Imagine Episode Guide

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Episode Guide

Imagine: Season 16

  • Season 16 Episode 3: Own Art

    Alan Yentob sheds light on the Own Art scheme, which enables people to borrow up to £2,000 interest-free to purchase new pieces of art for their collections. In the five years since its inception, around 12,500 people have signed up, most of whom earn less than the national average income. Yentob meets some of the people who have joined, including a pig farmer, a factory worker and a police officer, who explain how they came to appreciate art and how the project has helped them

  • Season 16 Episode 2: Dame Shirley Bassey: The Girl from Tiger Bay

    Alan Yentob marks the completion of Shirley Bassey's album The Performance, the David Arnold-produced record that is her first studio release in two decades, by examining a selection of her greatest archive performances. He also meets some of the songwriters who contributed to the album, including Gary Barlow, Pet Shop Boys, Manic Street Preachers, KT Tunstall and frequent James Bond composer John Barry

  • Season 16 Episode 1: The Year of Anish Kapoor

    Alan Yentob follows the progress of celebrated sculptor Anish Kapoor's solo exhibition at the Royal Academy, an event that marks the first time a living British artist has been granted the whole gallery space. The presenter reveals the inspiration behind Kapoor's mysterious works, and discovers how the artist has captivated the public imagination through his inventive use of reflective surfaces and dark voids

Imagine: Season 13

  • Season 13 Episode 6: Art in Troubled Times - Part Two

    Conclusion. Alan Yentob traces the story of arts funding in Britain from World War Two, when artists rallied round to produce work for their country, to the formation of the Arts Council and present-day economic crisis. As the recession bites and finances become increasingly scarce, he asks whether modern culture can pull the nation together and transform entire cities the way it did in the 1940s

  • Season 13 Episode 5: Art in Troubled Times: A New Deal for Art - Part One

    The first of two documentaries examining the way the arts can help people to weather the storm of economic instability. In this first programme, Alan Yentob sheds light on Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal of the Thirties, which put America's artisans to use raising public morale during the Great Depression. He also discovers how President Obama's words are inspiring modern practitioners, and learns why one inner-city school is able to keep art on the curriculum thanks to an unlikely sponsor

  • Season 13 Episode 4: The Colourful Mr Eggleston

    Reviled by the critical community in the 1970s, the work of American photographer William Eggleston is now commonly regarded as an influence on many film-makers. In this programme, Alan Yentob follows the normally elusive artist as he tours his native Memphis, Tennessee , in search of new subject matter for his latest portfolio

  • Season 13 Episode 3: Rufus Wainwright, Prima Donna

    Documentary examining the rise of Canadian-American singer-songwriter Rufus Wainwright. He talks candidly about coming from a family of notable musicians and his troubled history with drugs. The programme also charts the progress of his first opera Prima Donna, which is set to open at the Manchester International Festival on July 10

  • Season 13 Episode 2: David Hockney - A Bigger Picture

    An intimate portrait of Bradford-born artist David Hockney, filmed over the three years following his return to the UK after living in California. This programme charts the painter's work on Bigger Trees Near Warter - his largest ever composition and an affectionate examination of the landscape of his native Yorkshire

  • Season 13 Episode 1: Save the Last Dance For Me

    Alan Yentob follows the Company of Elders - an over 60s dance ensemble. The presenter meets the team members as they learn and rehearse their latest contemporary choreography, which is to be performed at the world-famous venue of Sadler's Wells. The film also explores the stories behind some of the artists, including 61-year-old Alison, who fell into a coma for eight years at the age of 27, and Geoff who, at 85, confesses that dancing has taken over his life

Imagine: Season 12 (2008)

  • Season 12 Episode 7: Heavy Metal in Baghdad

    Documentary charting five years in the lives of Marwan Ryad, Faisal Talal, Firal al Lateef and Tony Aziz, who together are Acrassicauda, Iraq's first heavy metal rock band. The quartet met in high school during the Ba'athist regime's dictatorship, and bonded over their shared love of western music. However, heavy metal trademarks such as goatee beards and tattoos were outlawed under Saddam Hussein, and the group's defiant pursuit of fame forced them to become a real life band on the run. Last in the series

  • Season 12 Episode 6: Richard Serra: Man of Steel

    The life and work of modern artist Richard Serra, whose medium of choice is steel, which he forms to awe-inspiring effect into site-specific monoliths that aim to terrify and mesmerise in equal measure. Serra believes the viewer creates the sculpture for themselves by being within it, as is demonstrated when a diverse group of art-lovers give their impressions of some of his works. With contributions by Chuck Close, Philip Glass and Glenn D Lowry, director of New York's Museum of Modern Art

  • Season 12 Episode 5: How an Orchestra Saved Venezuela's Children

    A music project known as the Sistema, which transforms the lives of poor children in Venezuela, and a similar scheme called the Big Noise, which has just started on the Raploch estate in Stirling, and aims to give all local youngsters access to classical stringed instruments in their first year at primary school. Alan Yentob presents

  • Season 12 Episode 4: Let There Be Light

    From Liliane Lijn's ethereal Stardust Project to Charles Ross' Solar Burn illustrations, which were drawn by the sun itself, this programme examines the work of artists whose primary medium is light. American installation craftsman James Turrell, a leading figure in the light-art scene, discusses why the style has such a powerful effect on the senses

  • Season 12 Episode 3: Jay-Z: He Came, He Saw, He Conquered

    For six months, Alan Yentob accompanied chart-topping rapper-turned-business-mogul Jay-Z through key moments in his career, including his triumphant - and somewhat controvertial - headline performance at Glastonbury. This documentary presents an insight into the artist's hectic world, and explores a hitherto undocumented side to his ambitions. Includes contributions from friends Chris Martin and P. Diddy

  • Season 12 Episode 2: A Love Story

    From the most sweepingly epic books and films, to the most successful pop songs, love has proven a valuable tool for inspiration. Pulitzer prize-winning novelist Jeffrey Eugenides is joined by Bridget Jones author Helen Fielding, lyricist Hal David, psychoanalyst Adam Phillips and literature professor John Sutherland to discuss what makes this most unique of human emotions such an effective muse for the creative arts

  • Season 12 Episode 1: Akram Khan

    British-Bangladeshi choreographer Akram Khan and Oscar-winning French actress Juliette Binoche team up for a collaborative performance entitled In-I. However, Akram first faces the daunting task of teaching Juliette to dance in time to perform in front of the National Theatre's discerning audience. Features interviews with Sylvie Guillem, Joseph Fiennes, Anthony Gormley, Nitin Sawhney and Anish Kapoor

Imagine: Season 11

  • Season 11 Episode 7: Love, Loss and Anthony Minghella

    Alan Yentob is joined by a distinguished list of contributors including Nicole Kidman, Jude Law, Alan Rickman and Ralph Fiennes to pay tribute to Academy Award-winning director Anthony Minghella, director of films including The English Patient and Cold Mountain, who died suddenly in March aged 54

  • Season 11 Episode 6: Werner Herzog: Beyond Reason

    Alan Yentob travels to Los Angeles to meet acclaimed director, screenwriter and producer Werner Herzog. The pair discuss Herzog's career to date, including films such as Rescue Dawn, Grizzly Man and Fitzcarraldo - one of several projects that saw him working with eccentric actor Klaus Kinski. They also talk about what the future might hold for a man known to be uncompromising in his search for the truth. Part of Werner Herzog night

  • Season 11 Episode 5: A Wild Sheep Chase: In Search of Haruki Murakami

    Alan Yentob visits Japan to find out more about the world of internationally acclaimed author Haruki Murakami. He travels to Tokyo and Kobe, delving into the social and political background of Murakami's literature. He also meets some of the reclusive writer's fans, critics, translators and even a talking cat, before Murakami gives a rare off-camera interview, explaining why privacy is essential to his work

  • Season 11 Episode 4: A Trip to Asia: On the Road with the Berlin Philharmonic

    Documentary following the musicians of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra along with conductor Simon Rattle as they set off on a concert tour of Asia. The players discuss life with and without the Orchestra, the friendships they forge while on the road together and the immense pressure of performing

  • Season 11 Episode 3: Annie Leibovitz - Life Through A Lens

    Internationally-renowned photographer Annie Leibovitz, who has captured famous faces from Demi Moore through Yoko Ono to the Queen, is the subject of this intimate profile by her sister Barbara. Always controversial, the last 12 months have seen the American at the heart of two scandals - 15-year-old Disney star Miley Cyrus pictured in just a sheet, and Her Majesty in the infamous storming-out episode

  • Season 11 Episode 2: Oliver Sacks: Tales of Music and the Brain

    Investigation into the profound impact music can have on the human brain. Alan Yentob investigates case studies from neurologist Dr Oliver Sacks' latest book Musicophillia, including a man who developed a passion for piano playing after being struck by lightning and a man whose severe Tourettes disappears when he plays the drums

  • Season 11 Episode 1: Doris Lessing The Hostess And The Alien

    New series of the documentary strand. Profile of 88-year-old author and winner of the 2007 Nobel Prize for Literature, Doris Lessing. Alan Yentob meets Doris to discuss her literary output as well as her work with the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. They also talk about her communist beliefs and how they help shape her books

Imagine: Season 10

  • Season 10 Episode 8: Marc Newson - Urban Spaceman

    Alan Yentob meets Australian industrial designer Marc Newson, responsible for projects as diverse as cars and coat hangers. With his lounge suites among the most sought-after in the world, his latest undertaking is a new fleet of sub-orbital airliners that could revolutionise travel. Last in series

  • Season 10 Episode 7: Richard Rogers, Inside Out

    Multi award-winning architect Richard Rogers describes the people and places that have most influenced his designs and looks back on some of his most famous design projects, including the Pompidou Centre in Paris and Lloyds' building in London. Presented by Alan Yentob

  • Season 10 Episode 4: Louise Bourgeois, Spiderwoman

    Alan Yentob profiles provocative French-born American artist Louise Bourgeois, who is still at the cutting edge at almost 96. Talking to the famous figures including Tracey Emin and Antony Gormley, who are inspired by her unsettling products such as giant spiders and plastic body parts, he discovers the emotions behind her most disturbing and inspirational works

  • Season 10 Episode 3: Helvetica

    Used every day in the newspapers, magazines and shop fronts, helvetica is celebrating it's 50th anniversary. Dubbed the most popular typeface in the world, Alan Yentob investigates how something designed by a little-known Swiss designer in 1957 has become a global phenomenon

  • Season 10 Episode 2: Bollywood's Big B

    Alan Yentob meets Amitabh Bachchan, probably the biggest star on the Indian movie scene. Despite a career spanning more than 30 years and winning a BBC poll for the Star of the Millennium, he is virtually unknown in the West. Looking back over his 160 films, the history of cinema on the sub-continent is examined by British Asians, Sanjeev Bhaskar and Hardeep Singh Koli

  • Season 10 Episode 1: Henry Perkins: Bolshoi Boy

    Alan Yentob meets Henry Perkins, an acclaimed British ballet dancer and only the second boy from this nation to be invited to train with the elite Bolshoi Ballet in Moscow in 230 years. He took up the opportunity in 2006, and now aged 15 describes the gruelling regimen taking place 1,500 miles from his Hampshire home

Imagine: Season 9

  • Season 9 Episode 6: Damon and Jamie's Excellent Adventure

    Alan Yentob talks to Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett, the artists behind Gorillaz, about their successful creative partnership and latest ambitious venture. Monkey: Journey to the West is an opera based on the Chinese literary classic of the same name to be performed entirely in Mandarin, and the presenter follows the pair as they adapt to their new roles and put the project into action

  • Season 9 Episode 4: It's The Surreal Thing

    Alan Yentob considers why the concept of surrealism is regarded as one of the most successful revolutions of the 20th century, despite being criticised as overblown and out-moded by many contemporary artists including Salvador Dali and Rene Magritte. The presenter examines the history of the idea and its legacies with contributions from director Michel Gondry and poet George Melly

  • Season 9 Episode 3: Scott Walker: 30 Century Man

    Profile of singer-songwriter Scott Walker showing him at work on his most recent album The Drift. Leading artists and acts, including David Bowie, Lulu and Radiohead, discuss how their careers were influenced by the musician's ever-changing material. Damon Albarn, Alison Goldfrapp and Sting are among the other stars who piece together the enigmatic singer's story

  • Season 9 Episode 2: Stealing Klimt

    The struggle of 90-year-old Maria Altmann to recover five Gustav Klimt paintings stolen from her family by the Nazis in Vienna, including how her efforts to reclaim the works took her into a battle against the American government. She finally got her hands on the pieces in 2006, and sold one for a record $135million

  • Season 9 Episode 1: Gilbert and George: No Surrender

    New series of the documentary strand. Alan Yentob examines the work of controversial artists Gilbert and George as they prepare for the opening of their recent retrospective at the Tate Modern. This intimate portrait considers how the pair's working relationship functions and also includes a look inside their East End home, where they have lived for the past 40 years

Imagine: Season 8 (2004)

  • Season 8 Episode 10: The Beatles in 'LOVE'

    Documentary about Love, a show launched this year in Las Vegas that combines the music of the Beatles - re-mixed and re-mastered by George Martin and his son Giles - with the dramatic visual effects of Cirque du Soleil. The music producer known as 'the fifth Beatle' demonstrates how the soundtrack was created, while Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr are among the guests giving their approval to the final product

  • Season 8 Episode 9: And Then There Was Television

    Exploring the development of television and the BBC on the 70th anniversary of the first highly defined TV broadcast from Alexandra Palace. Alan Yentob follows pioneering engineers and on-screen talent back to the studios, where they reminisce about the early days, including the famous potter's wheel 'interlude' shown when the cameras failed. Last in series

  • Season 8 Episode 8: www.herecomeseverybody.co.uk

    Alan Yentob tells the story of the Internet, and explores the impact it has had on Western culture. He discovers how the resource has revolutionised the way people listen to music and meets its inventor, Tim Berners-Lee. Veteran director Ken Russell also reveals what the freedom of the web offers him, and Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales discusses the conception of the online encyclopaedia

  • Season 8 Episode 7: Being a Diva

    Alan Yentob presents this insight into the lives of some of today's great operatic heroines - including Kiri Te Kanawa, Renee Fleming, Angela Gheorghiu and Frederica Von Stade - in an attempt to discover what it takes to survive and succeed in this ultra-competitive field. Opera has always needed its superstars, but Alan investigates if the singers still need to be 'divas' in the modern sense of the word to become successful

  • Season 8 Episode 6: Hans Holbein, International Man of Mystery

    Alan Yentob investigates the life and work of artist Hans Holbein, known as the father of British painting, while David Frost, Chris Patten, Lisa Jardine and Tom Hunter collaborate to recreate one of his most famous works, The Ambassadors. Plus, Holbein's early life in Basel is revealed, along with the role he played in Henry VIII's search for a suitable wife

  • Season 8 Episode 5: Who Cares About Art?

    Profiling people who look after works of art, including a museum watcher at St Petersburg's Hermitage whose life fell apart when the Soviet Union collapsed, and an 82-year-old Cambodian sweeper at Angkor's Ta Prohm temple. Also portrayed are a 12-year-old Louvre gallery attendant with just one arm and leg, the live-in custodian of the Sandham Memorial Chapel, and the head of the guards at the Uffizi Gallery. Part of The Art of Arts TV week

  • Season 8 Episode 4: The Movie Brats... Take Two

    Alan Yentob meets the up-and-coming maverick Hollywood directors including Wes Anderson, Alexander Payne of Sideways fame and Three Kings director David O Russell, who, led by film pioneers Steven Soderbergh and Quentin Tarantino, are radicalising American cinema

  • Season 8 Episode 3: A Play for Today

    Alan Yentob follows Jeremy Weller as he stages a play at the newly refurbished Roundhouse theatre in Camden, London. However, with only one actor on his team, he has to train a cast made up of youngsters from the streets and ex-offenders who have no previous experience in the performing arts

  • Season 8 Episode 2: Velazquez, The Painter's Painter

    Portrait of Diego Velazquez to coincide with the exhibition of his work at the National Gallery. Alan Yentob traces the artist's footsteps, travelling to Madrid, where the artist was court painter to Philip IV of Spain, as well as visiting Seville, Rome and New York

  • Season 8 Episode 1: Peter Pan, A Hard Act to Follow

    As Great Ormond St Hospital prepares to lose the rights to Peter Pan, Alan Yentob looks at the life of its author JM Barrie, who made the book a lifetime's obsession. He heads to the writer's birthplace of Kirriemuir, near Dundee, as well as visiting Kensington Gardens, where the boy who wouldn't grow up was himself born. Finally, he meets the author Geraldine McCaughrean, who was commissioned to write a sequel

Imagine: Season 7

  • Season 7 Episode 4: Howard Hodgkin

    Profile of reclusive artist Howard Hodgkin. Famously unwilling to talk about his work, the painter counts Seamus Heaney and William Boyd among his fans, and his work is soon to be the subject of a major retrospective exhibition at Tate Britain. Presenter Alan Yentob travels with him to India, a country he describes as his 'emotional lifeline', as the pair view Hodgkin's huge mural in New Delhi. Last in series

  • Season 7 Episode 3: The Ingenious Thomas Heatherwick

    Alan Yentob presents a profile of Thomas Heatherwick, the British designer seen as one of the most exciting figures in the industry at just 36 years old. Famous for his sculpture The B of the Bang in Manchester, the largest piece of public art in the country, the programme follows him as he prepares to unveil his latest creation in a handbag store in New York

  • Season 7 Episode 2: The Artist Formerly Known as Cat Stevens

    Profile of Yusuf Islam, the singer-songwriter formerly known as Cat Stevens, who was responsible for hits such as Morning Has Broken and Father and Son before turning his back on his career to convert to Islam. Alan Yentob asks him about spiritual depression, the importance of Islam in his life, and his return to music after 23 years. Part of Cat Stevens night

  • Season 7 Episode 1: Being Hamlet

    Alan Yentob presents a new series of arts documentaries, beginning by investigating how the title role in Shakespeare's Hamlet has become a rite of passage for actors including Ralph Fiennes, Derek Jacobi and Jonathan Pryce. The programme follows five actors rehearsing to play the tragic hero

Imagine: Season 5

  • Season 5 Episode 3: EPISODE: 3

    Alan Yentob concludes the series by looking at the plethora of skyscrapers which have become symbols of the future in the East. He travels to Hong Kong, where the ancient wisdom of feng shui underpins the ultra-modern facade of high-rise living, looks at the new landmark structures in Dubai that have emerged as a powerful marketing tool for the country, and visits Shanghai - the largest building site in the world and currently a goldmine for Western architects

  • Season 5 Episode 2: EPISODE: 2

    An examination of the cultural legacy of the skyscraper, focusing on the global impact of European architects Le Corbusier and Mies Van Der Rohe, whose designs changed the skylines of countless cities. Alan Yentob explores the utopian housing schemes of post-war Britain, the glass-and-steel boxes of the 1950s and the fatal flaws in the dream of tower-block housing projects on both sides of the Atlantic

  • Season 5 Episode 1: EPISODE: 1

    Alan Yentob charts the history of skyscrapers, moving from the Great Pyramid to the contemporary race to design the world's tallest building. He begins with the story of the technology that made it all possible, recounting how Elisha Otis's demonstration of his safety lift became the star turn at the World's Fair in 1854

Imagine: Season 4 (2004)

Imagine: Season 3 (2004)

Imagine: Season 2 (2003)

Imagine: Season 1 (2003 - 2007)

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