As the title suggests, Lives of Great Men is a series about some of the great leaders in human progress, and which from the introduction promised to "build a story of civilization based on outstanding characters through the ages, and how each one influenced his own and future times."

Each show features an historical figure, and the narrator (who is a rather no-nonsense lecturer called Dr Edward Howard Griggs), presents us with hundreds of fascinating and accurate facts in an engaging narrative which is both interesting and compelling.