The poll resulted in nominees including
Guy Fawkes, who was executed for his alleged role in the supposed plot to blow up the
Parliament of England;
Oliver Cromwell, who created a republican British state (the
Commonwealth of England, Scotland, and Ireland);
Richard III, suspected of murdering his nephews;
James Connolly, an
Irish nationalist who was executed by the Crown due to his part in the
1916 Easter Rising;
Thomas Paine, who wrote against the British crown before and during the
American Revolution;
John Lydon, the lead vocalist of the
Sex Pistols;
Enoch Powell, a conservative politician; and actor and singer
Michael Crawford, the second-highest-ranked entertainer, after
John Lennon. One of the more controversial figures to be included on the list was the occultist
Aleister Crowley. The poll and advocacy model of the final programme prevented the top ten figures from receiving critical scrutiny and the result was
hagiographic. The Controller of
BBC Two,
Jane Root, said she hoped the list would produce "plenty of debate". However, the resulting television show left many controversies of its subjects unaddressed. Two
Irish nationals,
Bono from
U2 and
Bob Geldof were included.
Sir Ernest Shackleton and
Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, were both Anglo-Irish in what is now the Republic of Ireland when all of Ireland was part of the United Kingdom, and
Alexander Fleming in 20th place was Scottish. There are nine Scottish people on the list and thirteen of the 100 are women. Sixty had lived in the 20th century. Only one entry was from the
BAME community, (
Freddie Mercury). Four of the list are
Welsh:
Owain Glyndŵr,
Aneurin Bevan,
Richard Burton,
David Lloyd George. Two of the list are pre-English, (
Boudica,
King Arthur). The highest-ranked living person was
Margaret Thatcher, placed 16th.
Ringo Starr was the only member of
the Beatles not on the list.
Isambard Kingdom Brunel occupied the top spot in the polls for some time due largely to "students from
Brunel University who have been campaigning vigorously for the engineer for weeks." However, a late surge in the final week of voting put
Winston Churchill into first place. ==The list==