100 Greatest Britons (BBC Poll, 2002)

• 100 Greatest Britons (BBC Poll, 2002)

100 Greatest Britons was broadcast in 2002 by the BBC. The programme was based on a television poll conducted to determine whom the United Kingdom public considered the greatest British people in history. The series, Great Britons, included individual programmes featuring the individuals who featured in the top ten, with viewers having further opportunities to vote after each programme. It concluded with a debate. All of the top 10 were dead by the year of broadcast.

The poll resulted in nominees including Guy Fawkes, who was executed for trying to blow up the Parliament of England; Oliver Cromwell who created a republican England; Richard III, suspected of murdering his nephews; James Connolly, an Irish nationalist and socialist who was executed by the Crown in 1916; and a surprisingly high ranking of 17th for actor and singer Michael Crawford (the second highest-ranked entertainer, after John Lennon). Diana, Princess of Wales was judged to be a greater historical British figure than William Shakespeare by BBC respondents to the survey.

Although the BBC's original ranked list has been removed from their web server and what remains is only an alphabetical list of the Top 100, several other sources have preserved the original ranked list.

There was some question as to whether the Richard Burton listed at #96 is the actor or the explorer. A BBC press release makes it clear that they intended it to be the actor. Source

BBC Poll 100 Greatest Britons

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
8. John Lennon
9. Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson
10. Oliver Cromwell
11. Sir Ernest Shackleton
12. Captain James Cook
13. Robert Baden-Powell
14. Alfred the Great
15. Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington
16. Margaret Thatcher
17. Michael Crawford
18. Queen Victoria
19. Sir Paul McCartney
20. Sir Alexander Fleming
21. Alan Turing
22. Michael Faraday
23. Owain Glyndŵr
24. Elizabeth II
25. Stephen Hawking
26. William Tyndale
27. Emmeline Pankhurst
28. William Wilberforce
29. David Bowie
30. Guy Fawkes
31. Leonard Cheshire
32. Eric Morecambe
33. David Beckham
34. Thomas Paine
35. Boudica
36. Sir Steve Redgrave
37. Sir Thomas More
38. William Blake
39. John Harrison
40. 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. Sir William Wallace
49. Sir Francis Drake
50. John Wesley
51. King Arthur (more detailed: Arthurian-Fiction project)
52. Florence Nightingale
53. Thomas Edward Lawrence
54. Robert Falcon Scott
55. Enoch Powell
56. Sir Cliff Richard
57. Sir Alexander Graham Bell
58. Freddie Mercury
59. Dame Julie Andrews
60. Sir 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
67. Tony Blair
68. William Caxton
69. Bobby Moore
70. Jane Austen
71. William Booth
72. Henry V
73. Aleister Crowley
74. Robert the Bruce
75. Bob Geldof
76. The Unknown Warrior (wikipedia)
77. Robbie Williams
78. Edward Jenner
79. David Lloyd George, 1st Earl Lloyd George of Dwyfor
80. Charles Babbage
81. Geoffrey Chaucer
82. Richard III
83. Joanne K. Rowling
84. James Watt
85. Sir Richard Branson
86. Bono
87. John Lydon (Johnny Rotten)
88. Bernard Law Montgomery, 1st Viscount Montgomery of Alamein ('Monty')
89. Donald Campbell
90. Henry II
91. James Clerk Maxwell
92. J. R. R. Tolkien
93. Sir Walter Raleigh
94. Edward I
95. Sir Barnes Wallis
96. Richard Burton
97. Tony Benn
98. David Livingstone
99. Sir Tim Berners-Lee
100. Marie Stopes

• 100 Greatest Britons Wikipedia

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