Throng

Sunday, 25 October 2009, 10:15PM - 11:15PM

Melvyn Bragg talks to Nick Hornby about his latest novel, Juliet, Naked and the release of the film, An Education, for which he wrote the screenplay.

The South Bank Show explores how Nick Hornby’s career as a writer has been influenced by, and reflected in film since his first book, Fever Pitch, was published in 1992 - an autobiographical story detailing his fanatical support for Arsenal Football Club. Since then, he has written five best-selling novels, several of which adapted into feature films including High Fidelity and About a Boy.

Sunday, 18 October 2009, 10:15PM - 11:15PM

The South Bank Show looks at the work and world of Lee Hall, and how his works sprang from the culture of coal and his roots in the North East of England.

Melvyn Bragg meets Lee Hall at the Woodhorn Colliery Museum at Ashington in Northumberland; where they discuss his works, including the sense of loss that pervades both Billy Elliot and Pitman Painters – the longing for the certainties of the culture that accompanied coal – the bands, the banners, the painting and the writing. Lee talks about growing up in East Newcastle and his early work with the Tyneside Youth Theatre and Live community theatre group who are currently performing Pitmen Painters at the Royal National Theatre in London and on tour – before taking it to Broadway.

Sunday, 11 October 2009, 10:15PM - 11:15PM

The Disney.Pixar South Bank Show is a celebration of the creative talents of the hand drawn animation and groundbreaking computer animation techniques that the two studios have brought to film-making.

Pioneered by Disney at the beginning of the last century and continued by Pixar at the beginning of the present one, the South Bank Show discovers the secrets behind the animation process of the Disney Animation Studios in Burbank and the Pixar Studios in San Francisco - from story board to silver screen, and shows how they are currently leading the way in the genre.

With great archive footage from such classic films as Bambi to Wall.E, the much loved characters capture the hearts and imaginations of millions, and their creators show how with extraordinary attention to detail, passion and unique care they imbue such life into them.

Sunday, 4 October 2009, 10:15PM - 11:15PM

Award-winning artist Alison Jackson has made a film for The South Bank Show, looking in to our obsession with celebrity through the works of Andy Warhol.

Alison explores how Andy Warhol understood the power of celebrity imagery better than anyone else before or since. He founded the original gossip magazine, Interview and introduced the concept of “15 minutes of fame”. But was Warhol celebrating celebrity or was there an underlying irony to his output? What would he make of today’s celebrity-driven society and the increasingly commercialised art world that has shifted from aesthetics to money?

Sunday, 20 September 2009, 10:15PM - 11:15PM

Melvyn Bragg in discussion with one of the biggest selling bands in the world, the British multi award winning quartet, Coldplay.

Now, more than ten years into their career, the South Bank Show accompanies the global stars for six months, taking in their wins at this year’s Grammys in the Los Angeles, touring Japan, the Brit Awards and the Warchild concert in London; and spending time with them whilst they work on their next album in their north London studios, with Brian Eno.

Sunday, 20 September 2009, 10:15PM - 11:15PM

Melvyn Bragg in discussion with one of the biggest selling bands in the world, the British multi award winning quartet, Coldplay.

Now, more than ten years into their career, the South Bank Show accompanies the global stars for six months, taking in their wins at this year’s Grammys in the Los Angeles, touring Japan, the Brit Awards and the Warchild concert in London; and spending time with them whilst they work on their next album in their north London studios, with Brian Eno.

The South Bank Show returns for its final season, with film maker Tony Palmer’s sixteenth South Bank Show which examines The Wagner Family – a passionate and incendiary film that makes the usual family soap opera feel tame. The film uses as its back drop the Wagner’s glorious but poisoned legacy the Bayreuth Festival – the highest profile music festival in the world.

This South Bank Show uncovers the private workings of a family, the nearest equivalent the Germans have to Royalty, who have survived World Wars, Nazi occupation and its own internecine lies; to become one of the most intriguing, dominant and ultimately dangerous cultural families in Europe.

Melvyn Bragg’s specialist Factual And Arts Department are now making their final nine films for the South Bank Show which will prove, as ever, a diverse and eclectic season.

The final South Bank Show Awards will be transmitted in January 2010, celebrating the talent and achievements across the spectrum of the arts.

The programmes include:

Sunday, 10 May 2009, 10:15PM - 11:15PM

Two of Africa’s leading writers talk in depth to Melvyn Bragg in an extraordinary double edition of The South Bank Show; to transmit on two consecutive Sundays, the 10th and 17th May 2009. A fascinating insight into literary Africa, the film looks at the works of the multi award winning novelist Chinua Achebe, who wrote Things Fall Apart which is considered to be the greatest African novel of the 20th century; and Africa’s latest and hottest literary property Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.

From different generations, Achebe and Adichie’s lives and paths seem to have crossed in many ways and have many similarities. Both are from Igboland in Nigeria and, in a chance in a million, Adichie was then brought up in Achebe’s old house in the university town of Nsukka.

Sunday, 26 April 2009, 10:15PM - 11:15PM

The South Bank Show profiles William Goldman who can lay claim to being the most successful and acclaimed screenwriter of the last four decades.

Melvyn Bragg interviews Goldman at home in New York, where he started his writing career as a novelist but quickly turned his hand to screenplays. By the end of the 70s he had some of Hollywood’s most iconic movies to his name including: Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid, Marathon Man, The Stepford Wives, All The President’s Men and A Bridge Too Far.

Sunday, 26 April 2009, 10:15PM on ITV1

Sunday, 12 April 2009, 10:40PM on ITV1

ITV takes a wonderfully fresh approach to celebrate Easter and Handel’s great oratorio Messiah, as The South Bank Show follows three Yorkshire choirs and their connection with this treasured work.

250 years after Handel’s death, The South Bank Show finds out what it means to sing this most popular of oratorios from members of the mighty Huddersfield Choral Society, the smaller Keighley Vocal Union, and the intimate gay and lesbian choir, The Sacred Wing from Leeds. The film captures each of the choirs’ tradition, their passion, their history, their personal stories, their scores handed down from generation to generation, their local landscape - and their preparations in the run up to the day of each of their performances.

Tuesday, 17 March 2009, 10:35PM on ITV1

This South Bank Show is an intensely personal and intimate journey through the working life of Will Young, who was the first musician to emerge from the wave of reality talent shows that has revolutionised the music industry in Britain. Since winning Pop Idol in 2002, Young has broken out of the mould of manufactured pop star and gone on to become a multi-million selling singer songwriter and a respected live performer.

With exclusive and intimate access to Young’s life and work, Matt Cain’s self-shot documentary for The South Bank Show follows the artist as he promotes his latest album Let It Go, rehearses for a sell-out theatre tour of the UK, and prepares to celebrate his 30th birthday.
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First performed on the 1 November 1611 at Whitehall in front of James I, The South Bank Show examines why Shakespeare's Tempest still holds such a fascination for modern audiences.

Written almost 400 years ago, The Tempest turned out to be Shakespeare’s swansong. However, this complex and magical play was inspired by a real event: the wreck of the Virginia-bound Sea-Venture off Bermuda in 1609 with all hands surviving (as they do in the plot of the play).

As well as looking at historical events, the South Bank Show explores the topical thinking of the time which informed the writing and production of the play, especially the contemporary fascination with magic and the occult.

Melvyn Bragg investigates the life and work of the mathematician and alchemist John Dee who straddled the realms of science and magic and is said to have been the basis for Shakespeare's character of Prospero.Read more

Wednesday, 28 January 2009, 10:35PM on ITV1

Melvyn Bragg will host the South Bank Show Awards in front of a star studded audience featuring live performances from Razorlight, Nigel Kennedy and Michael Ball.

Filmed earlier in the week at The Dorchester, The South Bank Show Awards are now in its 13th year, the annual awards show is the only awards show in the world to reflect the strength of British talent and achievement across the spectrum of the arts.

Previous South Bank Show Award winners Gavin and Stacey return with their second series to compete for the Comedy Award against BBC3’s Pulling – Series 2 and Michael McIntyre’s Stand Up.

This year’s film nominations include Martin McDonagh’s In Bruges, James Marsh’s highly praised documentary Man On Wire and Steve McQueen’s debut feature film Hunger.