| Guest | Nominee | Presenter |
| Tim Waterstone, founder of bookshop chain | Clement Attlee former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom | |
| Rosie Boycott, journalist | Sir Ernest Shackleton, polar explorer | |
| Terence Conran, food & design entrepreneur | André & Édouard Michelin, French inventors of the detachable pneumatic tyre & the travel guide | |
| Ralph Steadman, cartoonist & caricaturist | Friedrich Nietzsche, German philosopher | |
| Barbara Castle, Labour politician & former Cabinet Minister | Sylvia Pankhurst, suffragette | |
| Frank Delaney, writer & broadcaster | Henri Matisse, French artist | |
| Jonathan Miller, theatre & opera director, physician | Marshall McLuhan, communication theorist & philosopher | |
| Fay Weldon, writer | H. G. Wells, visionary author | |
| Rabbi Lionel Blue, rabbi & broadcaster | Swami Vivekananda, 19th-century Hindu missionary | |
| Jackie Stewart, racing driver | King Hussein of Jordan | |
| Joan Littlewood, theatre director | Brendan Behan, Irish writer | |
| Lord Tebbit, Conservative politician & former Cabinet Minister | King Alfred the Great, 9th-century King of Wessex | |
| Guest | Nominee | Presenter |
| Lord Alistair McAlpine, Conservative politician | Machiavelli | Humphrey Carpenter |
| Denis Healey, Labour politician, former Chancellor of the Exchequer | Ernest Bevin, Labour politician, former Foreign Secretary | Humphrey Carpenter |
| Ruth Lea, economist | Pyotr Tchaikovsky, composer | Humphrey Carpenter |
| George Monbiot, journalist, environmental activist & writer | Thomas Paine, American author & revolutionary | Humphrey Carpenter |
| Benedict Allen, explorer | Horatio Nelson, naval hero | Humphrey Carpenter |
| Charles Wheeler, journalist & broadcaster | Lyndon B. Johnson, 36th President of the United States | Humphrey Carpenter |
| Kimberley Fortier | Edith Wharton, writer | Humphrey Carpenter |
| Richard Eyre, theatre director | Anton Chekhov, Russian dramatist | Humphrey Carpenter |
| Kenneth Clarke, Conservative politician, former Chancellor of the Exchequer | Benjamin Disraeli, 19th century Conservative Prime Minister | Humphrey Carpenter |
| Lord May, scientist | Joseph Banks, naturalist & botanist | Humphrey Carpenter |
