Year | Title | Speaker | Speaker's position | Transcript | 2018 | Don't Protect Me - Respect Me | Jeanette Winterson | Writer and broadcaster | https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0b61v25 |
2017 | Staying Safe in a Turbulent World | John O. Brennan | Director of the Central Intelligence Agency 2013 to 2017 | http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08ll1c8 |
2016 | Is Shakespeare Chinese? | Gregory Doran | Artistic Director, Royal Shakespeare Company |
2015 | Dot Everyone - Power, the Internet and You | Martha Lane Fox | Co-founder of Lastminute.com, digital entrepreneur and peer | |
2014 | A New Multilateralism for the 21st Century | Christine Lagarde | Managing Director of International Monetary Fund | |
2013 | The Impatient Optimist | Bill Gates | Entrepreneur and Philanthropist | (BBC Programmes link) |
2012 | The Wonder of Science | Sir Paul Nurse | Geneticist and Nobel laureate , [https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01cx7x0/The_Richard_Dimbleby_Lecture_28_02_2012/] (video) |
2011 | Set Our Children Free | Michael Morpurgo | Children's author and campaigner |
2010 | Shaking Hands With Death | Sir Terry Pratchett | Author & Person with Alzheimer's. Read by Tony Robinson on speaker's behalf owing to his condition [https://www.theguardian.com/society/2010/feb/02/terry-pratchett-assisted-suicide-tribunal], |
2009 | Facing The Future | Prince Charles | Prince of Wales |
2007 | A DNA-Driven World | Craig Venter | Gene pioneer |
2006 | Defence of the Realm in the 21st Century | General Sir Mike Jackson | Former Chief of the General Staff , (video) |
2005 | What Kind of Police Service Do We Want? | Sir Ian Blair | Metropolitan Police Commissioner | , |
2004 | Engineering the Difference | James Dyson | Vacuum cleaner tycoon | |
2003 | The path towards a new world | Dominique de Villepin | French foreign minister | , , |
2002 | Nations, Markets and Morals | Dr Rowan Williams | Archbishop of Canterbury | |
2001 | The Struggle For The Soul of The 21st Century | Bill Clinton | Former President of the United States of America | |
2000 | Who's Afraid of Modern Art | Sir Nicholas Serota | Director of the Tate Gallery |
1999 | The Future Could be Too Much Fun | Susan Greenfield | Professor of pharmacology | |
1998 | Principles of Peace | George J. Mitchell | Former U.S. Senator and chair of the talks leading to the Belfast Agreement |
1997 | Public Life, Public Confidence | Lord Nolan | Former law lord |
1996 | Science, Delusion and the Appetite for Wonder | Richard Dawkins | Professor of biology |
1994 | Security and Democracy - Is There a Conflict? | Stella Rimington | Director-General of MI5 |
1992 | The Judiciary in the Nineties | Lord Taylor of Gosforth | Lord Chief Justice |
1990 | Europe in the Nineties | Helmut Schmidt | Former Chancellor of Germany |
1989 | Living Off the Land | Prince Philip | Duke of Edinburgh |
1988 | Knowledge Itself is Power | Sir George Porter | Professor of chemistry |
1987 | British Television: Who are the Masters Now? | Sir Denis Forman | Deputy Chairman of the Granada Group |
1986 | Does Industry Matter? | Sir John Harvey-Jones | Former chairman of ICI |
1985 | Teacher, Teach Thyself | Baroness Warnock | Professor of philosophy |
1984 | The Other Britain | David Sheppard | Bishop of Liverpool and former cricketer |
1983 | Missing Our Connections | Sir Peter Parker | Former chairman of British Railways Board |
1982 | Irish Identities | Garret FitzGerald | Former (and later, again) Taoiseach of Ireland |
1980 | Misuse of Power | Lord Denning | Master of the Rolls |
1979 | Home Thoughts from Abroad | Roy Jenkins | President of the European Commission | [https://web.archive.org/web/20160304101858/http://www.totalpolitics.com/speeches/liberal/liberal-politics-general/33323/1979-richard-dimbleby-lecture.thtml] |
1978 | Risk | Lord Rothschild | Zoologist and security adviser |
1977 | The Human Face of Labour | Jack Jones | Former general secretary of the Transport and General Workers' Union |
1976 | Elective Dictatorship | Lord Hailsham | Former (and later, again) Lord Chancellor |
1975 | The British Experience in Television | Sir Huw Wheldon | Broadcaster |
1974 | Housing - Who is to Blame? | Lord Goodman | Former chairman of the Arts Council |
1973 | Minority Verdict | Sir Robert Mark | Metropolitan Police Commissioner |
1972 | What are Universities for, Anyway? | Lord Annan | Provost of University College, London |