In an interview filmed in his native Hungary, one of Europe’s leading directors, Istvan Szabo, talks about his beliefs, his background and his career. His vision is illustrated with extensive clips from his work, from the early award-winning Father to Hanussen. Lighting cameraman Lajos Koltai talks about his collaboration with the film-maker, as does actor Klaus Maria Brandauer, who was critically acclaimed for his performances in Szabo’s Oscar-winning Mephisto and Colonel Redi.
The New World Symphony Orchestra
The New World Symphony, the USA’s first permanent national training orchestra, was the inspiration of the celebrated American conductor, Michael Tilson Thomas. It enables the country’s finest musical graduates to be part of a musical community that lives and works together before they find full-time professional positions. This film joined Tilson Thomas and the orchestra as they prepared for their second concert season.
Choirs and Places Where They Sing
This programme explores the British Choral tradition – the choirs, the composers and the reasons why the British love to sing together. With the help of many choirs and choral societies – from Westminster Abbey to Watford football ground – the programme traces one thousand years of British Choral music. The guide is Simon Preston, organist and master of the choristers at Westminster Abbey.
Lenny Henry
Black comedian Lenny Henry is one of the most popular and successful entertainers in the UK today. He has built up an incredibly broad audience, uniting both young and old, black and white in appreciation of his particular brand of humour. This film takes Lenny back to his home town of Dudley in the West Midlands and uses specially-written comedy sketches, featuring his favourite characterisations, to explore his unique comic talent.
Derek Walcott
West Indian poet and playwright Derek Walcott has an unrivalled reputation among his peers and has been described by many, Salman Rushdie and the late Joseph Brodsky among them, as the greatest living English language poet. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1992. He now teaches at Boston University but returns to his native St. Lucia every summer to write. This programme was shot on location there and shows how Walcott sets out to capture the beauty of this Caribbean island in words.
Nicaragua
Nicaragua’s terrorist troubles are well-known, but not so its other political phenomenon. When this programme was made in 1988, during turbulent peace negotiations, the
country was controlled almost entirely by prominent creative writers – from the President and his ministers, to key figures in the Opposition. The remarkable developments instigated by this literary government are shown in this film.
Late Shakespeare
Peter Hall ended his distinguished fifteen-year reign as director of Britain’s Royal National Theatre by staging three of Shakespeare’s last plays – Cymbeline, The Tempest and The Winter’s Tale. This programme follows Hall and his actors from the first read-through up to the dress rehearsal, sharing the discoveries they made about Shakespeare’s plays along the way.
Doris Lessing
Doris Lessing is one of Britain’s greatest contemporary novelists. Her career spans some fifty years and her many books explore a multiplicity of themes; feminism, communism, religion, madness, civilisation and the future of Western society. She has ranged through realistic fiction, science fantasy, factual writing and mythic parable. In this programme, Lessing talks about her writing and her highly original view of the world.
Terence Conran
Terence Conran opened the first Habitat store in the early 1960s and single-handedly changed the face ot home style. In this programme he talks about his life, elaborates on his missionary vision of “good design for all” and shows viewers round his own home. The film demonstrates how a typical 1950s living room was transformed by Conran’s innovative ideas, and a Habitat product is followed from conception to completion.
Frank Rich
The influential American drama critic talks to Melvyn Bragg about the different influences which are radically altering the cultural life of New York – from the preoccupation with real estate and the dominance of corporate money, to AIDS.