Оригінальна назва
The Culture Show
Випущено
11.11.2004
Країна
GB
Жанр
Документальний, Новини
Виробничі компанії
BBC
Статус
Поновлено
Кількість сезонів
19
Кількість епізодів
165
A weekly BBC Two magazine programme focusing on the best of the week's arts and culture news, covering books, art, film, architecture and more.
Lauren Laverne presents the first of three shows from Edinburgh covering the highlights from the Festival and Fringe. Miranda Sawyer meets Tracey Emin, who is staging her first ever retrospective exhibition at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art. We speak to Steven Berkoff about his new staging of On the Waterfront, a project which has the blessing of the movie's screenwriter Budd Schulberg and we talk to multi-tasking comedians David O'Doherty, Simon Munnery and Rich Hall, all of whom are doing at least two shows during the festival. Roving reporter Tim Samuels samples the weird and the wonderful events happening across Edinburgh, from The Aluminum Show and Falsetto Sock Puppets to Jim Rose and Circus Oz. The show comes from the Pleasance Courtyard, right at the heart of all the Edinburgh action, where comedian and musician Tim Minchin joins us to talk about his new show Ready For This? and French band Nouvelle Vague perform a bossa nova version of the Clash's Guns of Brixton.
As he brings his Berlin tour to Britain, Lou Reed talks to The Culture Show's Lauren Laverne about why he's recreating his cult 1973 album. Reed reminisces about Andy Warhol and The Factory, the Velvet Underground, and how he felt about the critical response to the album on its initial release. Also featuring exclusive footage of Reed performing as he rehearses for the Berlin tour, and contributions from collaborators and admirers including Anthony Heggarty and Peter Hook.
Lauren Laverne presents the second of three shows from Edinburgh covering the highlights from the Festival and Fringe. On the show tonight is a preview of 365, the new work by The National Theatre of Scotland. The Edinburgh Festival Show has been following the work through rehearsal stages and tonight's programme features scenes from the play, one of the most hotly anticipated shows of the International Festival. Comedian and political activist Mark Thomas looks at some of the political art at this year's festival, concentrating on Richard Hamilton's show Protest Pictures and Sherman Cymru's documentary drama Deep Cut. Tim Samuels allows himself to be drawn into some of the numerous audience participation shows on offer, including Office Party and Faulty Towers the Dining Experience. Lauren is joined in the Pleasance Courtyard by Chuck Palahniuk, author of Fight Club and Snuff. Another of his novels, Choke, has recently been turned into a movie with Sam Rockwell, Anjelica Huston and Kelly Macdonald. Virtuoso Hungarian violinist Roby Lakatos plays us out with typical exuberance.
Lauren Laverne presents a celebration of all things Springfield as the Simpsons celebrate their 20th anniversary. Looking back over the show's success it features contributions from creator Matt Groening, plus stars of one-off episodes Ricky Gervais, Stephen Hawking and Bridget Jones creator Helen Fielding.
Lauren Laverne presents the last in the series of shows covering the Edinburgh Festival and Fringe. Coming from the Pleasance Courtyard, right in the middle of all the Edinburgh action, the programme will be covering the enormous range of shows and performances that hit Edinburgh in August. Joining Lauren at the Pleasance will be the legendary Joan Rivers. Her autobiographical play, a Work in Progress by a Life in Progress, in which she also appears, is set to be one of the most talked about shows on the Fringe and she remains one of the most entertaining, and occassionally shocking, acts on the circuit. Lauren also meets Matthew Bourne, one of the country's most popular choreographers, his new work Dorian Gray, part of the Edinburgh International Festival, is his first new production in three years. One of the most unusual projects on the Fringe, Scavenger Hunt is also featured on this week's show. Scavenger Hunt is a one off event in which teams solve treasure hunt type clues around the city, producing pieces of art work as they go. The programme will be following many of the teams as they race round the Scottish capital and will feature the exhibition produced at the end of the event. In the last of his Festival reports, Tim Samuels will be speaking to some of the acts that haven't quite hit the headlines and will be asking the performers whether it was worth all the blood, sweat, tears and hard cash needed to put on a show in Edinburgh.
Six months on from the death of Michael Jackson, The Culture Show re-evaluates his impact on modern music. Musicians, producers and contemporaries assess Michael Jackson's position within African-American culture, his mainstream appeal and his massive contribution to pop music and culture across the world, as well as telling the stories behind some of Michael's most enduring hits. With contributions from Smokey Robinson, Jermaine Jackson, Martha Reeves and record producer and DJ Questlove.
Host Lauren Laverne casts her eye over the best bits of the series, which has seen her interview and jam with Sir Paul McCartney, point guns at Quentin Tarantino and flirt with Lou Reed, while Andrew Graham-Dixon took a helicopter journey over Britain to survey natural art galleries. Plus, revisiting exhibitions from the Chapman brothers and David Lynch; behind-the-scenes looks at the Cannes Film Festival, the Venice Biennale and the re-opening of London's Royal Festival Hall; and interviews with the Coen Brothers, Michel Gondry, David Cronenberg and Danny Boyle.
A special edition of The Culture Show marking the start of a landmark project in which the BBC and the British Museum focus on the span of human history through 100 objects held at the museum. This programme, presented by Mishal Husain from the British Museum, profiles all the elements of the project, which includes one hundred programmes on Radio 4, a massive online factor, as well as programmes on CBBC and coverage from the BBC right across the country.
Arts show. Lauren Laverne presents highlights from the opening weekend that launches Liverpool's year as the European Capital of Culture. Awarded the title in 2004, the city will put on musicians, singers, dancers and special effects. Friday's artists include Ringo Starr and indie band the Wombats. Saturday's events come from the city's Liverpool Echo Arena and feature the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic with Dave Stewart, No Fakin DJs, Echo and The Bunnymen and Ian Brodie.
Presented by Kevin McCloud, this Culture Show Special comes from the Royal Institute of British Architects' annual award ceremony, celebrating the best buildings of 2011. Kicking off with a look at the key trends in new architecture, the programme reveals the winners of three RIBA awards: the Stephen Lawrence Prize, for UK projects costing under £1 million; the Lubetkin Prize, for outstanding buildings outside the EU; and finally the UK's most prestigious prize for architecture, the RIBA Stirling Prize. The six buildings on the Stirling shortlist, explored here by Tom Dyckhoff, range from projects by star architects - including a school by last year's Stirling winner, Zaha Hadid; the Olympic Velodrome by Michael Hopkins; and a museum in Germany by David Chipperfield - through to projects by less well-known names, including an imaginative office building in London, an Irish language cultural centre in Derry and the RSC's newly-revamped theatre in Stratford.
Lauren Laverne and Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen present a special edition of The Culture Show from the preview party of the 240th annual Summer Exhibition at the Royal Academy in London, the biggest open submission art show in the world. With exclusive behind-the-scenes access to Tracey Emin hanging her erotic-themed room, Gavin Turk making a new piece for the show, and Sir Anthony Caro installing his massive five-part sculpture Promenade in the RA courtyard. Including music from Jarvis Cocker.
Mark Kermode interviews Steven Spielberg on his 60th birthday
In the run-up to the Beijing Olympics, Tom Dyckhoff and Miranda Sawyer meet those shaping the most rapidly changing culture in the world. Featuring Norman Foster 's Beijing Airport, Chinese hip-hop, fashion designer Han Feng , and a dinner party packed full of leading artists, writers and designers.
Anish Kapoor and Cecil Balmond's Orbit sculpture is the most spectacular artistic creation of 2012 - a gravity-defying, breathtakingly dynamic scribble of crimson steel. Standing twice the height of Nelson's Column, it now towers over the Olympic Park, and has already inspired strong reactions. It is the biggest piece of public sculpture this country has ever seen - a bold statement of artistic ambition and a giant engineering challenge. In this one-off special, The Culture Show goes behind the scenes to follow it from commission to completion, and discovers just how difficult it is to build a tower for the 21st century. Featuring interviews with Boris Johnson and Lakshmi Mittal along with exclusive access to Kapoor and Balmond as they strive to realise their vision in the face of some Olympian challenges.
Verity Sharp meets the four-piece band Sigur Rós in their native Iceland and on their visit to the UK for the 2007 Electric Proms. They have sold two million albums globally and their haunting music has been used as a soundtrack on trailers for the BBC series Planet Earth. They talk about their unique sound and their film Heima, which chronicles a series of unannounced gigs in Iceland in 2006.
Ford Madox Ford is one of the forgotten greats of British fiction. With Tom Stoppard's dramatisation of Ford's unusual First World War love story Parade's End showing on BBC Two, Alan Yentob reveals Ford to be one of the most likeable characters in literature - humorous, overweight and with a deeply complicated love life that lit the fire under his greatest novels. A radical and a modernist, Ford was friend and collaborator to the great experimenters, Conrad, Lawrence, Pound and Joyce, and he wrote over 80 books including the masterpiece The Good Soldier. Yentob follows Ford through scandal, prison, exile and into the army, where he was injured by an explosion while serving in the Somme. He reveals how the shockwaves from this explosion reverberated through the rest of Ford's life, providing the inspiration for his visceral, unique and spectacular wartime epic Parade's End. Contributors include fans John Simpson, the Booker winner Ben Okri and academic Hermione Lee, as well as eminent chef Rowley Leigh, cooking some of Ford's favourite food.
Lee Child, one of Britain's bestselling authors, explores the phenomenal popularity of his character Jack Reacher - the basis of a new blockbuster movie starring Tom Cruise. In an insightful interview with Andrew Graham-Dixon, he reveals how being made redundant at age 40 pushed him into a life of writing and led him to New York, where he now lives. But despite the American setting of the highly successful Jack Reacher series, it is poignant elements of his childhood in Birmingham that form the basis of his fiction.
Andrew Graham-Dixon travels to Northern Spain to visit some of the world's oldest works of art, hundreds of meters beneath the surface of the earth. In limestone caves he is astonished to find a series of vivid paintings, some of which are over 33,000 years old, which appear to link modern man to our ice age ancestors. Back in London, the British Museum is staging one of its most ambitious exhibitions yet, Ice Age Art: Arrival of the Modern Mind. Andrew gets a behind-the-scenes preview of the extraordinary highlights and discovers that the world's first commissioned artists were producing highly sophisticated work tens of thousands of years before he previously imagined. The programme includes contributions from the British Museum's director, Neil MacGregor, and artist Antony Gormley.
Andrew Graham-Dixon, Lauren Laverne and Mark Kermode present a special edition of The Culture Show devoted to the Royal Academy's Summer Exhibition. The hour-long special will showcase the best of the 2009 exhibition and look back to uncover the secret of its enduring appeal.
For years, thousands of paintings owned by the British public have been hidden away and inaccessible - until now. Thanks to the work of the Your Paintings project, over 200,000 works in our national collections have been painstakingly uncovered, photographed and put online - some for the very first time - allowing art experts and amateur-sleuths alike to make connections and discoveries that wouldn't have been possible before. Alastair Sooke teams up with art detective Dr Bendor Grosvenor to unearth some hidden gems and find out what our paintings say about us.
Coverage of the literary awards, presented by Mishal Husain. Before the winner's name is revealed, there are profiles of the six books that made it to the judges' shortlist.
One of the hottest talents in Hollywood today, JJ Abrams talks to Mark Kermode about his latest turn at the helm of the Starship Enterprise, his lifelong love of filmmaking and the passion for mystery that lies at the heart of everything he does. New York born Abrams has conquered both television and film, bringing landmark TV series Lost to the small screen while collaborating with film industry royalty Tom Cruise and Steven Spielberg for box office hits Mission: Impossible III and Super 8. Self-confessed geek and ultimate fan boy, Jeffrey Jacob Abrams is about to take on the daunting task of directing the new Star Wars film. In this programme JJ takes Mark on an exclusive tour of Bad Robot, the top secret Los Angeles hub of his production company and provides a rare glimpse into where the magic happens.
The death of Michael Jackson was undoubtedly one of the biggest shocks of 2009. This special tribute leaves aside the court cases, scandal and bizarre behaviour to focus purely on the music. Contributors such as Smokey Robinson, Jermaine Jackson and Martha Reeves assess Jackson's place within African-American culture, his mainstream appeal and his remarkable musical legacy.
It's 30 years since Manchester four-piece The Smiths changed the face of British pop with their debut single Hand In Glove. In this half-hour Culture Show special, fellow Mancunian and lifelong fan Tim Samuels sets out to find out why The Smiths have such a special place in the hearts of a generation of Brits. The Smiths were only around for five years in the mid-eighties, but to this day the sentiment their music evokes is strong. Samuels pays visits to a variety of dedicated fans including fashion designer Wayne Hemingway, poet Simon Armitage, Labour MP Kerry McCarthy and Oasis songwriter Noel Gallagher to analyse the look, the lyrics, the issues and the riffs that made The Smiths Britain's first, and arguably best ever, indie rock band.
Andrew Graham-Dixon meets his childhood hero John Lydon, revealing the more sensitive, artistic side of the man once known as Johnny Rotten. Lydon talks about his childhood, his love of Shakespeare and Mozart - and why he's reformed his legendary band, Public Image Ltd.
When a handful of musical immigrants from the Caribbean islands came to Britain in the 1920s and 30s, it was the beginning of both musical and political change. Leslie Thompson, an innovative musician and trumpeter, and Ken 'Snakehips' Johnson, a brilliant dancer and charismatic band leader, pooled their talents to start the first black British swing band. Clemency Burton-Hill reveals the untold story of the black British swing musicians of the 1930s, whose meteoric rise to fame on London's high society dance floors was cut short by unexpected tragedy at the height of the Blitz.
Alan Yentob talks to South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone about their comedy stage musical The Book of Mormon. Already a huge hit in the US, this irreverent religious satire is now opening in London's West End. Like the rest of Parker and Stone's work, the show is a master class in subversive comedy. In their eyes nothing is off limits and nobody safe from ridicule. This Culture Show Special reflects on the duos extraordinary career and reveals how music has always played a crucial role in their creative output - from early student films through to South Park and Team America: World Police. Alan visits South Park Studios in LA, encounters some real life Mormon missionaries in San Diego, and catches up with Matt and Trey in London as they oversee final rehearsals for the West End run of The Book of Mormon. Along the way he discovers what inspires this relentlessly provocative partnership and how they ended up making a Broadway musical in the first place.
A one-hour special on one of the most important and popular British sculptors of the twentieth century, Henry Moore. Presented by Alan Yentob, the programme takes a unique approach to Moore by examining his life on film.
Why has a kids TV show about an eccentric man with a box that can travel anywhere in time and space become the BBC's longest running TV drama - and one of Britain's biggest brands? On its 50th anniversary, lifelong fan Matthew Sweet argues you ignore Doctor Who at your peril. It may be a piece of children's television, but he believes it's one of the most important cultural artefacts of modern Britain. Put simply, Doctor Who matters.
To mark the 70th anniversary of the Battle of Britain, the Culture Show presents a special on the art of World War II. Despite being locked into a life-or-death struggle, wartime Britain saw an extraordinary explosion of art. From portraits to posters, cartoons to huge canvases, art was suddenly everywhere. Among the works were some of the most intense and immediate creations of the 20th century.
This Culture Show special is fronted by Kevin McCloud and comes live from the Roundhouse in London for the announcement of the Royal Institute of British Architects' Stirling Prize. Now in its 15th year, the RIBA Stirling Prize is awarded to the best new European building 'built or designed in Britain'. This year's shortlisted buildings are: Bateman's Row, a mixed-use development in East London by architects Theis & Khan; two schools - Christ's College, Guildford, designed by DSDHA, and Clapham Manor School, by DRMM; and three museums - the Ashmolean in Oxford by Rick Mather, Maxxi in Rome by Zaha Hadid, and the Neues Museum in Berlin by David Chipperfield.
For this Culture Show Special on the Man Booker Prize 2010, Tim Samuels visits the Scottish village of Comrie in Perthshire and asks the locals to give him their verdict on this year's Booker shortlist. Tim has been to Comrie on Booker business for the Culture Show twice before, so as he makes his way around the town to hand out the shortlisted books, he meets many of the characters who have taken up his reading challenge in previous years, from the butcher and the vicar to the lord of the manor.
Turner Prize-winning artist Grayson Perry presents from the Frieze Art Fair - now one of the most influential contemporary art fairs. He explores the highlights of the show and some of the specially commissioned artworks based on game shows, mobile phone shops and archaeological digs. The Frieze Art Fair has a huge impact on London itself and all the galleries have new shows opening in the same week; Andrew Graham-Dixon talks to Chinese artist Ai Weiwei about his new installation in Tate Modern's Turbine Hall, and Ben Lewis goes on an art safari around the new up and coming galleries of south and east London to find the art stars of tomorrow.
Alastair Sooke presents this Culture Show special from the 243rd Summer Exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts. The Summer Exhibition is the visual arts world's largest and longest running open-submission show.
In the 50th anniversary year of the inauguration of John F Kennedy as President of the United States, Jonathan Freedland chairs a discussion on our enduring fascination with the man, his short-lived administration and the extraordinary political family from which he came. Historian Professor Tony Badger, veteran newsman John Sergeant, political commentator Anne McElvoy and Sarah Bradford, biographer of Jackie Kennedy, debate the myths and the realities of JFK as well as the controversies surrounding the American mini-series The Kennedys. In an accompanying short film, Joel Surnow, executive producer of The Kennedys, talks about the making the mini-series and the controversy that engulfed it.
A Culture Show special on the BBC Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction 2011. Features interviews with the six shortlisted authors and reports from the ceremony at the Royal Institute of British Architects where the judges revealed the winner of the 20,000 pound prize.
China's antique trade is booming, with records being smashed at auction every week. But why is this market exploding now, and what makes a piece of pottery into a million pound masterpiece? Andrew Graham-Dixon travels to Hong Kong to see how China's super-rich are spending their new-found wealth on purchasing relics from their country's imperial history.
Now in their seventh year and bigger and better than ever, the Kermode Awards are the antidote to the Oscars - the awards to watch for real movie buffs. In a low-fi awards ceremony that has become a Culture Show tradition, film critic Mark Kermode hands out his coveted statuettes to his pick of the best of movie making talent who have been shamefully ignored by the Academy Awards. He talks to some of the film-makers and actors who deserve to be celebrated for their achievements in the last year and welcomes one lucky director into the Kermode Fellowship. Featuring Sam Mendes, A Royal Affair star Mads Mikkelsen and newcomer Alicia Vikander.
In celebration of the 150th anniversary of London Underground, Alastair Sooke presents a cultural history of the oldest tube network in the world. He follows the progress of a major new artwork for all 270 stations by the leading contemporary artist Mark Wallinger, and shows that art has played an absolutely central role in the identity of the tube. Through posters by some of the finest artists of the day, the system became the people's gallery. Through architecture, and design, its typeface and its branding, it became the image of modernity.
Now in its 245th year, and with 12,000 submissions, the Royal Academy's Summer Exhibition is the largest open art exhibition in the world. In this Culture Show special, art critic Alastair Sooke asks what makes someone an artist and why do they do it? He hears from curators, art dealers, and of course the artists themselves. From Sunday painters to international contemporary artists, from traditional landscapes to giant sculptures made from bottle tops, the Summer Exhibition is the British art scene laid bare.
We all know death is life's only certainty, but as a rule we'd rather pretend it isn't going to happen. One of Britain's most successful photographers, Rankin has been tackling the subject head on for his latest exhibition: Alive: In the Face of Death at Liverpool's Walker Gallery. The Culture Show has had unique behind-the-scenes access as he focuses his lens on people who are living with a terminal illness, or have been forced to confront their mortality through personal or professional experience. By asking the questions we'd all rather avoid, this documentary captures the stories behind Rankin's powerful images, and reveals an intimate and thoughtful side to one of Britain's top photographers.
A look at the UK City of Culture, plus an exclusive interview with Seamus Heaney and Liam O'Flynn ahead of their performance, The Poet and The Piper, in Derry's Millennium Forum.
It's a hundred years since DH Lawrence's revolutionary novel, Sons and Lovers, first hit the bookshops - and to celebrate, the writer Geoff Dyer, accompanied by Lawrence scholar, Catherine Brown, retread the Alpine journey that the love-struck Lawrence made when he eloped from England with the sexually liberated Frieda Weekley, in 1912. It was an extraordinary trip that enabled him to complete his first masterpiece and also marked the moment when he decided to risk everything for his writing.
In 1964 the Mary Poppins film premiered in Hollywood to world acclaim. But one person loathed it. She was PL Travers, the author of the books. This Culture Show special presented by Victoria Coren Mitchell explores the dark and complex life of the writer; her 20-year battle with Walt Disney, the strange adoption of her child (he was one of twins), and how the film version overshadowed her writings but made her rich. With contributions from Emma Thompson, Cameron Mackintosh and PL Travers's granddaughter.
To coincide with the release of 12 Years a Slave, this Culture Show special, presented by Mark Kermode, looks at the history and culture of slavery. The subject of slavery has inspired director Steve McQueen's film, which is based on the true story of Solomon Northup, a free black man who was sold into slavery in the 1840s.
Whenever Hanif Kureishi writes a new film or book, something is broken - a taboo, a confidence or new ground. The Buddha of Suburbia and My Beautiful Laundrette author, who first caused a stink turning his experiences of racism, Thatcherism and sexual transgression into corrosive comedy, has amused, provoked, annoyed and betrayed for over four decades now. It is with some relish, it seems, that the barbed and ruthless writer picks up a pen, and waits as friends, lovers and family take cover, fearing what bitter human frailty might get caught in his satirical gaze.
In 2009, art detective Dr Bendor Grosvenor caused a national scandal by proving that the Scottish National Portrait Gallery's iconic portrait of Bonnie Prince Charlie, the rebel Stuart who almost seized power in 1745, was not in fact him. Keen to make amends, and suspecting that a long-lost portrait of the prince by one of Scotland's greatest artists, Allan Ramsay, might still survive, Bendor decides to retrace Charles's journey in the hope of unravelling one of the greatest mysteries in British art.
alking about art matters a lot, according to Alastair Sooke, who was a judge in last year's ARTiculation - a little-known, but fast-growing speaking competition, in which teenagers compete to talk eloquently and passionately about art. Alastair has been following the journeys of nine competitors as they have battled their way through nine regional heats, against tough competition, to win a coveted place in the final. And he has been finding out why they took part and what art has inspired them, uncovering the moving, funny and often surprising stories behind their choices. He also catches up with them at the finals in Cambridge, where this year's judge, artist and writer Edmund De Waal, will pick the winner of ARTiculation 2014.
The Vikings are famous for their violent raids on Anglo-Saxon monasteries, incredible shipbuilding skills and general brutality. They are less famous, perhaps, for their artistic talents. Yet the precious fragments of art that survive from the Viking Age portray a far more mysterious side to Viking culture. From the so-called 'gripping beast' motif of the Oseberg wood carvings to the abstract animal ornamentation that adorns Viking jewellery, Viking art is defined by beautiful and intricate artistic styles that are distinctly Scandinavian, yet also show the Vikings' interaction with other cultures, culminating in their conversion from paganism to Christianity. To coincide with the first major exhibition on Vikings at the British Museum for over 30 years, Andrew Graham-Dixon invites viewers to explore and admire the splendours of Viking art.
he story of pop art has been culturally canonised as the preserve of a ground-breaking gang of boys, focusing on the likes of Roy Lichtenstein, Andy Warhol, Peter Blake, Richard Hamilton and Tom Wesselman. Just like Andy Warhol's soup cans or Lichtenstein's comics, women were simply commodified objects.
Stonehenge is our most famous prehistoric monument; a powerful symbol of Britain across the globe. But all is not well with the sacred stones. MPs have described the surrounding site as a 'national disgrace' and 'shameful shambles'. Now, after decades of disputes over what should be done, English Heritage has just 12 months to create a setting that this unique monument deserves. But Stonehenge is more than a tourist attraction; it is also a temple. In this hour-long Culture Show special, Alastair Sooke shows that Stonehenge has long been a place of conflict and controversy, and that passions still run high at the monument where druids, archaeologists and scientists all battle for the soul of Stonehenge.
World-renowned photographer Rankin takes on the challenge of interpreting Rembrandt's portraits of old age, adapting the Dutch master's techniques for his camera. Rembrandt's portraits are some of the most arresting images of old age in western art. He captured the vitality and vulnerability of his subjects, highlighting the effects of time in a candid way that still resonates today.
In a major new BBC commission, acclaimed poet Simon Armitage has written seven new poems about World War I that form the centre of his latest television documentary. Armitage visits French beaches, German prison camps, so-called 'thankful' villages and remote corners of the Scottish Highlands as he considers the death of over 700,000 British soldiers in the conflict and tells seven real-life war stories. He learns of those who lived and died through it, those who worked and grieved and cried through it, and even those who tunnelled to freedom beneath its very soil. Each story culminates in a poem inspired by Armitage's research.
As Henry VIII's court painter, Hans Holbein witnessed and recorded the most notorious era in English history. He painted most of the major characters of the age and created the famous image of the king himself that everyone still recognises today. But who really was Holbein? Where did he come from? And what were the dark and unsettling secrets hidden in his art? Waldemar Januszczak looks at the life and work of an artist who became famous for bringing the Tudor age to life, but who could have been so many other things.
Verity Sharp presents an accessible guide to the best exhibitions, books, films and music. As Disney's effects-laden The Incredibles opens in cinemas, The Culture Show considers the future of traditional hand-painted animation. And David Hockney talks to Andrew Marr about his new book Hockney's Pictures.
As the newly expanded Museum of Modern Art in New York reopens, world-renowned art critic Robert Hughes is offered a first look into the building designed by Japanese architect Yoshio Taniguchi. Kwame Kwei-Armah presents the arts round-up.
Ahead of its official opening by the Queen, Charles Hazlewood gets an advance look inside the Wales Millennium Centre in Cardiff, and examines whether this long-awaited performing arts centre can live up to expectations. Plus the other top arts and cultural stories of the week.
Dissected livestock, a cast of a house, a painting with elephant dung and an electrical time switch - all past winners of the Turner Prize. Tonight Mariella Frostrup takes a look at this year's shortlist ahead of next week's award ceremony. Plus the most prominent arts and culture stories of the week.
Germaine Greer meets artist Paula Rego and Andrew Graham-Dixon uncovers the secret of Velazquez's 'Lady with a Fan'. Plus reports on animated film 'Valiant' and the death of broadsheet newspapers.
A report on Gateshead's new Sage music centre, which opens tomorrow, plus the rest of the top stories in art and culture. With Charles Hazlewood.
Reports on Charles Saatchi 's rediscovery of painting, the competition to be recognised as Britain's best museum and a close-up look at what makes a great news photograph. Plus a profile of conductor Simon Rattle and an appreciation of the Hammond organ's place in pop music over the past 50 years.
The review of the latest developments on the arts and culture scene includes a report on the Celtic Connections music festival, a 19-day celebration taking place in Glasgow.
London's Abbey Road Studios opens its doors to the public next month for the first time in 20 years. Mariella Frostrup previews the forthcoming festival celebrating 25 years of films scored in Studio One - the world's biggest purpose-built recording studio. Shelley Jofre, meanwhile, talks to author Malcolm Gladwell about his guide to effective decision-making - Blink: the Power of Thinking without Thinking.
Kurt Vonnegut's novel Slaughterhouse Five was inspired by his experiences in Dresden during the devastating Second World War bombing. To mark 60 years since the attack on the German city, Vonnegut gives a rare interview in which he talks about his life and work.
Director Martin Scorsese explains the influence of Caravaggio on his films, particularly with regard to light, shadow and realism. Plus Kazuo Ishiguro on his novel 'Never Let Me Go', and the troubled history of EastEnders as it celebrates its 20th birthday.
A report from Ferryside in Carmarthenshire where a trial for TV's digital switchover is taking place. Plus Liam Neeson on his biopic of controversial sex researcher Alfred Kinsey, and a backstage pass to Kaiser Chiefs' tour.
Woody Allen talks about his latest film Melinda and Melinda, starring Radha Mitchell and Chloe Sevigny, and there's an interview with children's author Jacqueline Wilson. Plus an edifying peek into the secret world of fonts.
As well as an interview with 1960s counter-culture cartoonist Robert Crumb at his house in France, there's analysis of the legacy of the Arts & Crafts movement on the eve of a major exhibition at London's V&A Museum. Plus a fly-on-the-wall report from Brixton Prison as some of the inmates rehearse a production of Shakespeare's Othello.
Damien Hirst, dubbed Britain's most expensive living artist, discusses his recently opened exhibition of paintings in New York. Plus the imminent return of Doctor Who, and the English village that's launched its own book prize.
Composer and Master of the Queen's Music Sir Peter Maxwell Davies talks about his career, there's an interview with maverick architectural talent Zaha Hadid, and a look at the arctic Cape Farewell Expedition, which is all about deriving inspiration from the ice, seas and environment in temperatures of -35°C. Plus Robert Hughes on the latest big art history book.
Sylvie Guillem - widely considered one of the greatest dancers of her generation - is interviewed in the week she and the Ballet Boyz perform An Evening of Work by Russell Maliphant at Sadler's Well in London. Harold Pinter discusses director Lindsay Posner's new staging of his first full-length play, The Birthday Party. And which is the true-life portrait of William Shakespeare? A centuries-old debate could finally be resolved.
Conductor and pianist Daniel Barenboim, director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and music director of the Deutsche Staatsoper in Berlin, discusses the art of playing Johann Sebastian Bach. Plus a look at what makes an "original" work of art - is the art-buying public being misled?
As Tate Modern celebrates its fifth birthday, Charles Hazlewood considers the extent of its cultural impact. Plus, Matthew Sweet on how TV taught us parenting, Nick Hornby on his latest novel, and a preview of Robert Lepage's production of opera Nineteen Eighty-Four.
American crime novelist Ed McBain talks about turning real life into fiction and discusses his battle with cancer. Plus a visit to West Sussex for a display of the best examples of British sculpture, and a mysterious new game that has players around the world competing for clues.
Lawrence Pollard reports on a new approach to public art being trialled in Bristol, with temporary exhibits taking the place of traditional permanent statues. Plus cinematographer Chris Doyle gives a masterclass in movie-making and Kathy Burke discusses her new role as an acclaimed theatre director.
Gillian Ayres discusses her work and Louisa Buck visits two art exhibitions. Lawrence Pollard considers whether 'book towns' such as Hay-on-Wye can halt the decline of second-hand bookshops in the internet age, and there's news on the debate about the siting and design of wind farms.
Germaine Greer and artist Susan Wilson are among the women explaining what Mexican artist Frida Kahlo's work means to them, and singer/songwriter Rufus Wainwright reveals how Verdi's music has influenced his career.
Maverick artists Gilbert and George discuss their work for the British Pavilion at the 51st Venice Biennale. Ewan McGregor talks about his role in stage musical Guys and Dolls, and DJ Annie Mac goes to Glyndebourne to find out how they're trying to appeal to younger audiences.
U2 talk about music, politics and 25 years together, on the eve of the UK leg of their world tour. There's a rare interview with controversial German artist Anselm Kiefer, and leading operatic baritone Bryn Terfel discusses singing Wagner.
A reminder of the genius of 17th century Flemish painter Peter Paul Rubens. Franz Ferdinand reveal the ideas behind their songs, and the homeless stage an opera in Nottingham. Plus the restoration of Bexhill's modernist masterpiece, the De La Warr Pavilion, and Salman Rushdie's gruelling publicity tour of Britain and the United States for his book Shalimar the Clown.
With John Le Carre's novel The Constant Gardener on release as a film, the writer talks about conspiracy theories. Plus sculptor Rachel Whiteread's work for Tate Modern; the search for Britain's best city for music; director Todd Solondz on photographer Diane Arbus's bizarre vision; the boom in guides to modern etiquette; and Britain's new ballet capital - Birmingham.
Comment on the Turner Prize shortlist, while Henri Rousseau's paintings come to the Tate. Director Tim Burton talks about Corpse Bride and the rising musical stars of the F-ire Collective explain how they plan to shake up British jazz. Plus a glimpse of one of the most ambitious pieces of public art since the Angel of the North.
An exclusive encounter with the secretive guerrilla graffiti artist Banksy, a report into the search for an authentic portrait of William Shakespeare, plus a rare interview with composer Karlheinz Stockhausen.
A rare interview with controversial French author Michel Houellebecq on his new book, The Possibility of an Island, Sir Timothy Clifford on 21 years as the head of Scotland's National Galleries, and how the search for a new way of dealing with the visual arts in remote rural areas has thrown up a new musical fusion: knitting and opera.
An exhibition at the Royal Academy titled Three Emperors kicks off a season of China-related cultural events in London. Michael Rosen searches Britain for "suburban utopia" in recognition of 50 years of Ian Nairn's controversial book Counter-attack against Subtopia. Martha Wainwright discusses her music. Tom Hunter talks about photographing modern versions of Old Master paintings. Valery Gergiev reflects on the music of Shostakovitch.
Young soprano Katherine Jenkins is the fastest-selling female opera singer since Maria Callas - we consider the canny marketing of popular classical music. George Michael discusses songwriting. Artists' quest for the perfect shade of white. Annie Mac casts off for a spot of fishing as we ask whether angling can ever become female friendly.
An interview with composer Philip Glass as he returns to Britain with pieces originally scored for Godfrey Reggio's Qats; trilogy of wordless films. Plus, George Michael discusses sex, his musical influences and the industry itself. And as the Christmas panto season gets under way, performers from around the country share dreams, frustrations and tantrums.
Andy Serkis, the British actor who so memorably created the character of Gollum for the Lord of the Rings trilogy, talks of his new role as titular star of Peter Jackson's King Kong. Plus Matthew Sweet reporting on the ways new technology will affect our roles as cultural consumers.
Award-winning artists feature in highlights from the past year: Nobel Prize winner Harold Pinter on the future of theatre; and Mercury Music Prize winners Antony and the Johnsons. Plus Martin Scorsese on Caravaggio; Sylvie Guillem ; Damien Hirst ; Kaiser Chiefs; Kurt Vonnegut ; Anselm Kiefer ; Gilbert and George; Daniel Barenboim on Bach; Rufus and Martha Wainwright ; Franz Ferdinand ; Rachel Whiteread ; and U2. Verity Sharp hosts.
Author and acclaimed travel writer Jan Morris talks about her forthcoming novel, Hav, while Brian Eno discusses his latest artistic venture, a piece of audio-visual software called 77 Million Paintings. On the centenary of Samuel Beckett 's birth, top comedy figures, including Alistair McGowan , reveal the debt that they owe the Irish playwright. Plus a debate over skyscrapers in London, a dance group trying to overhaul the outdated image of morris dancing, and sex, salsa and laughs courtesy of the Cuban Brothers. Lawrence Pollard presents.
Andrew Graham-Dixon goes behind the hype to reveal the true genius of Leonardo da Vinci. The Pet Shop Boys discuss the future of pop, and viewers get to nominate the parts of British culture they can live without.
An interview with director Ken Loach at the Cannes film festival as he waits to see whether he has won the coveted Palme d'Or. Plus Mark Kermode reflects on disaster movies as United 93 hits our cinema screens.
What brought New York punk icon Patti Smith to Charleston, the rural retreat of the Bloomsbury group. Plus, the ingredients of the perfect pop song according to Paul Weller, and the naturally curly actor Alan Davies laments the demise of the perm.
A visit to Nottingham, currently home to the biggest showcase of contemporary art in Britain. Plus Zina Saro-Wiwa meets the puppets and stars of Broadway hit Avenue Q, author Elmore Leonard gives tips on how to write a novel, Matthew Sweet explores the booming subculture of the paranormal, and Perrier Award-winning comedian Laura Solon hits the road.
A Culture Show special from the London Film Festival, presented by Mark Kermode and Simon Mayo. They review the festival highlights and talk to actor David Morrissey about his directorial debut, and comedian Michael Palin discusses his life in films and his new book. Toby Young examines the future of the critic and talks to Cosmo Landesman and Peter Bradshaw as he eagerly awaits the first reviews of his latest television film. Miranda Sawyer explores the Frieze contemporary art fair.
Lauren Laverne presents from the Glasgow School of Art, which is celebrating the centenary of the opening of its remarkable home. Matt Collings is in the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, which is showcasing 120 letters and over 300 paintings, drawings and sketches by Van Gogh and other artists. Andrew Graham-Dixon reviews The Sacred Made Real exhibition. Plus there's an interview with Harold Evans, whose new autobiography My Paper Chase: True Stories of Vanished Times is just out.
Andrew Graham-Dixon presents from the Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology in Oxford, which is about to re-open after a multi-million pound makeover. Andrew explores the 39 new galleries, home to the Ashmolean's greatest treasures. Michael Smith takes a wider look at Oxford, exploring the 'town and gown' divide in the city. As a new film about the life of Keats called Bright Star opens, director Jane Campion and Keats biographer Andrew Motion talk about what his poetry means to them.
Lawrence Pollard presents a packed show from Nottingham. When it opens on 14 November, the Nottingham Contemporary will be one of the biggest art centres in the UK. Tom Dyckhoff explores the new building designed by award-winning architects Caruso St John. There's a review of the opening exhibition at the new Nottingham gallery - 60 works by David Hockney from 1960-1968. And in a rare TV interview, crime-fiction writer James Ellroy talks to Miranda Sawyer about his fascination with crime and with 1950s Los Angeles.
Mark Kermode presents from Aardman studios in Bristol to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Wallace and Gromit's first outing. A mix of high profile fans including Terry Wogan, Jonathan Ross and Ian Hislop tell us how and why they fell in love with this one man and his dog. Lauren Laverne also traces the Aardman story and Mark Kermode talks to Nick Park about his creative inspirations.
Lauren Laverne is joined by writers and thinkers for a discussion on the past, present and future of the British pub. Sting visits the Cumberland Arms, the heart of Newcastle's folk scene, and performs from his new album If on a Winter's Night. Carol Ann Duffy performs a special poem for this pub-themed edition. Plus a rare TV interview with John Cale, Mark Kermode and Simon Mayo discussing films with apocalyptic themes, and Martha Wainwright singing a song from her new album.
Tonight's Culture Show, presented by Mishal Husain, comes from the new medieval and Renaissance Galleries at London's Victoria and Albert Museum. Andrew Graham-Dixon picks out his favourites from the collection. He also meets up with John Lydon, who is performing exclusively with the re-formed Public Image Ltd. Plus Josie Long on online comedy, Mark Kermode at a special premiere of Me and Orson Welles and Clemency Burton-Hill talking to opera director Graham Vick about his production of Othello.
This edition of The Culture Show features a rare extended interview with actor Daniel Day Lewis on the release of his latest film Nine. Andrew Graham Dixon also looks back at the highlights of The Culture Show's year including Danny Boyle on the Oscar-winning Slumdog Millionaire, Robert Carlyle reading Robert Burns on his 250th anniversary, and some of the best performances from the 2009 Manchester and Edinburgh Festivals.
The Canadian art-rockers are notoriously reluctant to give interviews, but Lauren Laverne meets front man Win Butler and his brother Will. Plus there's an exclusive acoustic performance of the title track from the new album Neon Bible and a cover of Guns of Brixton.
The Culture Show is back and will be featuring many of the highlights from the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad. In this episode, Mark Kermode meets film director David Cronenberg and his lead actor Robert Pattinson to talk about their new movie Cosmopolis. Martin Amis discusses class, character and his latest novel, while Yoko Ono makes a bid to get the whole world smiling. There is a a performance from the acclaimed Pina Bausch dance company, and Andrew Graham-Dixon joins Michael Landy and Bob and Roberta Smith to discover what happens when a gallery is transformed into a classroom and the artists take charge of the lessons.
In this episode, comedian Alexei Sayle joins art critic Andrew Graham-Dixon at Tate Liverpool for an exhibition of later works from three of the greatest painters of the last 150 years: Turner, Monet and Twombly. Mark Kermode interrogates director William Friedkin about his new blackly comic film Killer Joe. Miranda Sawyer travels to the Eden Project in Cornwall to talk Matilda, musicals and megalomania with Tim Minchin. We have an exclusive extract from a lovingly restored print of Alfred Hitchcock's debut feature film with live music specially composed by Daniel Patrick Cohen; and James Runcie meets Richard Ford to explore the borderline between the ordinary and the criminal in his haunting new novel Canada.
This week The Culture Show comes from London's East End, where Andrew Graham-Dixon takes a photo tour of a changing landscape with Newham's famous son and legendary snapper David Bailey. Alan Yentob has a rainy encounter with controversial architect Renzo Piano, the mastermind behind Britain's tallest skyscraper The Shard. Mark Kermode meets the actor with over seventy films to his credit, Willem Dafoe, to talk about his latest movie The Hunter. Ground-breaking all-male dance company Tomorrow's Men perform; and Sarfraz Manzoor tees off with Booker prize-shortlisted author Nicola Barker whose new comic novel The Yips unearths the giddy world of golf.
Mark Kermode is in Bexhill-on-Sea, the setting for a new sculpture from artist Richard Wilson which recreates the final scene in cult movie The Italian Job. Miranda Sawyer meets Plan B to talk about his latest album, and Brooklyn-based choreographer Elizabeth Streb rehearses with her dancers for a pop-up performance around London's landmarks. Tom Dyckhoff takes a tour of London's Olympic architecture, and we join thousands as they witness Stonehenge brought to life by a spectacular installation of fire.
Mark Kermode takes part in a movie marathon of short film screenings, Hansel of Film, a relay race of short film screenings taking place around the UK. Alastair Sooke looks at the transformation of disused oil tanks into a sleek new art space at Tate Modern. Also, Cerys Matthews shares her passion for poetry with Fiona Shaw and gets a sneak preview of Peace Camp, a series of unique living artworks across the UK coastline from Northern Ireland to Cornwall.
Mark Kermode meets Dark Knight director Christopher Nolan to talk about his take on the caped crusader. Blur are back and Damon Albarn and Graham Coxon talk about their new songs and how they feel about headlining at Hyde Park - the closing ceremony for the Olympics. Mat Fraser explores our desire to be Superhuman with a new exhibition at The Wellcome Institute. And, no strings attached - why puppets are back in a very big way.
Sue Perkins presents the first of three Culture Show programmes from The Edinburgh Festival, featuring all the best in theatre, dance, literature, music and comedy from the Fringe, International, Art and Book Festivals. She meets Mark Thomas to discuss his new comedy show Bravo Figaro about his tempestuous relationship with his dad. Clemency Burton-Hill gets in step with brilliant Brazilian movers and shakers the Deborah Colker Dance Company. Harry Hill takes us on a tour of his art exhibition. Alastair Sooke explores the world of Catherine the Great in a major exhibition at the National Museum of Scotland with Miriam Margolyes. Ahead of her concert with the LSO at the Edinburgh International Festival and her appearance at The Last Night of the Proms, Nicola Benedetti performs the Tango Por Una Cabeza by Gardel - best known as the tango from the film Scent of a Woman - especially for The Culture Show.
Sue Perkins presents a second helping of The Culture Show from the Edinburgh Festival and meets author Kirsty Gunn and music legend Nile Rodgers. Also featured tonight, the 25th anniversary of So You Think You're Funny, the Edinburgh comedy competition which has uncovered stars from Dylan Moran to Peter Kay. Artists including David Hockney, Paul Gaugin and Sir Peter Blake swap paint for wool in an exhibition of contemporary tapestries, and we take a look at Speed of Light - a spectacular mass participatory event in which walkers and endurance runners ascend Arthur's Seat and illuminate the iconic mountain.
Sue Perkins presents a final helping of hits from this year's Edinburgh Festival including an interview with Howard Jacobson about his new novel Zoo Time and a look at the art of Dieter Roth.
Andrew Graham-Dixon explores the new Bronze exhibition at the Royal Academy. Clemency Burton-Hill reports on The People Speak, a dramatized book reading curated by Colin Firth and Anthony Arnove, which tells an alternative and inspiring history of Britain and features actors including Juliet Stevenson, Celia Imrie and Rupert Everett. Also, Mark Kermode talks to Oliver Stone about his latest crime thriller Savages.
Harry Potter is one of the most successful publishing phenomena of our time, selling 450 million copies. Its success has transformed author JK Rowling from an impoverished single mother into one of Britain's richest women. Since The Deathly Hallows was published in 2007, Rowling's fans have been desperate to know what she was going to do next. The answer is The Casual Vacancy, a novel for adults with some very grown-up themes. The expectation and pressure are enormous. Although most details are shrouded in secrecy, it is known to be set in the idyllic fictional English town of Pagford, where tensions gather around a local election which follows the death of a parish councillor. James Runcie meets the notoriously private writer in her hometown of Edinburgh, where she finally reveals the exact nature of the novel, with exclusive readings and in-depth discussion about its ideas, characters and inspiration. Rowling also discusses the pressure and pitfalls of following up the biggest literary phenomenon of a generation, describing how she finally moved on from Potter and the challenges of making the leap to writing fiction for adults.
Mark Kermode reviews award-winning French comedy film Untouchable in the company of Goldie. Tim Samuels looks at the odds on this year's Man Booker Prize shortlist and Alastair Sooke surveys the first edition of Frieze Masters - a selection of work, old and new, from over 90 of the world's leading galleries.
Hugh Laurie speaks to Alan Yentob about the role music has played in his life and career in a Culture Show special.
Mark Kermode accompanies film director Terence Davies back to his native Liverpool, and Lauren Laverne gets a tutorial in Afrobeat from Nigerian drummer Tony Allen. Andrew Graham -Dixon continues his aerial survey of British land art with a swoop over Ian Hamilton's Little Sparta, then Sean Henry's Couple. Plus, Mark Kermode on the week's film releases, including the latest Batman outing The Dark Knight, and Primal Scream introduce their new album.
Lauren Laverne meets style icon and musical innovator Grace Jones, Mark Kermode celebrates the 25th anniversary of cherished film Local Hero, and Andrew Graham -Dixon argues that £100 million is small beer to prevent two paintings by Titian being sold abroad.
Actress Angelina Jolie discusses her career, Martin Freeman meets The Funk Brothers, and Tom Hunter gives Titian's Diana and Actaeon a modern spin.
Mark Kermode and Miranda Sawyer debate the merits of Heat magazine, which celebrates its tenth birthday, and celebrity culture in general, Greg Dyke continues his report on HBO, and Martin McDonagh discusses his Oscar-nominated film In Bruges.
With the Oscars fast approaching, tonight's Culture Show offers its very own alternative: the Kermode awards, for those overlooked by the Academy. And, 50 years after it first hit British stages, Lauren Laverne previews a new production of Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot starring Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen.
Lauren Laverne visits U2, ahead of the release of their first album in five years, No Line on the Horizon. Will it mark a new musical direction? And what of the lives of the band members as they approach 50? Bono, The Edge, Adam and Larry reveal all and give an intimate performance.
Lauren Laverne heads home to the North East, looking at what the cultural and artistic future holds for the region and to share a pint with Viz creators Chris and Simon Donald. Alistair Sooke talks to Yoko Ono about her retrospective exhibition at the Baltic in Gateshead, Between the Sky and My Head. And Gomorrah author, Roberto Saviano , reflects on how big-screen portrayals of the Mafia have shaped the Sicilian outfit.
Lauren Laverne meets Seattle band Fleet Foxes who saw off the likes of Elbow and Radiohead to win the inaugural Uncut Music Award and who perform exclusively for the show. Plus Andrew Graham Dixon at the Tate Modern's exhibition of Russian Constructivist art, and an interview with punk poet John Cooper Clarke, whose work has provided inspiration for bands including Arctic Monkeys and Reverend and the Makers.
Special edition all about the life and work of one of the greatest artists of the 20th century - Pablo Picasso. Andrew Graham-Dixon is in Paris - the art capital of 20th-century Europe and the place where Picasso spent much of his life. Andrew tells Picasso's story from his early days in Montmartre, the artist's obsession with all things Modern and the invention of Cubism, through to Picasso's fascination with the Grand Masters of European painting. Picasso endlessly borrowed from, copied, satirised and re-vamped the paintings of the European masters including Delacroix, El Greco, Velazquez, Goya, Rembrandt, Degas and Manet. The programme includes contributions from Picasso's grandson Olivier and his biographer Pierre Daix. Sixty of Picasso's paintings will be on display at a major exhibition at the National Gallery in London. Picasso: Challenging the Past runs from February 25th until June and will show how Picasso's work was shaped and inspired by the Masters of European painting.
The last in the current series comes from the Whitechapel Gallery in east London, which reopens next month following a £13 million restoration. Mark Kermode meets "Being John Malkovich" writer Charlie Kaufman who has just directed his first film, Synecdoche, New York, and Lauren Laverne meets American singer/songwriter Will Oldham, aka Bonnie "Prince" Billy.
Lauren Laverne hosts this week's show from the courtyard of Somerset House in central London, where Pedro Almodovar's new film Broken Embraces is premiering. There she meets the director and the film's star, Penelope Cruz. Also tonight, Mark Kermode chats to director Sam Mendes and Andrew Graham-Dixon reveals a mosaic marvel at Westminster Abbey.
Lauren Laverne presents from the Pleasance Courtyard - the heart of the biggest ever Edinburgh festival. Lauren looks at the best of the first week of the Fringe, including The Hotel, a transformed building in the city centre which offers a different theatrical, comic or musical experience in every room (directed by comedian Mark Watson), and Internal at The Traverse Theatre, which explores the worlds of speed dating and group therapy, and makes the audience take part in both.
Lauren Laverne presents from the Pleasance Courtyard in Edinburgh and takes a look at the pick of the Edinburgh Fringe and International Festival. Lauren meets journalist and author Lynn Barber and talks to her about her autobiography An Education, which includes a description of her early relationship with a much older man as well as tales from her career as one of the country's most formidable interviewers.
Presented by Lauren Laverne from the Pleasance Courtyard, covering the pick of the shows and events in Edinburgh.
Mark Kermode and Simon Mayo present a packed edition from the London film festival, featuring highlights and an interview with David Morrissey about his directorial debut. Michael Palin discusses his films and new book, while Toby Young talks to Cosmo Landesman and Peter Bradshaw about the role of the critics. Plus Miranda Sawyer 's visit to the Frieze Art Fair.
As the Glasgow School of Art celebrates its centenary, Lauren Laverne is on hand to tell its story. Art critic Matthew Collings looks at an exhibition of Van Gogh's letters, while Andrew Graham-Dixon reviews a National Gallery exhibition of Spanish religious art. Actor and Motown fan Martin Freeman interviews his idol, iconic soul star Smokey Robinson, and there's a look at Halloween movies.
With the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford due to reopen after a multimillion-pound makeover, Andrew Graham-Dixon explores the 39 new galleries. Meanwhile, writer Michael Smith looks at the city's "town and gown" divide. Jane Campion, director of Bright Star, a new film about John Keats, discusses the poet's oeuvre with his biographer Andrew Motion. Also, Lauren Laverne looks at how the internet is the early bird when it comes to new formats for comedy, and Simon Mayo and Mark Kermode discuss the future of 3-D films.
Tom Dyckhoff takes a look around the new Nottingham Contemporary Art Centre, which opens with a show devoted to painter David Hockney, and examines how art galleries have become icons in their own right. Crime writer James Ellroy talks to Miranda Sawyer about artist Ed Ruscha, while Harold Evans discusses the future of the British press with Matthew d'Ancona. Plus a short film by Alain de Botton about Heathrow's Terminal 5 and a tour of places associated with great poets to mark publishing house Faber & Faber's 80th anniversary.
Mark Kermode is at Aardman Studios in Bristol to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Wallace & Gromit's first outing, with contributions from creator Nick Park and celebrity fans including Sir Terry Wogan, Jonathan Ross and Ian Hislop. Elsewhere, actor and comedian Steve Martin talks to Lauren Laverne about his love of the banjo and bluegrass music.
Is it last orders for the public house, once a cornerstone of British cultural life? Lauren Laverne looks at the past, present and future of the drinking establishment. Sting performs songs from his new album at the Cumberland Arms, one of the oldest inns in Newcastle, and Carol Ann Duffy reads a poem she has written to celebrate the pub. Elsewhere there's an interview with musician John Cale, a debate on films with an end-of-the-world theme, and Martha Wainwright joins Lauren to sing a track from her new album.
News presenter Mishal Husain is at the new medieval and Renaissance galleries at the Victoria & Albert Museum, where Andrew Graham-Dixon picks out his favourites from the collection. He also meets up with singer John Lydon, who performs with his recently re-formed band Public Image Ltd. Elsewhere Tom Dyckhoff meets industrial designer Dieter Rams, comedian Josie Long investigates online comedy, Mark Kermode travels to a special screening of Me and Orson Welles on the Isle of Man, and Clemency Burton-Hill talks to renowned opera director Graham Vick.
Daniel Day-Lewis gives a rare interview as his latest film "Nine" - a musical inspired by Federico Fellini and also starring Penelope Cruz, Judi Dench and Sophia Loren - is released. Elsewhere Andrew Graham-Dixon looks back at some of the year's highlights on the show, including director Danny Boyle discussing his Oscar-winning film "Slumdog Millionaire", actor Robert Carlyle reading Robbie Burns and the best of the Manchester and Edinburgh Festivals.
The Culture Show returns with a programme presented by Verity Sharp from the Celtic Connections festival in Glasgow. In 2010, the festival pays tribute to Nick Drake, 35 years since his death at just 26. He's now recognized as one of the 20th century's most influential singer-songwriters.
Andrew Graham Dixon presents from the Old Vic, where Toby Young talks to artistic director Kevin Spacey. Andrew visits the Chris Offili show at Tate Britain and then heads off to Michael Landy's controversial Art Bin. Mark Kermode talks to Peter Jackson about his new film The Lovely Bones, and Jacques Peretti looks into Wikileaks, the anonymous whistleblowing internet site. Paul Mason meets Slavoj Zizeck, described as the most dangerous philosopher in the West, and asks him about his book First as Tragedy, Then as Farce. Finally, Miranda Sawyer chats to hip-hop pioneer Roots Manuva.
Andrew Graham Dixon presents an edition featuring the big guns of literature, theatre and classical music. Martin Amis talks about his latest novel, The Pregnant Widow; actor Kwame Kwei Armah goes behind the scenes with legendary theatre director Peter Brook; and superstar pianist Daniel Barenboim demonstrates his passion for Schoenberg.
Andrew Graham-Dixon presents from the Dulwich Picture Gallery in London, where he explores the new exhibition of war artist and surrealist Paul Nash. Tom Dyckhoff talks to Ron Arad about his first major British exhibition about to open at the Barbican. Mark Kermode talks to fashion designer-turned-film-director Tom Ford about his debut film The Single Man. Writer Michael Smith discusses patriotism and Rule Britannia, and psychologist Oliver James chats to author Siri Hustvedt about her latest book The Shaking Woman. Artur Pizarro talks to Clemency Burton-Hill about Chopin, and we hear how Damien Hirst sent a little something to a woman he saw on telly.
Andrew Graham-Dixon presents the latest edition of The Culture Show and meets two-time Man Booker prize winner Peter Carey to discuss his latest novel, Parrot and Olivier in America. Fashion photographer Rankin gives his opinion of the new Irving Penn retrospective at the National Portrait Gallery. Masters of the macabre - Jeremy Dyson and Andy Nyman set out to find out what really scares us in their new theatrical experience, Ghost Stories. Clemency Burton-Hill meets exciting new choreographer Jonathan Watkins as he rehearses his new work for The Royal Ballet. Peter York takes us through the ever changing culture of business books. Alan Yentob meets art collector Anthony d'Offay, and Hadley Freeman advises what not to wear on the eve of London Fashion Week.
Miranda Sawyer chats to Stephen Vicinczey about his 1965 novel and cult classic, In Praise of Older Women. Tom Dyckhoff has an access-all-areas pass to the Design Awards, and Mark Kermode introduces the fifth Kermode Awards for those cruelly overlooked by Uncle Oscar. Clemency Burton-Hill talks to Tom Morris about his new production Romeo and Her Juliet, which casts the famous lovers as 80-year-olds, and Alan Yentob chairs a discussion with culture ministers from the Labour, Conservative, Liberal Democrat and Scottish Nationalist parties with questions from leading figures from the world of art and culture. Before the release of the first feature film by renowned graffiti artist Banksy, the Culture Show previews the film and looks at how the artist achieved a global reputation, building a career which has gone from the walls of back streets in London to the pinnacle of the contemporary art movement.
Andrew Graham Dixon meets director Martin Scorsese to discuss his latest film Shutter Island and talks to artist Jenny Holzer as a major exhibition of her work opens at the Baltic in Gateshead. Sarfraz Manzoor gets a sneak preview of the refurbished Jewish Museum in London; Elmore Leonard delivers his '10 Rules of Writing' and Jacques Peretti applauds the art of video games.
Coming from the Brighton Festival, artistic director Brian Eno talks about his line-up, Miranda Sawyer drops in at rehearsals of Simon Stephens's new play Marine Parade, and we hear from Seun Kuti, youngest son of Fela and successor of the Afrobeat crown. Sue Perkins visits the Scottish highlands to hear an unusual performance of Benjamin Britten's opera Noye's Fludde, while Mark Kermode reports from the 63rd Cannes Film Festival. Andrew Graham-Dixon meets prize winning author David Mitchell and explores the new Mystery Portraits exhibition at Montacute House. Plus Alastair Sooke talks to artist Alex Katz about his show at the National Portrait Gallery and portrait of Anna Wintour, editor of US Vogue.
Art critic Matthew Collings celebrates the birthday of one of the most successful modern art museums in the world. With contributions from director of Tate, Sir Nicholas Serota, and artists Tracey Emin, Grayson Perry, Rachel Whiteread and Olafur Eliasson, this Culture Show special asks what lies behind the extraordinary popularity of Tate Modern, with over 45 million visitors to date, and examines how this institution has changed public perceptions of art forever.
Andrew Graham-Dixon discovers the history of gargoyles at Westminster Abbey and travels to Llandudno, Wales for a preview of the new Mostyn Gallery. Miranda Sawyer and Mark Kermode argue over theatre versus film, Michael Smith questions the heritage industry, Sarfraz Manzoor visits The Onion in America, and literary critic Geoff Dyer reviews the new wave of war writing.
Andrew Graham-Dixon contemplates the past, present and future of British comic art; artist Grayson Perry looks at the dwindling craft of potting; while Tom Dyckhoff checks into hospital to find out if good design can actually improve our health. Plus an all male book group from Bolton checks out the Orange Prize shortlist, rising star Noel Clarke talks about his latest film and pictures from Platon - Brit photographer for the New Yorker.
An episode dedicated to the relationship between science and art. Andrew Graham-Dixon investigates the science behind fakes, misattributed art and previously lost masterpieces. Michael Smith visits the Wellcome Collection's bizarre new show Skin. Mark Kermode talks to mathematician and movie buff Marcus Du Sautoy about the portrayal of science in film. Will Self walks the East Riding coast riffing on its erosion, and Tom Dyckhoff visits the world's first materials library that will inspire the buildings of the future. Clemency Burton-Hill talks to artist Conrad Shawcross, and Ben Lewis conducts a poll to measure attitudes on the future of art.
Andrew Graham-Dixon presents a Culture Show special from the Royal Academy's Summer Exhibition, the biggest open submission exhibition in the world, now in its 242nd year. He goes behind the scenes of the selection process and picks out four artists he hopes will make it into the show. Tom Dyckhoff explores the architecture room, this year bigger than ever before, curated by star architect David Chipperfield. Alastair Sooke talks to artist Fiona Rae in the process of selecting work for one of the rooms at the show. Andrew Graham-Dixon sits in as the judges for the Wollaston Prize decide who should win the 25,000 pound prize for the most important artwork in the exhibition. Critics Matthew Collings and Miranda Sawyer, plus artist Grayson Perry, share their thoughts on the highs and lows of the 2010 show.
Andrew Graham-Dixon presents a Culture Show special on 2010's BBC Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction. The programme comes from the ceremony at the Royal Institute of British Architecture as the judges make their final deliberations and reveal the winner of the 20,000 pound prize.
Sue Perkins presents the first of three Culture Show specials from the Edinburgh Festival, featuring a major retrospective of Turner Prize-winning artist Martin Creed and the latest production by the National Theatre of Scotland, Caledonia. Also, author Christos Tsiolkas discusses his controversial book The Slap, and veteran comic stars recall their Edinburgh debuts.
Sue Perkins presents the second Culture Show special from Edinburgh featuring the hottest tickets at the Festival. Featuring Opera de Lyon's production of Porgy and Bess and the first UK solo exhibition of abstract expressionist Joan Mitchell. Plus Sue seeks advice from cult LA talk show hosts Ronna and Beverly.
Sue Perkins presents the final Culture Show from the Edinburgh Festival, featuring Bliss by Opera Australia based on the blackly comic novel by Peter Carey and the biggest British exhibition of work by renowned American photographer Edward Weston. Paul Mason meets outspoken economics guru Joseph Stiglitz in town for the Book Festival and there is music from Eels.
Andrew Graham Dixon presents the latest edition of The Culture Show from Glasgow featuring writer and artist Alasdair Gray on the publication of his autopictography, A Life in Pictures. Andrew also visits Chichester Cathedral to see how the campaign to restore their magnificent collection of Tudor paintings is progressing. Miranda Sawyer meets the latest British rap sensation Tinie Tempah midway through his UK tour; and Mark Kermode checks out one of the year's most talked about movies, The Kids Are Alright, featuring Julianne Moore and Annette Bening as a married couple with two children conceived through artifical insemination. Also, Damien Hirst raids the BBC archives to uncover his favourite moments featuring Andy Warhol, Marchel Duchamp and Francis Bacon.
Andrew Graham Dixon visits the Palazzo Strozzi in Florence to view a landmark exhibition of work by Bronzino, artist and poet to the Court of Medici. Mark Kermode meets Mike Leigh to discuss his latest film, Another Year, while Matt Berry celebrates the 40th anniversary of what he considers the seminal concept album - Jesus Christ Superstar. Legendary graphic novel author Alan Moore explores the biggest public art exhibition of Austin Osman Spare for over 50 years, and discovers why Spare, an Edwardian virtuoso artist and occult magician has been left off art history's canon. Simon Schama picks his favourites foodie moments from the BBC's back catalogue, from Fanny Craddock to Keith Floyd.
Tom Dyckhoff visits Horace Walpole's Strawberry Hill House, which was recently re-opened to the public after a two-year restoration project. Sarfraz Manzoor investigates the winning images of the 2010 World Press Photo competition, and Paul Auster talks about his latest book Sunset Park. Michael Smith explores the British Library's exhibition on accents and language, while Alain de Botton takes a look at the critically acclaimed video installation The Clock. Andrew Graham-Dixon remembers war artist Henry Tonks, and Mark Kermode revisits cult classic Peeping Tom on its 50th anniversary.
Andrew Graham Dixon looks at the work of German artist Caspar David Friedrich and Clemency Burton Hill meets with choreographer Wayne McGregor to find out how he is collaborating with scientists to create his latest work, Far. Also, Mat Fraser seeks out the best art, music and performance at this year's Festival of Disability and Deaf Arts in Liverpool and Miranda Hart looks back at the comedy genius of Tony Hancock.
The Culture Show comes from The National Gallery, where Andrew Graham-Dixon reviews Bridget Riley's new show. Tim Samuels investigates the educational tool of the Gateshead Grannies, while web guru Tom Uglow guides us round the most innovative and intriguing corners of the net. Mark Kermode looks at the new low-budget home-grown sci-fi thriller Monsters, and Alastair Sooke uncovers an impressive yet similarly low-budget home-grown art collection on the Isle of Arran. Clemency Burton-Hill drops in at the Old Vic, where actors, directors and writers join forces to make six short plays in just 24 hours, Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane talks to Alan Yentob about his new MGM tour, and KT Tunstall selects her favourite musical moments from the BBC archive.
Andrew Graham-Dixon presents the latest edition of The Culture Show featuring an interview with film director Danny Boyle about his latest film 127 Hours. With Christmas fast approaching, Michael Smith investigates the lure of the shopping mall and we meet the don of dance floor rock 'n' roll, James Murphy of LCD Soundsystem. We also launch the exciting plans for World Book Night in March next year and how you can get involved.
A round up of the Culture Show highlights of the year. Andrew Graham-Dixon meets British artist Chris Ofili to discuss his career and explores the textural based work of American artist Jenny Holzer. Alastair Sooke and photographer Rankin cast a critical eye over the fashion photography of Irving Penn; and designer Tom Ford talks to Mark Kermode about his directorial debut, A Single Man starring Colin Firth. Martin Amis, Paul Auster and Peter Carey talk books and the public vote on the most coveted book prizes of the year. Tom Dyckhoff gets hands on at the Materials Library and conductor Daniel Barenboim celebrates the genius of Schonberg with Clemency Burton-Hill. Plus MOBO best newcomer, Tinie Tempah reveals the sounds and experiences behind his music. All this and Sue Perkins on the highlights from this year's Edinburgh Festival and Grayson Perry on Frieze the UK's most influential Art Fair.
Andrew Graham-Dixon takes a tour of Westminster Abbey, currently undergoing restoration in preparation for a certain royal wedding later this year. With Valentine's Day approaching, Alain de Botton delivers his philosophy on contemporary romance. Miranda Sawyer meets rock chameleon PJ Harvey as she releases her new album, Let England Shake, and Alastair Sooke talks to Turner Prize-winning artist Simon Starling as his latest exhibition opens at Tate St Ives.
The Culture Show visits Tate Britain, where Andrew Graham-Dixon rediscovers the watercolour. Michael Smith boards the new East London Line to investigate the rapidly changing badlands of the East End, and Alain de Botton travels back in time and discovers some philosophical gems from the BBC archive. Clemency Burton Hill drops in at The Royal Opera House's production about the tragic life of Anna Nicole Smith, while Nancy Durrant chats to artist Mary Kelly about her much hailed feminist work. Tom Dyckhoff travels to Miami to talk to architect Frank Gehry about his next project for the New World Symphony. As New York Fashion week draws to a close Hadley Freeman looks into the new darling of the fashion world - 14 year old blogger and fashionista - Tavi, whilst Mark Kermode looks at the essential elements of sci-fi spoofs and talks to Simon Pegg and Nick Frost about their latest addition to the genre, “Paul”.
As the 83rd Academy Award season approaches, Culture Show film critic Mark Kermode prepares his very own list of statuettes to give to the true movie talent that in his opinion will be shamelessly forgotten by the Oscars this year. For the sixth year running, Mark rights those wrongs by giving out his own unique award - a Kermode - and talking to some of the film-makers who deserve to be celebrated for their movie-making achievements. As well as creating his own unique shortlist of winners, Mark gives us the low-down on how the awards season really works, with a master-class on how to win a much coveted award, and a breakdown of its ultimate worth.
Andrew Graham-Dixon presents this edition of The Culture Show. It features a major exhibition of work by Northern Renaissance artist Jan Gossaert and an interview with reclusive contemporary street artist JR. The programme also looks at two new productions of work by playwright Terence Rattigan, in the centenary of his birth, featuring Maxine Peake and Anne-Marie Duff. Plus, Elbow talk about their forthcoming album.
Presented by Andrew Graham-Dixon, this half-hour film tells the story of World Book Night. The film follows the preparations for the night, as a million books are printed and distributed to 20,000 givers who have volunteered to hand out 48 copies of their favourite book, which features on World Book Night's list of selected titles. With 25 different books on the special list, there is something for everyone to enjoy, from Nigel Slater's Toast and Seamus Heaney's New Selected Poems to The Spy Who Came In From the Cold by John le Carre. World Book Night is about sharing, through word of mouth, the pleasure of reading. In the film, famous and non-famous readers talk about the books they really love. And as the massive nationwide book giveaway gears up for the evening of Saturday 5 March, BBC cameras capture some of these passionate readers as they hit the streets to encourage other people to take books home and read them.
Coming from the 60th anniversary celebrations for the Festival of Britain where Nancy Durrant talks to Tracey Emin about her new show at the Hayward. Also, Andrew Graham-Dixon travels north to the new Hepworth Wakefield exhibition space designed by David Chipperfield, while Tom Dyckhoff explores the militarisation of urban architecture. Mark Kermode tries the new video game LA Noire, which draws its inspiration from film noir, while record producer Danger Mouse talks about his new album Rome, spawned from the spaghetti western soundtrack. Alastair Sooke checks out the four shortlisted for the Art Fund Prize Museum of the Year and choreographer Wayne McGregor selects his own prize moments from the BBC archives.
Hugh Laurie was best known for playing bumbling British toffs until he reinvented his onscreen persona in the role of House MD, and became the highest paid actor in the world. One skill that features throughout his meteoric career is a facility for music, from Bertie Wooster bashing out Minnie the Moocher to House dueting with a patient. Now though, Laurie has finally put his music centre stage. As he releases an album of New Orleans blues titled Let Them Talk, he speaks with Alan Yentob about the role music has played in his life and career.
Fronted by Andrew Graham-Dixon, this week's Culture Show comes from the recently revamped Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon, and ranges from sci-fi to psychopaths, with Shakespeare, singing, art, hip-hop, design and new media packed in too.
Andrew Graham-Dixon presents The Culture Show featuring David Attenborough on British painter John Craxton; actor turned director Philip Seymour Hoffman on his new film Jack Goes Boating and Alan Hollinghurst on his latest novel The Stranger's Child.
Andrew Graham-Dixon presents from the 2011 Manchester International Festival featuring new plays by Victoria Wood and Johnny Vegas, music from Bjork and Damon Albarn, and performance artist Marina Abramovic.
Sue Perkins presents the first of three programmes featuring highlights from 2011's Edinburgh Festival. Marc Almond tells us about his acting role in a new musical play, Ten Plagues; AS Byatt talks about her latest novel prior to her appearance at the Book Festival; and Alastair Sooke gives his verdict on the exhibition of work by Robert Rauschenberg, one of America's most influential 20th century artists. Also the best comedy and performance from the Fringe.
Sue Perkins presents the second of three programmes featuring highlights from 2011's Edinburgh Festival. Clemency Burton-Hill takes a look at multi-media theatre production, The Wind Up Bird Chronicle based on Haruki Murakami's cult novel; Alastair Sooke meets sculptor Tony Cragg, as Edinburgh hosts the first major retrospective of his work; and author Ian Rankin chats to museum director Sandy Nairn about his experience of art theft. Plus all the best comedy and performance from the Fringe.
Sue Perkins presents the final Culture Show from Edinburgh with all the highlights from this year's Festival, including an exhibition of portraits of the Queen, featuring artists such as Lucian Freud, Andy Warhol and Annie Leibovitz.
Hilary Mantel is one of Britain's most arresting and original writers. In this intimate and exclusive profile, the Booker Prize-winning author of Wolf Hall talks about her childhood in the north of England, her battles with debilitating illness, and the determination that has driven her to write some of the most moving and memorable fiction of recent years.
Andrew Graham-Dixon visits the new Firstsite Gallery in Colchester, Mark Kermode talks to Lars Von Trier about his new film Melancholia and Alastair Sooke meets American artist Frank Stella at his first major show here for 25 years. The inmates of Wandsworth Prison talk about their unlikely passion for embroidery, while Michael Smith unpicks Postmodernism at the V&A. Journalist Lynn Barber chats to legendary editor Diana Athill, now in her nineties and enjoying her own successful literary career. Plus Simon Thurley and Andrew Lloyd Webber launch the Heritage Angels Awards for those who have saved the buildings they love, and Nigel Kennedy explains his new work Four Elements.
Andrew Graham-Dixon talks to ceramicist Grayson Perry, Simon Armitage marks National Poetry Day, Mark Kermode meets director Lynne Ramsay to discuss her latest film We Need to Talk About Kevin, and there's a look at the work of Gerhard Richter. Also, choreographer Akram Khan talks to Clemency Burton-Hill about his latest dancework and critic Michael Collins looks at representations of the working class on stage.
This week The Culture Show comes from Frieze Art Fair with Andrew Graham-Dixon and Alastair Sooke. Artist Ryan Gander talks to Christian Jankowski about his Frieze project - a luxury yacht, Sarfraz Manzoor meets Anahita Razmi to discuss her prize winning idea based on the rooftops of Tehran, and Mark Kermode joins Tacita Dean at the unveiling of her installation in Tate's Turbine Hall. We also explore the extraordinary life and work of the late Judith Scott, a disabled artist with a growing cult following, and visit Mind Over Matter, an exhibition that challenges our ideas about brain donation.
Andrew Graham-Dixon presents the weekly arts magazine show, featuring a look at the extraordinary art of Edward Burra; an interview with Sofie Grabol, star of cult Danish detective series The Killing; the latest novel by bestselling Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami, and a new work from the Aurora Orchestra.
For tonight's half-hour Culture Show Special on the Man Booker Prize 2011, Tim Samuels visits the Scottish village of Comrie and asks the locals for their verdict on this year's Booker Prize shortlist. Shortlisted authors Carol Birch, Stephen Kelman and AD Miller travel to Comrie to answer questions from some of their keenest readers; and Commonwealth authors Esi Edugyan and Patrick deWitt beam into the village for an internet Q&A with assembled villagers. Once the books have been read and the reviews and scores digested, Comrie will decide which novel is their Booker winner.
The Culture Show comes from the Gothic mansion Two Temple Place as it opens its door for the first time. Andrew Graham-Dixon looks at King George V's photographic collection of Scott and Shackleton's Antarctic expeditions, while Simon Thurley continues his search for the most dedicated saviours of the British heritage. Michael Smith looks for the positive in what some consider Europe's most boring city - Birmingham. Mark Kermode talks to award-winning artist and director Steve McQueen about his new film Shame, and Miranda Sawyer travels to Paris meet film director David Lynch as he releases his new album Crazy Clown Time.
To mark the publication of Keith Richards' autobiography, Life, this Culture Show special looks at the life of the man with five strings and nine lives. In a candid interview he chats to Andrew Graham-Dixon about his childhood in Dartford, his passion for music and the decade that catapulted the Rolling Stones from back-room blues boys to one of the greatest rock 'n' roll bands in the world.
In tribute to the late British designer Sir Terence Conran, a repeat of a programme first shown in 2011. Alan Yentob talks to his hero Sir Terence Conran, perhaps one of Britain’s greatest designers, about the revolutionary transformation he made to British life and style. A designer, retailer and restaurateur, Conran pioneered a new way of life that he wanted to be available to all with his vision of ‘easy living’. They discuss the work he contributed to the Festival of Britain in the 1950s, and his vision of a new way of living which he cemented with the opening of the high street shop Habitat in 1964, giving us stylish design for the everyday, from kitchen utensils to furniture.
An examination of the role of art therapy in the rehabilitation of ex-servicemen suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. Tim Samuels meets veterans of recent British conflicts in the Falklands, the Persian Gulf and Northern Ireland, who reveal their personal battle with PTSD as a result of their military career. They are now using an unlikely weapon to help fight the psychological wounds of war - art. Visiting art therapy sessions, Samuels discovers how drawing, sculpting and painting are helping the veterans manage the symptoms of PTSD. Dr Lukas Konopka, a professor of neurology in Chicago, has investigated the effects of art therapy on the brain in the treatment of PTSD. The results provide strong evidence of art's potential to heal.
Andrew Graham-Dixon looks back at the cultural the highlights of the year. Sir David Attenborough celebrates neglected artist John Craxton. Alan Yentob interviews Gerhard Richter and Alastair Sooke meets Tony Cragg, one of the finest British sculptors of his generation. Andrew Graham-Dixon gets a tour of Grayson Perry's latest works and visits 2011's newest gallery, the Wakefield Hepworth. All this and Damon Albarn's English opera, Sue Perkins interviewing American humorist David Sedaris, PJ Harvey on her Mercury-prize winning album and Tom Dyckhoff has a rare interview with architect Frank Gehry. Plus film critic, Mark Kermode on the year's best films.
Andrew Graham-Dixon visits the new Lucian Freud exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery. Mark Kermode talks movies with author Geoff Dyer whose new book is based on the Russian cult classic 'Stalker', Charlie Luxton explores the churches of architect Nicholas Hawksmoor, Alastair Sooke looks back at the extraordinary life of Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama and journalist Aleks Krotoski investigates the transformation of the world wide web when the next billion people go online. Miranda Sawyer chats to Emeli Sandé, winner of the Brit Awards Critics' Choice for 2012 and Clemency Burton-Hill meets Scrubs star Zach Braff, set to appear in his self-penned play All New People
Andrew Marr interviews David Hockney, widely considered to be Britain's best-loved living artist, about his exhibition A Bigger Picture at the Royal Academy, made up of works depicting the landscape of his native Yorkshire.
Andrew Graham-Dixon presents the latest edition of The Culture Show from Glasgow, featuring the National Theatre of Scotland's new adaptation of The Wicker Man. As a major new Picasso exhibition opens at Tate Britain, Alastair Sooke looks back at his relationship with the English surrealist artist Roland Penrose. Also, forget the Oscars and the Baftas - Mark Kermode presents his very own movie awards of the year.
Turner Prize winner Jeremy Deller is one of the most unconventional of contemporary artists. He is best known for his collaborative projects with everyone from striking miners to Manic Street Preachers. As he prepares for a major exhibition at the Hayward Gallery in London, The Culture Show meets up with him to look back at the creative process behind some of his major works to date and follows the artist to Texas as he films bats for his latest unpredictable project.
Andrew Graham-Dixon tells us what intrigues him about flamboyant Victorian architect and designer Augustus Pugin who celebrates his 200th anniversary this year; Mark Kermode celebrates Spanish and Latin American cinema with his highlights from the Viva Festival in Manchester and Tim Samuels meets the men behind satirical news website -The Daily Mash. Also Philip Ridley talks about his latest play, Shivered; Sue Townsend on her new book -The Woman who Went to Bed for a Year; and a profile of Welsh artist Osi Rhys Osmond.
Andrew Graham-Dixon goes on a date with Florence Welch to discuss the influence of Renaissance art on her music. Alastair Sooke meets art duo Gilbert and George, while Mark Kermode talks to Italian director Paolo Sorrentino about his new film starring Sean Penn. Tim Samuels hears from Jonathan Safran Foer about his new treatment of an ancient Jewish text, and Sarfraz Manzoor takes his mum to the Hajj exhibition at the British Museum. Clemency Burton-Hill flies to Germany to meet talented young conductor Alexander Shelley, and Hadley Freeman looks at the life of street style guru Bill Cunningham in a touching new documentary.
Alastair Sooke travels to Derbyshire to meet sculptor Anthony Caro as he prepares for a retrospective at Chatsworth House. Art critic Richard Cork meets Sarah Rose, an avid collector of David Bomberg's work and that of the artists he taught at the Borough Polytechnic in the 1940's. Writer Alan Bissett talks to Irvine Welsh about punk literature and his new book Skagboys. Arlene Phillips explores the theatrical experience Reasons to Dance. Clemency Burton-Hill meets American composer, and protege of Philip Glass, Nico Muhly. Mark Kermode chats to musical hero Kevin Rowland about the return of Dexys Midnight Runners. The Culture Show journeys with the Red Note Ensemble, combining Bangra and Bach, on their tour of the Hebrides.
There are more images of Elizabeth II than any other historical figure, but how to paint a queen is one of the trickiest of artistic challenges. Alastair Sooke looks at the depiction of Britain's female rulers, from Mary Tudor and Elizabeth I to Queen Victoria and our current monarch, and discovers how queenly portraits reveal Britain's changing ideas about women and power.
Alastair Sooke goes behind-the-scenes of the Royal Academy's 244th Summer Exhibition, the biggest open-submission contemporary art show in the world. He selects artists he hopes will make it through the tough judging process and hears about the challenges facing the curators in hanging thousands of works by amateur and leading contemporary artists. New RA member Michael Landy delves into the archives to satisfy his curiosity about the weird and wonderful rituals that surround the show. Psychotherapist Philippa Perry - wife of Grayson Perry - gives a psychological portrait of artists, past and present, who have attempted to get their works accepted. Plus actress Emilia Fox joins Alastair on a whirlwind tour of the finished show at the glitzy preview party.
The Culture Show is back and will be featuring many of the highlights from the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad. In this episode, Mark Kermode meets film director David Cronenberg and his lead actor Robert Pattinson to talk about their new movie Cosmopolis. Martin Amis discusses class, character and his latest novel, while Yoko Ono makes a bid to get the whole world smiling. There is a a performance from the acclaimed Pina Bausch dance company, and Andrew Graham-Dixon joins Michael Landy and Bob and Roberta Smith to discover what happens when a gallery is transformed into a classroom and the artists take charge of the lessons.
In this episode, comedian Alexei Sayle joins art critic Andrew Graham-Dixon at Tate Liverpool for an exhibition of later works from three of the greatest painters of the last 150 years: Turner, Monet and Twombly. Mark Kermode interrogates director William Friedkin about his new blackly comic film Killer Joe. Miranda Sawyer travels to the Eden Project in Cornwall to talk Matilda, musicals and megalomania with Tim Minchin. We have an exclusive extract from a lovingly restored print of Alfred Hitchcock's debut feature film with live music specially composed by Daniel Patrick Cohen; and James Runcie meets Richard Ford to explore the borderline between the ordinary and the criminal in his haunting new novel Canada.
This week The Culture Show comes from London's East End, where Andrew Graham-Dixon takes a photo tour of a changing landscape with Newham's famous son and legendary snapper David Bailey. Alan Yentob has a rainy encounter with controversial architect Renzo Piano, the mastermind behind Britain's tallest skyscraper The Shard. Mark Kermode meets the actor with over seventy films to his credit, Willem Dafoe, to talk about his latest movie The Hunter. Ground-breaking all-male dance company Tomorrow's Men perform; and Sarfraz Manzoor tees off with Booker prize-shortlisted author Nicola Barker whose new comic novel The Yips unearths the giddy world of golf.
Mark Kermode is in Bexhill-on-Sea, the setting for a new sculpture from artist Richard Wilson which recreates the final scene in cult movie The Italian Job. Miranda Sawyer meets Plan B to talk about his latest album, and Brooklyn-based choreographer Elizabeth Streb rehearses with her dancers for a pop-up performance around London's landmarks. Tom Dyckhoff takes a tour of London's Olympic architecture, and we join thousands as they witness Stonehenge brought to life by a spectacular installation of fire.
Mark Kermode takes part in a movie marathon of short film screenings, Hansel of Film, a relay race of short film screenings taking place around the UK. Alastair Sooke looks at the transformation of disused oil tanks into a sleek new art space at Tate Modern. Also, Cerys Matthews shares her passion for poetry with Fiona Shaw and gets a sneak preview of Peace Camp, a series of unique living artworks across the UK coastline from Northern Ireland to Cornwall.
Mark Kermode meets Dark Knight director Christopher Nolan to talk about his take on the caped crusader. Blur are back and Damon Albarn and Graham Coxon talk about their new songs and how they feel about headlining at Hyde Park - the closing ceremony for the Olympics. Mat Fraser explores our desire to be Superhuman with a new exhibition at The Wellcome Institute. And, no strings attached - why puppets are back in a very big way.
Sue Perkins presents the first of three Culture Show programmes from The Edinburgh Festival, featuring all the best in theatre, dance, literature, music and comedy from the Fringe, International, Art and Book Festivals. She meets Mark Thomas to discuss his new comedy show Bravo Figaro about his tempestuous relationship with his dad.
Sue Perkins presents a second helping of The Culture Show from the Edinburgh Festival and meets author Kirsty Gunn and music legend Nile Rodgers. Also featured tonight, the 25th anniversary of So You Think You're Funny, the Edinburgh comedy competition which has uncovered stars from Dylan Moran to Peter Kay. Artists including David Hockney, Paul Gaugin and Sir Peter Blake swap paint for wool in an exhibition of contemporary tapestries, and we take a look at Speed of Light - a spectacular mass participatory event in which walkers and endurance runners ascend Arthur's Seat and illuminate the iconic mountain.
Sue Perkins presents a final helping of hits from this year's Edinburgh Festival including an interview with Howard Jacobson about his new novel Zoo Time and a look at the art of Dieter Roth.
Andrew Graham-Dixon explores the new Bronze exhibition at the Royal Academy. Clemency Burton-Hill reports on The People Speak, a dramatized book reading curated by Colin Firth and Anthony Arnove, which tells an alternative and inspiring history of Britain and features actors including Juliet Stevenson, Celia Imrie and Rupert Everett. Also, Mark Kermode talks to Oliver Stone about his latest crime thriller Savages.
Harry Potter is one of the most successful publishing phenomena of our time, selling 450 million copies. Its success has transformed author JK Rowling from an impoverished single mother into one of Britain's richest women. Since The Deathly Hallows was published in 2007, Rowling's fans have been desperate to know what she was going to do next. The answer is The Casual Vacancy, a novel for adults with some very grown-up themes. The expectation and pressure are enormous.
Mark Kermode reviews award-winning French comedy film Untouchable in the company of Goldie. Tim Samuels looks at the odds on this year's Man Booker Prize shortlist and Alastair Sooke surveys the first edition of Frieze Masters - a selection of work, old and new, from over 90 of the world's leading galleries.
Tom Dyckhoff presents an architecture-themed show and looks at the six buildings shortlisted for 2012's Stirling Prize. At the other end of the spectrum, he also assesses the buildings nominated for architecture's wooden spoon - The Carbuncle Cup. Olly Wainwright looks at what young new architects are up to in this time of recession and Charlie Luxton explores the growing trend for self-build homes.
Gus Casely-Hayford presents the programme, featuring a review of independent fantasy film Beasts of the Southern Wild, which was a hit at the Cannes and Sundance festivals. Plus, New York artist Rashid Johnson holds his first solo exhibition in London, and a look at Blackta, a new play at the Young Vic about the highs and lows of making it as a black actor.
Mark Kermode talks to director Sam Mendes about his latest film, Skyfall - the 23rd outing of the James Bond series. Featuring contributions from Skyfall stars Daniel Craig, Javier Bardem and Dame Judi Dench, this Culture Show Special also reflects on Mendes' prolific career in both film and theatre. From directing Dench in the West End at just 24 years of age, to sweeping the board at the Oscars with his debut movie American Beauty, Mendes has always done things his way. Celebrated for his visual elegance and ability to coax great performances from his actors, the director reveals why he wanted to take on Bond and what surprises lie in store for Skyfall audiences around the world.
Mark Kermode talks to Oscar-winning director Sam Mendes about his latest film Skyfall - the 23rd outing of the James Bond series. Featuring contributions from Skyfall stars Daniel Craig, Javier Bardem, and Dame Judi Dench, this week's Culture Show Special also reflects on Mendes' prolific career in both film and theatre. From directing Dench in the West End at just 24 years of age to sweeping the board at the Oscars with his debut movie American Beauty, Mendes has always done things his way. Celebrated for his visual elegance and ability to coax great performances from his actors, the director reveals why he wanted to take on Bond and what surprises lie in store for Skyfall audiences around the world.
Andrew Graham-Dixon is at the National Gallery's first major exhibition of photography to explore the influence of painting and fine art traditions on the work of some our leading photographers. Investigative journalist John Sweeney has made two acclaimed documentaries about The Church of Scientology. So, we asked him to join Mark Kermode to review The Master, the latest movie by Paul Thomas Anderson, which chronicles the life of the charismatic leader of a religious cult.
The Culture Show comes from the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, home to an exhibition of work from legendary American photographer Ansel Adams. Mark Kermode meets Academy Award winner Ben Affleck to talk about his new movie Argo. Based on real events, the film tells the remarkable story of an attempt to spring six Americans from Iran in the late 70s by faking a Hollywood science fiction movie.
Andrew Graham-Dixon goes stateside to meet Tom Wolfe. After eight long years, the great chronicler of American society returns with a new novel Back to Blood, which promises to do for Miami what Bonfire of the Vanities did for New York. Thirty years since First Blood, Lindsay Johns makes an impassioned argument to rehabilitate Rambo, arguing that he is not a grunting bonehead but an existential everyman and the perfect hero for our troubled times.
The show comes from the Tate Modern on London's Bankside, home to A Bigger Splash, a new exhibition taking a new look at the relationship between performance and painting. Alastair Sooke meets Elena Palumbo, muse and model for Yves Klein, to find out what it was really like to be a 'living paintbrush' for one of the most influential avant-garde artists of the post-war period.
Andrew Graham-Dixon travels to New York to meet best-selling novelist Lee Child as his hugely popular Jack Reacher thrillers start their Hollywood incarnation this December with Tom Cruise in the title role. American singer-songwriter Beck is about to release a new album with a twist. He is bringing out a songbook of vintage-styled sheet-music that he wants others to perform and interpret. Michael Smith finds out if this is a new trend for our listening habits, or a comment on our disposable download culture.
Andrew Graham-Dixon looks back over the best of the year in art. Highlights include a major show from Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama, whose dazzling body of work creates a unique world of colour, pattern and shape. Also, Florence Welch, a pop star who brings the great themes of the Renaissance into the 21st century, joins Andrew for a tour of the National Gallery to share some of the art that inspires her.
This week on The Culture Show Mark Kermode looks back over the best of the year in film. Just some of the highlights from our coverage of 2012's cinema releases include an interview with one of the great auteurs of modern cinema, David Cronenberg, and his lead actor Robert Pattinson.
Presenter Andrew Graham-Dixon previews the art of French impressionist, Edouard Manet as the Royal Academy prepares for a major retrospective of his portraiture. Mark Kermode meets Academy Award winner Kathryn Bigelow to talk about the controversy surrounding her latest film 'Zero Dark Thirty'. Based on real events, the film charts the decade-long hunt for Osama bin Laden and his death during a Navy S.E.A.L. operation in 2011. Author, Margaret Drabble meets her old university friend novelist, Bernadine Bishop, whose latest book 'Unexpected Lessons in Love' explores friendship and loss as a woman battling with cancer is confronted with a newborn grandson she didn't know existed.
Tom Dyckhoff presents this design themed edition of the Culture Show, which examines the latest 'hacking' craze - where online design communities interact to reinvent and create new objects. As artists are now able to download and 'open-source' design tweaks, is the 'Great Designer' poised to disappear?
Andrew Graham-Dixon explores the work of 17th century Spanish baroque painter Bartholome Esteban Murillo, as an exhibiton focusing on the profound influence of his close friend and patron Justino de Neve opens at the Dulwich Picture Gallery. Alan Yentob meets Jonathan Miller as the veteran opera and theatre director returns to British theatre after a six year break to stage Northern Broadsides production of Rutherford and Son - Githa Sowerby's powerful 1912 play about class, capitalism and gender. In a break from rehearsals, Miller reveals what it took to lure him out of retirement.
Alastair Sooke looks back on the work of American pop artist Roy Lichtenstein as Tate Modern prepares for a major retrospective. Cerys Matthews visits National Theatre Wales as they prepare for the premiere of De Gabay, a unique performance based around the lives of the Somali community in Cardiff, and crime writer Val McDermid inspects the British Library's crime fiction exhibition to investigate the history of the whodunnit. All this, and German electronic music legends Kraftwerk, in London to perform for the first time since 2004.
Tom Dyckhoff presents this week's Culture Show, looking at architectural solutions to affordable housing in this time of crisis. As the weather gets wetter and the risk of flooding increases, Beatrice Galilee travels to the Netherlands to find out how the Dutch have tackled the problem. In Amsterdam she visits a community built entirely on water and meets the architects who are planning to build similar homes in the UK. Tom Dyckhoff visits Berlin, where architects and social media communities have been working together to reduce building cost by cutting out the middle men when designing new neighbourhoods. Would this co-build model work as well in Britain as it has in Germany and Finland?
Andrew Graham-Dixon presents the Culture Show from Chatsworth House, Derbyshire. Chatsworth House has been chosen as the location for an exhibition of works by the Scottish artist and sculptor William Turnbull, who died last year. Andrew considers Turnbull's large outdoor work and his legacy as a major figure in post-war British art.
Oscar winning director Danny Boyle talks to Mark Kermode about his new film Trance, London 2012's afterglow and the highs and lows of an extraordinary film-making career. As an explosive visual stylist with an enduring punk attitude, Danny Boyle has reinvented British cinema several times over, proving we can do populist, anarchic, violent and disturbing as well as American cinema. From epochal moments like Trainspotting to low-budget horror 28 Days Later and the brutal romance of Slumdog Millionaire, Boyle inhabits a uniquely kinetic style that has a poetic and surreal side too. All of these qualities were on spectacular display at last summer's Olympic opening ceremony, a creative triumph that brought Danny's name to a much wider audience. In this programme, Danny gives Mark the inside story on his wildly diverse films and also reveals how his working class, left-wing upbringing helped shape his vision for London 2012.
An extended version of Danny Boyle's interview with Mark Kermode, featuring additional contributions from those who have worked with the Oscar winning director. Topics include the movie Trance, London 2012's afterglow and the highs and lows of an extraordinary filmmaking career. This is an indepth, revealing portrait of Boyle's personality which further explores his unique creative work across theatre, television and film. With contributions from James McAvoy, Vincent Cassel, Rosario Dawson, John Hodge, Andrew Mcdonald, Frank Cottrell Boyce and Underworld's Rick Smith.
Novelist Jay McInerney explores the life and writing of F Scott Fitzgerald, whose masterwork The Great Gatsby has just been filmed for the fifth time. Fitzgerald captured the reckless spirit of New York life in the roaring twenties - the flappers, the parties, the bootleg liquor, the inevitable reckoning, and the hangover to come. In Gatsby, he created a character who reinvented himself for love - just as Fitzgerald would, not once, but twice. Fitzgerald never wrote an autobiography. He left us something better - letters. Romantic, arrogant, humble letters; letters to editors, publishers, lovers, or friends. These letters reveal the inner thoughts of a man whose real life was never far from the fiction he wrote.
At a time when many libraries across Britain face budget cuts and closure, Birmingham is opening the biggest public library in Europe. Is this new breed of super library the future? Architecture critic Tom Dyckhoff explores the new cutting-edge building to discover what a 21st-century library looks like, how it functions and why it still has a vital role to play in the digital age. Along the way, he meets artists, photographers and musicians from the local community, who are coming together to celebrate Britain's biggest and boldest new public building.
Alastair Sooke meets portrait artist Jonathan Yeo as he prepares for a solo show at the National Portrait Gallery. The son of a Conservative MP, his subjects range from political leaders to Hollywood stars, including Nicole Kidman, Kevin Spacey, Damien Hirst and Tony Blair. In the lead-up to the exhibition, Yeo allows BBC cameras into his usually private studio, revealing the challenges and pleasures of painting people for a living, and the subtle dynamic that develops between artist and sitter. The programme features acclaimed British actor, Tom Hollander, as he sits for a portrait, and follows the progress of the canvas from the first brushstrokes to the final reveal.
Northern Soul marked the birth of late-night dance culture in Britain. Paul Mason, economics journalist and once a regular at the famous 'all-nighters' at Wigan Casino, discovers the origin of this underground music scene and why it continues to inspire such devotion. Many of the songs that eventually became Northern Soul classics were once rejected or unreleased. Recorded in the 1960s by African-American artists attempting to replicate the successful Motown sound, these discarded tracks would later be rediscovered and revered by white working-class dancers and music fans in the north of England. Paul Mason tells the extraordinary story of Northern Soul and the dance culture that sprang up around it, influencing musicians, choreographers and filmmakers and growing into a global phenomenon.
Malcolm Gladwell is about to publish a book. He's done it four times before, and whenever it happens huge things occur: Millions of copies get sold, world leaders take note, catchy phrases infiltrate our language and millions of us are moved by his inspiring stories and big powerful ideas. Jon Ronson goes head to head with The Tipping Point author in his New York home to talk about his latest work. 'David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits and the Art of Battling Giants' seeks to shake our faith in what it means to have the upper hand. In it Gladwell argues we get advantage and disadvantage the wrong way round. Being dyslexic, losing a parent in childhood, being bombed, shot at, marginalized... can all be turned to good, according to his latest optimistic tome. In this candid and revealing confrontation, one thing comes clear... Giants beware: underdogs can surprise you when they make good the advantages that stem from a traumatic start.
A revealing portrait of Sylvie Guillem, one of the greatest dancers of our time. Hand-picked by Rudolph Nureyev at the age of 19, she was the youngest ever 'etoile', the highest-ranking female dancer at the Paris Opera Ballet and later, the star of the Royal Ballet here in London. A rebel who reshaped ballet, Guillem has always fearlessly pursued her own artistic vision, earning an uncompromising reputation and the nickname 'Mademoiselle Non!'. At 48 years old she remains an imperious physical force - but for how much longer? With an eye on life after dance, Guillem is now reinventing herself as an environmental campaigner. Filmed over several months with exclusive access, this programme explores what happens when a force of nature becomes a force for nature, and follows Guillem as she continues to defy her own body, confronting the future while remaining one of dance's most mesmerising trailblazers.
For 12 days London will be under siege from over 350 features, documentaries and short films from 57 countries. Mark Kermode explores the wealth of real life stories that have inspired some of these films, and the exciting British talent which the festival will showcase. From taut hi-jack thriller 'Captain Phillips' - directed by Paul Greengrass, to Oscar tipped '12 Years a Slave' with Chiwetel Ejiofor. Uncovering stories of love, loss, injustice and triumph, Mark discovers how the festival's film makers have created some of the most exciting and dynamic movies available today, and gives us a preview of what is going to be big cinema news in the coming months.
The ancient art of Chinese painting is one of the oldest continuous artistic traditions in history. Kate Bryan, former Hong Kong resident and the Fine Art Society's head of contemporary, travels to China to find out more about this tradition, a journey which coincides with a once-in-a-lifetime exhibition at London's Victoria & Albert Museum, 'Masterpieces of Chinese Painting'. In China, Kate learns about the golden age of Chinese landscape and discovers why ink is still favoured over paint. She also learns how the country's unique aesthetic was heavily influenced by age-old standards of class and politics.
The Culture Show reviews the six shortlisted books for Britain's most prestigious award for nonfiction and asks which book will win the coveted prize. The list has never been more eclectic or thought provoking, spanning poetry to politics, taking in our relationship with Roman Britain but also modern Afghanistan, even raising questions about how we commemorate our war dead and why we need bumblebees. The reviewers this year are all former judges of the prize including literary critic and author Diana Athill and journalist Jim Naughtie. Meanwhile publisher Jamie Byng explains why it's never been a more exciting time for nonfiction and gives his verdict on which book deserves to win.
For those who remained in London during the Second World War, the Blitz was a terrifying time of sleeplessness, fear and loss, but some of London's literary set found inspiration in the danger and intensity. With the threat of death ever present, nerves were tested and affairs began; it was an absolute gift for a writer seeking new material. Presenter James Runcie tells the story of novelists Graham Greene, Henry Green and Elizabeth Bowen, and American poet Hilda Doolittle, who revelled in the creative and personal freedom they discovered even as the bombs rained down. The programme reveals how these writers distilled the surreal and often frightening atmosphere of the time into some of their finest work.
More than 40 million people follow Lady Gaga on Twitter. Can they possibly be wrong? For her fans, the Little Monsters, Gaga is not just a star - she is a mother figure and a fellow sufferer. As her long-awaited third album ARTPOP is released, Gaga meets Miranda Sawyer for an exclusive interview, to talk about pop, art, fans, and her need, and ours, for applause.
Alan Yentob, in a bid to understand fashion designer Paul Smith, challenges him to choose the objects which sum up his life. Smith's Covent Garden office is an Aladdin's cave of objects - piles of toys, stacks of racing bikes, gifts from fans, hundreds of books. But there is a method to the strange world of Paul Smith. Growing up determined to be a racing cyclist, his dreams ended, and began, with a crash that led to him meeting his future wife Pauline Denyer, a fashion graduate. With her guidance, he developed his own quirky take on British tailoring which catapulted him to success in the 1980s and made him a cult figure in Japan.
For over 50 years, the Royal Court Theatre has been a flagship for new British writing and a bastion of provocative, ground-breaking work. And now this most revered theatrical institution has a new artistic director at the helm, who is on a mission to shake things up even further. As this intimate profile reveals, Vicky Featherstone - the Royal Court's first female artistic director in its 57 year history - is determined to make theatre accessible to all, not just the privileged few from SW3. For over four months, presenter Clemency Burton-Hill was given exclusive behind-the-scenes access to Featherstone as she set about shaping her opening season and got candid insights into her character and approach from long-term collaborators John Tiffany, award-winning screenwriter Abi Morgan, Dennis Kelly of 'Mathilda: The Musical' fame and the Guardian's Michael Billington.
Exploring the historic walled city of Derry Londonderry, the first UK City of Culture, poet and author Nick Laird looks back at a year of dramatic spectacle and asks how art has healed decades of sectarian violence. Meeting Frank Cottrell-Boyce, author of the London 2012 opening ceremony, he is dazzled by the Return of Colmcille, Boyce's spectacular imagining of the return of the city's patron saint. At Picturing Derry, a photo exhibition of work by local amateurs and professionals from all over the world, he considers the legacy of Bloody Sunday and celebrates a city that is no longer defined by The Troubles. And as a measure of its new openness, the international traditional music festival The Fleadh, comes north of the border for the first time.
Tom Dyckhoff explores the contribution of Lego to architecture, and its continuing influence, arguing that it's changed the way we think about buildings. Lego's plastic yellow bricks were launched in the 50s, and resonated with new visions of rebuilding society - with ethical, imaginative children's play at its heart. Tom meets the artists and architects reared on Lego who are using it to reimagine our cities today, from Bjarke Ingels, the leading architect of his generation, to international artist Olafur Elliasson, whose Collectivity project took three tonnes of Lego to the citizens of Tirana, Albania. But with Hollywood franchises and huge expansion, has Lego lost its original ethos of creativity and construction? Tom looks at Lego's successors and how cult computer game Minecraft may be set to transform the cities of the future.
irst he was the poster boy of 90s Britpop, then the music man behind electro-cartoon duo Gorillaz. More recently he's composed operas and helmed the world music juggernaut that is Africa Express... Now finally, after coming full circle with Blur's triumphant 20-year reunion tour, Damon Albarn goes it alone. Due in April 2014, Everyday Robots will be his first proper solo album and he's given The Culture Show exclusive and intimate access to his life as he prepares to present this new work to the world. It's a lyrical journey that takes him back to his childhood, to the places he holds dear and the memories that infuse his new collection of songs, many of which have never been heard by the public. The film follows Albarn as he looks behind his own masks of the past to give an honest account of himself and his work as a solo artist.
Now in their ninth year, the Kermode Awards are the ultimate antidote to the Oscars, a low-frills awards ceremony celebrating the very best of movie-making talent overlooked by the Academy. Even in what's considered a bumper Oscars year, film critic Mark Kermode uncovers missing gems deserving of his coveted golden gong, including in the best actress, director and cinematography categories. Handing out the awards, Mark meets eminent film makers, behind-the-scenes talent and some of cinema's rising stars. But it's not all about the best this year. For the first time, Mark also picks his worst movie. So who will win the coveted Kermode statuette for best picture? And who will bag the turkey trophy?
Matisse was one of the most celebrated painters of the 20th century. Even in his own lifetime, he enjoyed a level of popularity envied by other artists. But in 1941, after a near-fatal operation for cancer, he decided to give up painting and sought a new way of drawing in colour. Scissors replaced a paintbrush and with the unique skill of a tailor, he set about creating his now famous cut-outs, which have yet to be rivalled for their originality and daring. To coincide with a major Tate Modern exhibition in April, Alastair Sooke presents a moving and intimate portrait, with contributions from the Tate's Nicholas Serota, biographer Hilary Spurling and Jacqueline Duheme, who worked with Matisse in the late 1940s at this critical turning point in his career.
For author and columnist Tony Parsons, boxing matters. He spars every week. Full-contact, no-holds-barred, in a searching examination of skill, courage and fear. On a journey through the cultural landscape of the 20th and now 21st century, Tony Parsons discovers a cast of cultural giants from Hemingway to TS Elliot and Joyce Carol Oates, to Picasso, Braque and Manet who shared a passion for this ancient art - both in their work and in their life. The sport was nearly knocked out in the sixties by a potent combination of peace and love but in the digital age, boxing is getting up off the canvas. A new generation of men and women are discovering that boxing has little to do with violence and everything to do with the search for self-knowledge.
Tony award-winning African-American artist Savion Glover is not your average tap dancer. From Broadway prodigy to global star, Glover's journey has been a remarkable one, fighting lazy cultural stereotypes and striving to make tap dance relevant to new generations. Often compared to basketball legend Michael Jordan, Glover is an explosive creative force of the hip-hop generation who has fundamentally reimagined what tap dance can be. However, schooled by the likes of Sammy Davis Junior, Glover is also a passionate torchbearer for the great tap trailblazers of the past. Presenter Morgan Quaintance visits Glover in his native Newark, a notoriously tough inner city in New Jersey, to discover more about his life, work and art. He also delves deeper into the history of a unique African-American tap dance style that Glover is the leading contemporary exponent of.
Lynn Barber has been interviewing famous people for more than three decades. Renowned for her audacious, brilliantly honest and often caustic profiles, Barber asks the questions no one else dares ask. The 'Demon Barber of Fleet Street' they call her. In this irreverent half-hour programme, Lynn Barber talks to Alan Yentob about her job interviewing and writing about celebrities. She recounts her combustible clashes with Rafa Nadal and Marianne Faithful, she explains why actors are so difficult to interview and why she relishes shouty men. 'I'm embarrassment proof,' she says, 'if somebody loses their temper and starts shouting at me I feel quite cosy with that'.
Sir Kenneth Clark was arguably the most influential figure in 20th-century British art. Born into a world of privilege, his achievements were staggering. He keeper of the King's Pictures, director of the National Gallery, founder of the Arts Council and independent television, and best remembered as the presenter of the most ambitious arts series ever made - Civilisation. A staunch defender of Reithian values, Clark was attacked for being an elitist 'posh man in tweeds'. But he held a passionate belief that art was for everyone and made it his mission, through television, to share his love of art with the masses. To coincide with Tate Britain's exhibition on Clark opening in May, this Culture Show special presents an intimate portrait of a contradictory and elusive character who transformed our cultural landscape.
When Edward St Aubyn summoned the courage to write the fictionalized version of his unbearable childhood and describe the horrific abuse he suffered at the hands of cruel and neglectful aristocratic parents, he not only broke a taboo, but he also pulled off a rare act of literary alchemy. He turned the grim material of his life - rape, drug addiction and the ever-present pull of suicide - into a series of exquisitely crafted books (The Melrose novels) that critics rate amongst the finest achievements of contemporary British fiction. The surprise is that they are wickedly funny too. Through his alter ego Patrick Melrose he slays the monsters of his past with witty, elegant rage.
Miranda Sawyer enters the wild imagination of celebrated British conceptual artist Ryan Gander. A cultural magpie renowned for his playful, cryptic and complex creations, Gander is one of the world's most exciting young talents whose creations can sell for up to £500,000. It is a big summer for this Chester-born innovator with works appearing at the Royal Academy and Hayward Gallery, exhibitions all over the world, as well as a massive solo show opening in Manchester in July.
or centuries, folk art has been ignored by the art establishment, but in June 2014 the first national exhibition to look back at the tradition of folk art in this country opens at Tate Britain. Artists Jeremy Deller and Alan Kane get a preview of the show and give their own take on what folk art is. They go on an illuminating tour of British folk art. From Blackpool promenade to customised motorbikes, from shop signs to street parades, they show that, if you look closely, we live in a folk art culture and that folk art is all around us.
All architecture begins with the tent. Tents are what humans lived in before we put down roots and began our love affair with bricks and mortar. And no-one is more obsessed with solid, heavy, permanent buildings than the British. To us, the tent is something flimsy and temporary that we will only endure bedding down in on rare occasions. But has civilisation - and architects in particular - unfairly overlooked the brilliant, efficient design of the tent? In an overcrowded world faced with a housing crisis and dwindling natural resources, could the tent be the answer? Tom Dyckhoff thinks it could well be.
At the height of the punk explosion almost 40 years ago, a handful of women completely redefined what a woman in music could do. Through sheer talent and lack of fear, they pushed themselves on to a male-dominated music scene and became part of a movement that radically changed the cultural landscape. Along with Siouxsie Sioux, Poly Styrene and Chrissie Hynde, the Slits were among punk's most important figures and their guitarist Viv Albertine’s memoir, Clothes, Clothes, Clothes, Music, Music, Music, Boys, Boys, Boys, chronicles life as part of this revolutionary vanguard. Miranda Sawyer meets up with Viv Albertine and some of the other key female figures of the era, including Chrissie Hynde, The Raincoats, and punk anti-heroine Jordan, to look at how they inspired a generation of young women with the notion that anyone could do anything if they wanted to. And she explores whether the punk spirit still survives today.
Hilary Mantel is one of our most assured and successful novelists. She writes blackly comic novels set in the present and confronts our Tudor past in her Thomas Cromwell novels, Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies. She reimagines famous figures from our history, or imagines for herself the life of a psychic medium in the suburbs of Surrey and Berkshire. In fact, everything she writes is historical fiction, because everyone she writes about must deal with their own past. James Runcie meets a writer who has conjured the ghosts of Henry VIII and Lady Diana, and whose latest collection of short stories contemplates the possibility that Margaret Thatcher was assassinated in 1983.
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