Singer Sir Willard White not only has a superb bass/baritone voice, but his acting talent has landed him leading roles in the theatre as well as on the operatic stage. Jamaican by birth, he now lives in England, but this programme takes him back to his homeland to tell the remarkable story of his success. He demonstrates his operatic skills in special recordings of some of his most celebrated roles, and is seen in rehearsals for an English National Opera production of Pelleas and Melisande.
Steve Martin
Comedian Steve Martin is a major box office draw. This programme looks at the development of his career in American entertainment and focuses on his work as the screenwriter and star of L. A. Story, a romantic comedy with a surrealistic Hollywood backdrop. Interviewed during filming, Martin is seen at work on the set, as well as in clips from his films, television appearances and stand-up routines.
Charles Dickens
This programme explores the world of the great novelist Charles Dickens, through the eyes of his biographer Peter Ackroyd. Weaving through the many phases of Dickens’ life, this film shows the recurrent influence of his childhood on his obsessive vision of darkness and light. The mercurial actor John Sessions assumes the role of the writer in a virtuoso performance recalling Dickens’ celebrated Public Readings.
Salman Rushdie
This exclusive interview with writer Salman Rushdie was the first television broadcast he made after going into hiding following the Ayatollah Khomeini’s death threat in the wake of the Satanic Verses controversy. It coincided with the publication of his novel Haroun and the Sea of Stories, written for his young son. He talks frankly about his experiences and about his life and work, which is illustrated with readings and dramatisations.
Soitting Image
The Spitting Image puppets feature in this exploration of the way in which caricature affects public figures and people’s perception of them. Talking from their own experience, luminaries drawn from the political arena, the media and the world of sport comment on the positive and negative aspects of the puppets. The originators of Spitting Image, Roger Law and Peter Fluck, producer John Lloyd, and writers Ian Hislop and Nick Newman, talk about their brain-child.
Russell on Russell
Ken Russell’s tongue-in-cheek biopic – entitled Portrait of an Enfant Terrible – is his critique of his own career. The controversial film-maker traces his own life, covering his beginnings as an infant prodigy, his finest hours in the Battle of Britain and his life in entertainment. Lavishly illustrated with clips, the programme displays all the idiosyncracies viewers have come to expect from Russell: irreverence, theatricality and an ever-surprising visual inventiveness.
The Temba Theatre Company
Britain’s leading Black theatre Company has developed an impressively broad range of work, ranging from the classics to modern and political dramas. Temba’s research into the theatrical traditions of Africa and the Caribbean led to the creation of their production Glory, which draws on the spectacular and vivacious styles they discovered. This programme looks at the play and explores its roots in the company’s own history and in the West Indies.
David Lean and Robert Bolt
Film director David Lean (1908-91) and screen-writer Robert Bolt (1924-95) collaborated on some of the cinema’s greatest successes, including Lawrence of Arabia, Doctor
Zhivago and Ryan’s Daughter. This film was made in 1989 when Bolt, having recovered from a massive heart attack, was working with Lean to develop a feature based on Conrad’s Nostromo. They talk frankly about their working relationship and their friendship, which survived the strains of thirty years in the film business.
Communicado
Communicado, a touring Company which works in Scotland, is one of Britain’s most innovative and exciting theatre groups. This programme follows the development of one of its projects, a daring theatrical extravaganza by Jock Tamson called Bairns. It sits in on rehearsals and witnesses the grand spectacle of the finished piece.
Fitzrovia
The Second World War was a particularly active period for British writers and this literary portrait of that era includes an anthology of their poetry and prose. Anthony Powell, Alan Ross and Roy Fuller represent those who saw military action, and interviewees, including Stephen Spender and Peggy Ashcroft, focus on the experiences of the writers who were in London during the Blitz.