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.

Kay Thompson was the leading vocal coach in Hollywood in the 40s and 50s. She was a key figure in the golden age of MGM musicals, a composer and author, and above all, a dear friend to Judy Garland. For Liza the child, growing up in the overwhelming, glittering and yet addled orbit of her mother's fame, Kay was perhaps a safe haven.

The preview of Liza's show business tribute to Kay Thompson provides a fascinating insight into the world of Liza's childhood, her continuing relationship with her mother (an overarching influence on Liza even in death) and her father, the great film director Vincente Minnelli.

The South Bank Show also examines Liza Minnelli's unique relationship with the British. She has influenced many of our performers from Freddie Mercury to band of the punk era, and the Pet Shop Boys. She lived briefly on the Kings Road in London with her mother as a teenager and there is scintillating archive of their iconic performance together in 1964 at the London Palladium.

Presented and edited by Melvyn Bragg
Produced and directed by Susan Shaw.