Montserrat Caballé is undoubtedly one of the supreme operatic sopranos of the post-war era and her association with the late Freddie Mercury and Queen brought her a huge new audience. This film portrait celebrates her long, distinguished and uniquely varied career. It centres on a major interview with Caballé and features numerous performance extracts. There are also contributions from some of opera’s biggest names, including Dame Joan Sutherland, Placido Domingo and José Carreras.
Dracula
Bram Stoker’s novel Dracula was first published in 1897. Since then, the Count and his fellow vampires have become some of the most familiar figures in horror movies and stories. This programme explores the social and psychological anxieties which lie behind Stoker’s book and its fascination with death, disease, social order and sexual repression. A wealth of film clips is included.
Frank Lloyd Wright
Six months before the completion of his most famous landmark, the Guggenheim Museum in New York, Frank Lloyd Wright died. He had struggled for seventeen years to realise his crowning architectural vision and in those six months many of his plans were mutilated. His true intentions were only realised following restoration work that took place 1990-92. In this film, leading architect Richard Rogers tells the story of the secret life of the Guggenheim.
Jeff Koons
‘Vulgar’, ‘banal’ and ‘pornographic’, are all words that have been used to describe the work of American sculptor Jeff Koons. This master of self-publicity is best known for his kitsch novelties, and photographs and sculptures of himself in Kama Sutra positions with his ex-wife, La Cicciolina. Not since Duchamp and Warhol has any artist so dramatically polarised critical opinion and provoked such controversy. In this revealing profile, Koons is seen working on a major creation – a fourteen-metre-high puppy built entirely of fresh flowers.
Two Ballerinas at the Royal Ballet: Viviana Durante & Darcy Russell
This programme focuses on two of The Royal Ballet’s outstanding ballerinas and affords an insight into the methods of the company itself and the sacrifices necessary to achieve success in the dance world today. Partnered by Irek Mukhamedov and Zoltan Solymosi, Durante and Bussell are seen performing a wide range of work, from nineteenth-century classics such as Giselle and Swan Lake, to modern works. Many key figures in British ballet make contributions.
Arthur Miller
Arthur Miller is universally regarded as one of the world’s leading contemporary playwrights, with modern classics including Death of a Salesman and The Crucible to his credit. This interview with Miller was recorded as The Ride Down Mount Morgan opened in London. Written when he was seventy-six, it was his first full-length play in more than a decade. Miller talks about the piece, revealing not only his disenchantment with American theatre and culture, but also his deep concern for the moral and spiritual welfare of his country.
Colin Thubron
This programme follows the celebrated travel writer Colin Thubron into the Muslim republic of Uzbekistan. It gathers impressions of past and present, landscape and buildings, ordinary people and everyday customs. But, above all, it is a portrait of the writer himself, of the passions and hardships of his craft, of the peculiar mixture of robustness and sensitivity required of him.
Noel Coward
Noel Coward (1899-1973) left a legacy of more than fifty plays, four hundred songs, several volumes of prose and verse and twenty film appearances. Appraising the work of this consummate theatrical artist, this portrait includes contributions from friends and colleagues, and specially-staged excerpts from his best plays. Extensive interviews with Coward are featured, recorded at his homes in Jamaica and in England, and material from his private archive illustrates his story.
Douglas Adams
The Hitch-Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy established Douglas Adams (1952-2001) as a hugely successful comic writer. Filmed at his London home as he grappled with book five of the Hitch-Hiker ‘trilogy’, Adams discusses his work and his influences. His love of computers is reflected in the programme and, in addition to broadcast extracts from Hitch-Hiker, Adam’s literary creations invade his house, observing proceedings from their parallel universe.
Anthony Hopkins
Famed for his Oscar-winning portrayal of Hannibal Lecter in The Silence of the Lambs, the charismatic actor Anthony Hopkins talks frankly about his career in this revealing profile. He talks about the sense of isolation he suffered for much of his life, about his alcoholism and the moment he chose to stop drinking his life away. With location filming in his native Wales and in America, the programme traces his formative influences and looks at his career on both sides of the Atlantic.