Arts Reports Episode Guide

Episode Guide

Arts Reports: Season 4

• Inky Fingers: The NME Story

  The history of the NME, the world's longest-running music magazine which recently celebrated 3,000 issues. Journalists, editors and musicians reflect on how the publication played a pivotal role in Britain's music scene, championing rising talent in the punk, Madchester and Brit eras, and recall the personalities and conflicts surrounding the magazine. With contributions from Chrissie Hynde, the Kaiser Chiefs, Tony Parsons, Nick Kent, Charles Shaar Murray, Danny Baker, Paul Morley and Steve Lamacq

• When Toby Met Julie: The Story of the Modern Review

  Charting the rise of cultural magazine The Modern Review, from its first appearance in 1991, when Julie Burchill, Cosmo Landesman and Toby Young launched the publication, to its demise after just 21 issues. Contributors Martin Rowson, Nicholas Blincoe and Tom Shone reveal why both high and popular culture were treated equally - a policy which frequently outraged the readership

Arts Reports: Season 3

• The Art of Churchill

  Documentary examining the various artistic depictions of Winston Churchill by painters, sculptors and satirists, including David Low's cartoons, Yousuf Karsh's photographs and Graham Sutherland's infamous painting

• Back to the Barre

  Documentary following writer Laura Thompson as she dons her tutu for the first time in 20 years. Her own hopes of becoming a prima ballerina were dashed by an unexpected growth spurt, so in order to research the world of ballet for her latest book, she joins an amateur company to experience the highs and lows of taking to the stage in front of a demanding audience

• Sarah Waters: Sex and the Victorian City

  Profile of author Sarah Waters, whose Victorian-set tales including Tipping the Velvet and Fingersmith have earned comparisons with Charles Dickens and Wilkie Collins. The programme analyses her inspirations and the combination of period setting and contemporary sexuality in her work, as well as going behind the scenes on the drama

Arts Reports:

• Armani on Screen

  Cameras peer into the home of celebrated fashion and design pioneer Giorgio Armani, in his home town Milan, during men's fashion week. The icon discusses his love of Hollywood and the silver screen, and reveals how his life changed after he designed Richard Gere's wardrobe in American Gigolo. Featuring interviews with Samuel L Jackson, Jodie Foster and Michelle Pfeiffer

• Computers
• Heimat: The Story of a Nation

  Edgar Reitz's epic drama series Heimat, which, through the viewpoints of three families, charts Germany's development since 1919. Here the director talks about tackling challenging subjects such as the rise of Nazism in the 1930s, and the issues raised when the country was reunified in the 1990s, as well as the trials he has faced since beginning the project 25 years ago. With contributions from John Boorman and Richard Eyre

• Jacques Henri Lartigue - The Boy Who Never Grew Up

  Nick Danziger profiles photographer Jacques Henri Lartigue to coincide with the Hayward Gallery's retrospective of his work. Lartigue was an obscure name in the art world until 1962, when a chance encounter brought his work to public attention

• Jasper Johns - Capturing the Flag

  Profile of influential American artist Jasper Johns, whose images of flags, targets and numbers inspired some of the most significant movements of the 1950s and 1960s, including minimalism and pop art. As a retrospective of Johns' more recent work goes on display at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Andrew Graham-Dixon ponders the mysteries of these deceptively simple-looking paintings

• Joan Bakewell: Flowering in Autumn

  Joan Bakewell considers how old age affects artists, discovering it often brings a period of renewed creativity. She also examines scientific findings about the ageing process and the work of some of today's most distinguished painters and sculptors

• Joseph Beuys and Me

  Profile of Joseph Beuys, the German sculptor, draughtsman and shaman who believed society itself should be transformed into a work of art. With contributions from contemporary artists including Antony Gormley, Anish Kapoor and Martin Creed. Beuys work is currently the subject of a major retrospective at Tate Modern

• Lucian Freud's Constable

  Biographer and art critic William Feaver presents this guide to a selection of works by John Constable and Lucian Freud, highlighting the unlikely similarities between two of Britain's most successful artists

• Patrick Hamilton: Words, Whisky and Women

  Profile of author Patrick Hamilton, who first found fame in the 1930s as a playwright, but is most widely acclaimed for his novels depicting everyday urban life. The programme considers why he remains largely forgotten in literary history, despite praise from prominent figures such as Graham Greene and Nick Hornby

• The Pedants' Revolt

  Journalist and broadcaster Victoria Coren investigates the state of the English language, which many claim is in crisis due to an onslaught of split infinitives and misplaced apostrophes. She meets representatives of the Queen's English society and interviews John Humphrys to discover how the champions of good grammar are attempting to fight back

• Saving The Madonna : British Art Treasures in Peril

  Richard Brooks investigates why so many pieces of art are being sold off from British collections and exported overseas, focusing on Raphael's portrait Madonna of the Pinks, which has just been bought by America's Getty Museum for #35million, and asking if anything can be done to prevent further treasures being lost

• Trigger Happy - The Invincible Rise of the Computer Game