George Shearing, blind since birth, is one of the world’s greatest living jazz pianists. Filmed on both sides of the Atlantic, this tribute to Shearing showcases the music which took the jazz world by storm. Specially-shot performances and archive clips feature music spanning the six decades of his remarkable career and classics such as September in the Rain, Lullaby of Birdland, Greensleeves, Donna Lee and Freedom Jazz Dance are included, as well as many other recent compositions.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Comedy Special
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.
John Steinbeck
This profile of one of the most popular writers of the twentieth century reassesses this classic American novelist and reveals that there is more to his work than the gritty social realism normally associated with his name. Shot on location in the places that inspired Steinbeck’s books, the programme includes interviews with his widow, his biographer and others who knew him.
Bauhaus
The Bauhaus (1919-33) is the most famous school of architecture, design and craftsmanship of modern times. It helped establish a relationship between design and industry. ‘Bauhaus’ became synonymous with rationalised, sharp-edged, machine-based style. This programme looks at the development of the Bauhaus and at key figures involved in it, as well as setting its history in the context of the political unrest and economic chaos of the Weimar Republic.
Ken Loach
Ever since he first began making films in the 1960s, Ken Loach’s concern with social injustice has informed his work. Interviews with Loach and with his long-time producer Tony Garnett, as well as extracts from his films, form the basis for an examination of how this modest and self-effacing man has managed to survive with his political beliefs intact.
Kaguyahime
Kaguyahime is one of Japan’s oldest fairytales. The story of the mysterious Moon Princess inspired Jirí Kylián to create a full-length ballet and to commission a score from the Japanese composer Maki Ishii. Through ist use of western percussion instruments and Japanese drums, the work combines both occidental and oriental elements, ist rhythmic vitality providing a musical structure for the poetic tale. Woodwind instruments extend the tonal colour, as does the use of traditional Gagaku music from the Japanese court.
When Jirí Kylián first discovered the fairytale, he found two compelling reasons to choreograph it. First, he was interested in the way the story combines realistic and supernatural elements as only fairytales can; and secondly, he was fascinated by what the tale reveals of Japanese culture through the interplay of the earth and the moon.