Rushdie’s novel The Moor’s Last Sigh culminates in the search for a portrait that has been painted over. His starting point for the book was his interest in a real lost portrait – one of his mother, painted some fifty years ago. Unfolding a tale as fabulous as Rushdie’s fiction, this programme travels to India in search of this painting. Meanwhile, in London, the author talks about The Moor’s Last Sigh and the extraordinary conditions in which it was written. As he speaks, he himself is being painted by Bhupen Khakar, one of his favourite Indian artists.
Martin Amis
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.
Paul Bowles
The outstanding literary talent of the American writer Paul Bowles (1910-99) was recognised internationally and he was also a composer of some note. After the Second World War he settled in Tangier and became increasingly reclusive. This film biography centres on a rare interview with Bowles, who reads passages from his books, including The Sheltering Sky.
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
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.
Dame Barbara Cartland
A glorious eccentric of the truly British variety, Dame Barbara Cartland (1901-2000) remains the world’s most famous romantic novelist. Her tales of square-jawed heroes and melting, virginal heroines sell in their millions world-wide. This film was made with her when she was in her late nineties, still writing an average of twenty-three novels a year and actively involved with her favourite good causes. Seen at her stately home in Hertfordshire, and on a trip to New York, Dame Barbara is indomitable.
Tom Sharpe
Tom Sharpe is one of Britain’s finest comic novelists. Focusing on Grantchester Grind, this programme examines the blend of free-wheeling fantasy and acute comment that characterise his bawdy disaster epics, which build from small scrapes into avalanches of hilarious rudery. As well as discussing his writing and the subject of literature, Sharpe talks about his life and his experience of living in South Africa in the 1950s. Extracts from the television dramatisations of Porterhouse Blue and Blott on the Landscape are included.
Dame Judi Dench
Gifted as both a comedienne and a tragic actress, Dame Judi Dench’s career spans over four decades and has encompassed stage, television and film roles. For this programme, the cameras were allowed generous access to film Dench as she rehearsed the lead role in the Sondheim musical A Little Night Music at the Royal National Theatre in London. In addition to this fascinating insight into her method of developing a role, there is an in-depth interview with this remarkable actress.
New Generation Poets
This television anthology samples the work of twenty contemporary British poets and considers the function of poetry in today’s society. Poems are presented in an exciting, accessible and visually imaginative way, forming a vivid kaleidoscope of words and images.
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.