throughout june, july and august 2012, and in early september 2012, he presented "the new elizabethans" on radio four, a programme about notable people under the reign of queen elizabeth ii, to mark the diamond jubilee of elizabeth ii. it has dealt with various famous names, including richard doll, philip larkin, elizabeth david, margot fonteyn, peter hall, cicely saunders, john lennon and paul mccartney and tim berners-lee. the final week of the programme dealt with tony blair, fred goodwin, rupert murdoch, simon cowell and finished with the queen herself.