Curated playlist

English people of Scottish descent

Keira KnightleyKeira Knightley stood on a plank for two days and refused a stunt double.
David CameronDavid Cameron's last words in the Commons were "I was the future once." He said them in July 2016.
Ian McKellenIan McKellen came out as gay on BBC radio in 1988, while Parliament weighed Section 28.
Rudyard KiplingRudyard Kipling turned down both a knighthood and the Poet Laureateship. He won the 1907 Nobel Prize in Literature.
Lord ByronWestminster Abbey refused Lord Byron's body for questionable morality. It finally gave him a memorial in 1969.
Josh O'ConnorJosh O'Connor is an English actor, born on the 20th of May 1990, who once delivered more than 150 lambs while preparing for a single film role. He was not chasing a stunt. He was learning how a Yorkshire sheep farmer works, moves and…
James CookCaptain James Cook tried to kidnap a Hawaiian king to get a stolen boat back.
Peter O'ToolePeter O'Toole asked the Academy to wait when it offered him an honorary Oscar. He hoped to win the award outright.
Tom HiddlestonTom Hiddleston is a British actor who once played Hamlet in a theatre of just 160 seats, with tickets given out by lottery to raise money for RADA, the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. The run lasted three weeks in September 2017. Millions…
A. A. MilneA. A. Milne accused his old cricket teammate P. G. Wodehouse of near treason.
John, King of EnglandKing John was nicknamed Lackland because he wasn't expected to inherit much. He ruled England from 1199 to 1216.
James Wood (critic)Harold Bloom praised critic James Wood in 1999, then said in 2008 that Wood simply does not exist.
Charli XCXCharli XCX once drew about 37,000 RSVPs to a single club set in Brooklyn, and only 400 of those people were allowed inside. The set was called PARTYGIRL, and it took place on the 22nd of February 2024. It was her second Boiler Room set…
John Stuart MillJohn Stuart Mill was reading Greek at age three. His father was deliberately raising a genius.
Ralph FiennesRalph Fiennes has played a Nazi camp commandant, a dark wizard, a British spymaster and a flirtatious hotel concierge, and audiences have believed every one of them. Born in 1962, the English actor and director carries the full name Ralph…
Brian MayBrian May climbed onto the roof of Buckingham Palace on the 3rd of June 2002 and played a guitar solo of "God Save the Queen." It was part of the Golden Jubilee celebrations for Elizabeth II. May, born in 1947, is the lead guitarist of the…
Henry Stuart, Lord DarnleyLord Darnley was found dead in an orchard after two explosions shook his house. He had been smothered.
Stuart SutcliffeStuart Sutcliffe left the Beatles in 1961 to study painting in Hamburg. He died the next spring, aged 21.
Melanie CIn 1994, Melanie Jayne Chisholm, known as Melanie C, joined around 400 women answering an advertisement in The Stage magazine. The advertisement came from two managers hoping to form a new girl group. That group became the Spice Girls, and…
Ada LovelaceWas Ada Lovelace really the first computer programmer? Historians still disagree about her notes on Babbage's engine.
Anya Taylor-JoyAnya Taylor-Joy was born in Miami on the 16th of April 1996, in a city her parents were only visiting on vacation. She calls her birth there a "fluke". That accident gave her American citizenship. She nevertheless grew up in Buenos Aires…
Alexander McQueenAt Alexander McQueen's Voss show, the audience saw only themselves for over an hour. Then a glass box shattered.
Alan TuringAlan Turing once chained his tea mug to a radiator pipe at Bletchley Park so it could not be stolen.
Stephen HawkingDoctors gave Stephen Hawking two years to live at age 21, but he died at 76.
John RuskinA jury awarded painter Whistler one farthing in his libel suit against critic John Ruskin.
Jimmy SavileJimmy Savile ended the last weekly edition of Top of the Pops on the 30th of July 2006 with the words 'It's number one, it's still Top of the Pops.' After the closing credits, he turned off the studio lights. Savile had been a fixture of…
William BeveridgeWilliam Beveridge lost his seat in 1945, yet the new government built his welfare plan.
Florence WelchFlorence Welch, the English singer and songwriter, chose the name of her band while the clock was running out. About an hour before her first gig, she still had no name to announce. Her best idea was Florence Robot Is A Machine, which she…
George CruikshankIn 1820, the royal household paid George Cruikshank £100 to stop mocking King George IV.
Jamie Campbell BowerJamie Campbell Bower once needed up to eight hours of make-up work in a single day to become Vecna, the monstrous villain of the Netflix series Stranger Things. The man beneath the prosthetics is an English actor, singer, and guitarist. He…