Martin Amis’s novel The Information is an hilarious, haunted, painful assault on what it means to be a writer. It is also about mid-life crisis. In a searching interview with fellow novelist Melvyn Bragg, Amis talks in detail about this book. Literary envy and vanity, the politics of publishing, the uncertain status of the author in our culture, the terror of ageing and the urge for immortality are all broached in this compelling and stimulating exchange. The programme includes dramatised extracts and readings from The Information.
Ten Great Writers
This series examines the lives and principal works of ten great modernist writers, the giants of European literature at the turn of the nineteenth Century, whose thought and writing foreshadowed the age to come and whose influence is still felt today. Each programme explores the unique imaginative world of its subject, combining drama, documentary and critical explanation. “Anyone who sees the series, will acquire a remarkably clear idea of the Modern movement in literature and what it represents: in technique, experimentation and introspection; in content, paranoia and despair.” (Financial Times) Joseph Conrad (R0327) Fyodor Dostoevsky (R0225) T.S. Eliot (R0311) Henrik Ibsen (R0310) James Joyce (R0199) Franz Kafka (R0273) Thomas Mann (R0275) Luigi Pirandello (R279) Marcel Proust (R0281) Virginia Woolf (R0274) A follow-up programme is available, in which a panel of writers, including series consultant Malcolm Bradbury, discusses ideas which have been raised. Silver Medal, New York International Film and TV Festival Cable Ace, Best International Cuitural Series
Norman Mailer on Picasso
In his book, Portrait of Picasso as a Young Man, Norman Mailer set out to capture an intimate sense of the character of the artist’s genius. At his Cape Cod home, the leading American writer talks in interview about Picasso, demonstrating his great talent for understanding the activity of the most enigmatic and protean of minds. Illustrated with many examples of the artist’s work, this engrossing programme reveals the obsessions shared by Picasso and Mailer: sex and mortality.
William Blake
As a biographer of William Blake, novelist Peter Ackroyd acts as guide to the visionary imagination of one of England’s most fascinating sons. Born in 1757, the poet, painter and engraver was a radical spirit, fired by genius. Ackroyd examines Blake’s artistic achievement and assesses his continuing appeal for revolutionaries of every kind. He also conjures up the dark, violent, depressing world of late-Georgian London. Actor Michael Loughnan portrays Blake.
Roger Ballen
Roger Ballen is an American photographer who lives and works in South Africa. His shocking and moving pictures of poor rural whites confound preconceptions about this troubled country and reveal some of the deeper complexities and contradictions of its tragedy. This film follows Ballen on a photographic shoot in the flat, bleak platteland of the Western Transvaal.
P. J. O’Rourke
P. J. O’Rourke is America’s funniest political satirist. He combines brilliant humour with a right-wing libertarianism that verges on anarchism. In best-selling books such as
Republican Party Reptile, Parliament of Whores and Holidays in Hell, he has attacked the absurdities of political life and savaged his opponents with style and wit. In these days of political correctness, he endeavours to offend as many people as he can. Filmed at the writer’s home in New Hampshire, this programme explores the O’Rourke phenomenon.
Alan Ayckbourn
After Shakespeare, Alan Ayckbourn is the world’s most frequently performed English language playwright. This programme gives a unique insight into the genius of this consummate theatre practitioner, recording a lively and amusing workshop in comedy writing and construction he gave to an invited audience.
Jean-Claude Carriere
Over the last thirty years, few writers have made as significant a contribution to European cinema as Jean-Claude Carrière. In this programme he gives an in-depth interview about his work as a screenwriter, talking about his experiences of collaborating with directors such as Jacques Tati, Louis Malle, Luis Buñuel, Andrezj Wajda and Jean-Paul Rappeneau. Clips from their films are used to illustrate his methods and approach.
John Steinbeck
This profile of one of the most popular writers of the twentieth century reassesses this classic American novelist and reveals that there is more to his work than the gritty social realism normally associated with his name. Shot on location in the places that inspired Steinbeck’s books, the programme includes interviews with his widow, his biographer and others who knew him.
Ken Loach
Ever since he first began making films in the 1960s, Ken Loach’s concern with social injustice has informed his work. Interviews with Loach and with his long-time producer Tony Garnett, as well as extracts from his films, form the basis for an examination of how this modest and self-effacing man has managed to survive with his political beliefs intact.