The 1980s saw the rise of an exciting new generation of performers on the British comedy scene. This two-part special (also available in a one-hour edit) introduces these comedians and looks at how humour has changed in recent years. It also drops in on an evening at one of the immensely popular comedy clubs that are now flourishing and samples the routines of Alexei Sayle, Lenny Henry, Jo Brand, Rik Mayall, Ruby Wax, Harry Enfield, Ben Elton, Jim Davidson and Chubby Brown.
Rap
This lively programme is an exploration into the world of rap and hip-hop, from ist origins in the streets and block parties of New York’s South Bronx, through the explosion of so-called Gangsta Rap in Los Angeles, to the global spread of rap music. Featured artists include Ice Cube, Public Enemy, Arrested Development and UFO.
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.
Willy Russell
Willy Russell is driven by his desire to reach a wide audience and to tell a good story. His themes of escape, survival and the search for happiness have universal appeal and he has become hugely popular, with hits such as Educating Rita, Shirley Valentine and the musical Blood Brothers to his credit. Illustrated with extracts from his work, this programme centres on an interview with Russell, in which he describes his journey from failed schoolboy to successful writer.
Lynda La Plante
Lynda La Plante is Britain’s most prolific television screenwriter, creator of hard-hitting series such as Widows, Civvies and Framed, Comics and the British Academy and Emmy Award-winning Prime Suspect. Her dramas are gutsy, uncompromising and meticulously accurate. This programme follows La Plante as she researches those areas which have come to characterise her writing: the criminal underworld, police culture, and London low-life.
Peter O’toole
In 1962, Lawrence of Arabia catapulted Peter O’Toole to international stardom, his outstanding performance in David Lean’s cinema epic earning him an immediate place in film history. On screen and off he has forged a reputation based on talent, hell-raising and an ability to surprise. Occasioned by the publication of the first volume of his memoirs, Loitering with Intent, this documentary with the rarely-interviewed actor gives a fascinating insight into his life.
Alice Walker
The African-American author of the internationally-acclaimed book The Color Purple has been a political activist for the civil rights and women’s movements since the early 1960s. Interviewed at the time of the publication of her controversial novel Possessing the Secret of Joy, Alice Walker discusses its subject – female genital mutilation. With archive film, dramatised extracts from the book and documentary sequences, this programme confronts a disturbing issue.
Billy Connolly
Scottish comedian Billy Connolly has become internationally famous as a comic performer, best-known for his unstinting examinations of bodily functions and his broadsides on political and religious establishments. In this profile, he talks about his life and his work, expressing, with typical frankness, his uncompromising attitudes to his family, to wealth and to his treatment by the press. The programme includes extracts from his twenty-fifth anniversary show in Glasgow.
Karol Szymanowski – Song of the Night
This semi-dramatised film delves into the vivid and exotic imagination of the Polish composer Szymanowski (1882-1937). Though dogged by ill health and misfortune, his whole life was a search to find his own creative voice and to develop and contribute to an authentic Polish musical culture. Szymanowski’s music is performed by the Warsaw National Philharmonic, conducted by Kazimierz Kord. Among those interviewed is the late Witold Lutoslawski.
Sacre du printemps/Symphonies for Winds
The rhythmic complexities of the Sacre are notorious but, in the hands of a master of modern music and one of the world’s top orchestras, the London Symphony Orchestra, the elemental barbarism of the music is thrilling. Boulez’s definitive reading of Stravinsky’s masterpiece was recorded live from the Alte Oper Frankfurt, in a performance specially staged for the cameras. The programme includes a short interview with the conductor about this landmark work (available in English, French and German), as well as a performance of Stravinsky’s Symphonies of Wind Instruments.