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.
Bryn Terfel
Bryn Terfel is one of the world’s most sought-after bass-baritones. It is the burly Welshman’s ability to express and colour words in a way that moves even the coldest of hearts that has established his ascendancy in the most illustrious vocal company. This profile charts his rise to fame and focuses on his development of various roles in Mozart’s Don Giovanni. He is seen preparing the role of the Don himself with Sir Georg Solti.
Albert Finney
The British stage and screen actor Albert Finney’s credits include Oscar nominations for his performances in Tom Jones, The Dresser, Under the Volcano and Murder on the Orient Express. He is eloquent about his craft and, over a convivial lunch with writer Melvyn Bragg, he looks back on his career. Finney’s remarkable talent is demonstrated in clips of some of his memorable performances and he is seen at work on Karaoke and Cold Lazarus, Dennis Potter’s last television plays.
Norman Mailer on Picasso
In his book, Portrait of Picasso as a Young Man, Norman Mailer set out to capture an intimate sense of the character of the artist’s genius. At his Cape Cod home, the leading American writer talks in interview about Picasso, demonstrating his great talent for understanding the activity of the most enigmatic and protean of minds. Illustrated with many examples of the artist’s work, this engrossing programme reveals the obsessions shared by Picasso and Mailer: sex and mortality.
Howard Hodgkin
Howard Hodgkin is acknowledged as one of the most inventive and original colourists of the twentieth century. His paintings exist at the margin between representation and abstraction, bright mosaics shot through with glimmerings of recognisable form. They are immensely pleasurable and intended to be enjoyed. Impressionistic in style, this documentary presents a vibrant survey of Hodgkin’s work. Talking in interview, the artist reveals the passions and preoccupations that fuel his creativity.
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.
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.
Roger Ballen
Roger Ballen is an American photographer who lives and works in South Africa. His shocking and moving pictures of poor rural whites confound preconceptions about this troubled country and reveal some of the deeper complexities and contradictions of its tragedy. This film follows Ballen on a photographic shoot in the flat, bleak platteland of the Western Transvaal.
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.