Ian McKellen joins Noel Gallagher and a host of friends, acquaintances and admirers of acclaimed painter LS Lowry to explore the life and legacy of the popular artist.
Theatre impresario Andrew Lloyd Webber reveals his passion for the Pre-Raphaelites as he looks at examples of work from this special and prolific group of artists.
Robson Green returns to his roots to tell the story of a group of 1930s pitmen who joined an art appreciation class and subsequently became celebrated artists.
House star Hugh Laurie travels to New Orleans to explore the roots of the sounds that inspire his passion for music, as he records his own blues and jazz album.
David Suchet follows in the footsteps of his grandfather, the famous Fleet Street photographer Jimmy Jarche, in a quest to capture on camera how Britain has changed in the past century. Talented amateur photographer David is sent on assignments across Britain to experience what it is like to be a press photographer. He shoots similar subjects to those his grandfather found, a task that involves tracking down unknown Welsh mining villages and taking pictures of the miners and their families. He experiences what it is like to be a war photographer when he photographs a training exercise with the British Army and feels the pressure of the paparazzi as he takes pictures of David Cameron and the Queen. SUB
Lenny Henry tells how he fell in love with Shakespeare and how, once he broke through the language barrier, the experiences and emotions Shakespeare wrote about spoke to him.
John Sergeant presents a personal film about his childhood hero and lifelong inspiration - Spike Milligan. With contributions from Michael Palin, Eddie Izzard and many more.
David Walliams explores the storytelling of Roald Dahl, one of the world's most successful children's authors. With contributions from Quentin Blake, Joanna Lumley and others.
Griff Rhys Jones explores the history of the book and the life of its author, Kenneth Grahame, and uncovers the sometimes dark and ultimately sad tale of the book's creation.
David Suchet finds out what gave Christie's stories worldwide appeal and why characters such as Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple captured the imagination of so many devotees.
Actor Warwick Davis explores the miraculous survival story of the Ovitz family - ten Jewish brothers and sisters from Romania, seven of whom were born with dwarfism. Their musical group The Lilliput Troupe toured Eastern Europe during the 1930s and 1940s, managing to elude Nazi persecution of Jews until 1944 when they were deported to the Auschwitz concentration camp. The family underwent horrific experiments but lived to see the liberation of Auschwitz, spending several months returning to their home on foot. Warwick heads to the small Transylvania village where the five sisters and two brothers were born, their incredible yet poignant story prompting him to reflect on his own experiences as a dwarf actor and entertainer.
Sheila Hancock sets out to discover what inspired the Bronte sisters to write such epic novels seemingly worlds apart from their own lives.
Former minister Michael Portillo examines the life and work of Pablo Picasso and reveals how his love of Picasso's art was influenced by his own father, a Spanish republican exile.
Paul O'Grady reveals the effect that a legendary striptease artist had on him as he explores the life of the queen of American burlesque, Gypsy Rose Lee.
Jonathan Ross examines the life and career of the most celebrated director in the history of cinema, Sir Alfred Hitchcock, in a quest for the British roots of his unique style.
Hugh Laurie makes a pilgrimage across America to explore the country's blues music, before playing a concert in homage to his musical hero, Professor Longhair.
Houdini is the man - who against the odds - became one of the most successful entertainers in the world. In a bid to understand why Houdini felt compelled to perform such terrifying death defying acts, Alan visits New York where the young Eric Weiss arrived as a child with his Hungarian immigrant family, made his entry into show business and ultimately performed some of his scariest stunts. Immersing himself in the world of Houdini, Alan tries to hold his breath under ice cold water, lies on a bed of nails, gets strung upside down in a straitjacket and takes an exclusive look at David Copperfield's priceless collection of Houdini artefacts in Vegas.
Spandau Ballet's Gary Kemp investigates the modern art world, 25 years after it was rocked on its heels by by the arrival of Hirst, Emin and the other Young British Artists (YBAs). Better known as a musician and actor, Gary is also an art enthusiast, who argues that it was the rock'n'roll style of the YBAs which made contemporary art relevant and altered the cultural life of Britain. Kemp considers the extent to which the YBAs, with their love of glitz, glamour and outrageous posturing, act more like rock stars. The film also includes interviews with Sam Taylor-Wood, Gavin Turk and Jake Chapman.
Ever since he stumbled upon a book about Rene Magritte in an Oxford bookshop at the age of 15, singer and actor Will Young has had a passion for the surrealist artist's work. In this film, Will travels to Magritte's native Belgium to find out more about the man whose trademark was a bowler hat and whose apparently conventional exterior concealed the mind of a subversive rebel. Will uncovers a childhood marked by tragedy, a marriage that lasted from Magritte's adolescence until his death in 1967, and a stunning artistic legacy which endures to this day.
Singer-songwriter Emeli Sandé made her admiration for the iconic Mexican painter Frida Kahlo perfectly clear four years ago, when she had a large tattoo of the artist’s face etched onto her forearm. At the time Emeli had bravely just quit medical school to write her first album. She needed inspiration and saw Frida as a woman who had triumphed over adversity: ‘As an artist it’s the bravery that I wanted a piece of,’ says Emeli, ‘so I feel that her being on my arm is a constant reminder not to be afraid.’ That subsequent first album, Our Version of Events, won Emeli two Ivor Novello awards and a Brit award for Best British Album - and became the biggest selling record of 2012. Now, two years later, Emeli’s writing her second album - and she’s taking time out to re-connect with Frida on an even deeper level. She travels to Mexico for the very first time, to find out more about the artist whose tumultuous life made her not just one of the world’s most famous female painters but a global feminist icon too. Arriving in Mexico City, Emeli visits the bustling and colourful La Ciudadela market, where ‘Frida kitsch’ is everywhere. The artist’s face is even on Mexican banknotes – a sure sign of the love Mexicans continue to feel for their fiery artistic heroine. Emeli too feels an empathy with the artist; both have the duality of mixed race backgrounds, with Emeli’s parents being English and Zambian and Frida’s German and Mexican. One of Emeli’s big ambitions since she first discovered Frida Kahlo as a teenager has been to visit La Casa Azul, or Blue House, where Frida was born in 1907 and grew up. It was here that Frida battled the devastating effects of polio at the age of six, a disease that left her with a withered leg. But worse physical challenges lay ahead for this clever young girl from a middle class family. At the age of eighteen she was involved in a horrific bus crash on her way to the finest school in Mexico, whe
"I’m humbled that I’ve got the training that Freddie knew he lacked. But I think his passion and creative energy made up for it and made him the genius he was. He saw no limits to where his talent could take him, and no boundaries to his extraordinary musical imagination. " The bad boy of opera, Alfie Boe explores the art of Freddie Mercury; the outrageous genius, the ultimate front-man of Queen and superlative songwriter and singer. Alfie’s journey from opera to exploring all kinds of music is almost the mirror image of that of his hero Freddie Mercury who went from rock to opera as he used his genius to propel Queen from conventional rockers to become one of the greatest bands ever - embracing many musical styles and art forms. Alfie uses his own experience to propose a new strong personal vision of what makes Freddie Mercury an icon. In this film he argues that Freddie’s genius comes from the very lack of formal musical training that Alfie found himself kicking against in his own quest to escape the constraints of the opera world. At each step of the way, Alfie immerses himself in the music. He performs ‘Barcelona’ live – a song Freddie Mercury himself only performed live twice - in order to gain a deeper understanding of the craft and genius of Freddie from his own perspective. He meets people who knew him as a teenager and is shown never before seen footage of Freddie Bulsara when he first came to England as a refugee. Alfie travels to Switzerland to the old Queen recording studios at Montreux, visits Barcelona to talk to famous soprano Montserrat Caballe who duetted with Freddie and discusses Freddie's unforgettable performance at Live Aid with founder Bob Gedolf. Alfie meets Freddie's close family and talks beginnings with Queen guitarist and song writer, Brian May who explains; "The biggest influence on Freddie was Freddie. And it happened when he started to record, because then of course once you hear yourself coming
Sir Bruce first met Sammy in May 1960 when he hosted The Royal Command Performance and Sammy was top of the bill. So began a friendship that lasted until Sammy's death in 1990.
Ashley Banjo finds out about the man who inspired him to dance and about Thriller - the album which sold a record-breaking sixty million copies.
Len Goodman travels across America to explore the career, the extraordinary life and the imaginative mind of his greatest hero, the dancer Fred Astaire.
Rock keyboardist Rick Wakeman reappraises Antonio Vivaldi's the Four Seasons - one of the most popular piece of classical music of all time but often denounced by the critics.
Terry Jones offers a personal re-appraisal of the man who changed the face of film comedy.
Nicky Campbell visits Manhattan to explore his passion for the golden age of song-writing, when the music of Broadway theatres fused with the sounds of Harlem's raunchy jazz clubs.
Eddie Redmayne looks at war from the point of view of the war artists. Issues of subject matter affected this brave group of men, who were eyewitnesses to war.
