Throng

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.

Sunday, 7 December 2008, 10:45PM - 11:45PM on ITV1

There is a feast for the eye and ear for this season’s final South Bank Show which has been given complete access to the Mariinsky Theatre, its artists and its archives, and full support to make a film to celebrate the 225th Anniversary of the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg. This is a unique insight into how the arts have flourished in Russia under so many different regimes and is a sumptuous visual history.

During 2008, the Mariinsky Theatre has paid tribute to a phenomenal roll call of artists who have made the biggest impact in Russian music and dance over the past two centuries and the South Bank Show was there to film it. Filmed extracts include: Queen Of Spades, Boris Godunov,The Firebird, Scheherezade and Swan Lake.

Sunday 18 May 2008 10:45pm - 11:45pm

Melvyn Bragg meets with Gore Vidal in Los Angeles, where he has recently returned to live to “do the Hollywood version of happiness”.

Gore Vidal is the last survivor of the great post-war generation of American novelists that included Norman Mailer, Joseph Heller and Saul Bellow. At 82, he is still one of the finest essayists on socio-political, sexual, historical and literary themes – a true literary radical and polymath.

This is a classic South Bank Show: Melvyn Bragg enjoys a wide and varied conversation, full of friendly banter, with a man famous for his wit and intellect. Gore Vidal is well known for his trenchant views about American politics and this South Bank Show is no exception. He describes President Bush as a “midget….who wants Armageddon to happen as quickly possible…….perpetual war for perpetual peace”.

Sunday 11 May 2008 10:50pm - 11:50pm

A South Bank Show on the writings of the beautiful game on Sunday 11 May.

The film centres round the novel The Damned United by David Peace, one of the most compelling portraits in British sporting literature. The novel follows the revered and feared football manager Brian Clough and Melvyn Bragg interviews David Peace at Elland Road, Leeds United’s ground, where the novel’s action takes place.

As a work of fiction, The Damned United was hailed as the most authentic and honest football book when it was published in 2006. Peace’s Clough emerges as a charismatic leader – the problem was that he was leading the wrong team.

The Damned United cannot be judged outside the context of David’s previous work - The West Riding Quartet was prompted by the Yorkshire Ripper and GB 84 is David’s version of the Miners Strike. Melvyn Bragg discusses his canon of work and the difference between faction and fiction.

Sunday 4 May 2008 10:55pm - 11:55pm

The South Bank Show‘s season continues with a profile of one of the most successful entertainers of the modern age, Liza Minnelli.

Melvyn Bragg interviews Liza Minnelli at the London Coliseum as she prepares for her forthcoming UK tour, with exclusive footage filmed in Florida of the show she will be bringing to Britain, as she performs some of her most iconic songs.

The South Bank Show looks at Liza’s relationship with her tormented mother, Judy Garland, and her fight to be recognised on her own terms - which eventually established her as one of the world's great show business icons.

After all her well publicised troubles with addictions and relationships, Liza has been receiving ecstatic reviews for her new show, which brings together some of her signature tunes (Maybe This Time, New York New York) and a special selection of songs devoted to and arranged by Liza's beloved godmother, Kay Thompson.

In its 30-year history, The South Bank show has profiled anyone who’s anyone in the arts.

Featured subjects include novelist Sarah Waters, whose books Tipping The Velvet, Fingersmith and Affinity (iTv1’s forthcoming drama) have been adapted for TV; David Peace on the film version of his book about legendary football manager Brian Clough, The Damned Utd; and celebrated entertainer Liza Minnelli, who’s seen performing on her world tour.

Melvyn Bragg talks with Gore Vidal, the distinguished 85-year-old essayist on socio-political, sexual, historical and literary themes; meets the unique Mike Skinner – whose music marks the soundtrack of urban youth – and his band The Streets; and follows film-maker and photographer Sam Taylor-Wood over the course of a year.

Melvyn Bragg explores The Art Of 1968: the role of writers, actors and musicians in the street battles that marked 1968 and looks at whether they helped to change western society and culture.

In March 1968, a huge demonstration protesting against the Vietnam War marched towards the American Embassy in London’s Grosvenor Square led by Vanessa Redgrave and Tariq Ali. Leo Burley‘s film also explores the art and music at the heart of the violent protests in Paris, Prague and Chicago in 1968.

Everywhere I hear the sound of marching, charging feet, boy
'Cause the summer's here and the time is right for fighting in the street, boy...
Street Fighting Man - The Rolling Stones (1968)

You say you want a revolution
Well, you know, we all want to change the world
You tell me that it's evolution
Well, you know, we all want to change the world
But when you talk about destruction
Don't you know that you can count me out
Revolution - The Beatles (1968)

The current series of The South Bank Show continues on Sunday 9 March with a film following opera director David McVicar as he develops his new production of Richard Strauss’ Salome at Covent Garden, from conception through to opening night.

The rising star of the international opera circuit, David McVicar is one of those rare opera directors whose work is both spectacular and intellectually coherent. His recent productions of Faust, The Magic Flute, Rigoletto and Marriage of Figaro at Covent Garden have all caused a stir, both critically for their excellence and in the popular press for the flamboyance of their staging. His Giulio Cesare has been the hottest ticket at Glyndebourne for the past two years and his production of Turn Of The Screw at the English National Opera has just won The South Bank Show Award for Opera this year. McVicar’s productions have the reputation of always giving a new perspective to the composer’s work.