawking
26. William Tyndale
27. Emmeline Pankhurst
28. William Wilberforce
29. David Bowie
30. Guy Fawkes
31. Leonard Cheshire (Baron Cheshire of Woodall)
32. Eric Morecambe
33. David Beckham
34. Thomas Paine
35. Boudicca
36. Sir Steve Redgrave
37. Sir Thomas More
38. William Blake
39. John Harrison
40. King Henry VIII
41. Charles Dickens
42. Sir Frank Whittle
43. John Peel
44. John Logie Baird
45. Aneurin Bevan
46. Boy George
47. Sir Douglas Bader
48. William Wallace
49. Sir Francis Drake
50. John Wesley
51. King Arthur
52. Florence Nightingale
53. T. E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia)
54. Sir Robert Falcon Scott
55. Enoch Powell
56. Sir Cliff Richard
57. Sir Alexander Graham Bell
58. Freddie Mercury
59. Dame Julie Andrews
60. Edward Elgar
61. Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother
62. George Harrison
63. Sir David Attenborough
64. James Connolly
65. George Stephenson
66. Sir Charles Chaplin (Charlie Chaplin)
67. Tony Blair
68. William Caxton
69. Bobby Moore
70. Jane Austen
71. William Booth
72. King Henry V
73. Aleister Crowley
74. King Robert the Bruce
75. Bob Geldof
76. The Unknown Warrior
77. Robbie Williams
78. Edward Jenner
79. David Lloyd George (1st Earl Lloyd George of Dwyfor)
80. Charles Babbage
81. Geoffrey Chaucer
82. King Richard III
83. J.K. Rowling
84. James Watt
85. Sir Richard Branson
86. Bono
87. John Lydon (Johnny Rotten)
88. Field Marshal Montgomery
89. Donald Campbell
90. King Henry II
91. James Clerk Maxwell
92. J.R.R. Tolkien
93. Sir Walter Raleigh
94. King Edward I
95. Sir Barnes Wallis
96. Richard Burton
97. Tony Benn
98. David Livingstone
99. Professor Tim Berners-Lee
100. Marie Stopes

see also: 100 Worst Britons