About this season
How does the art we consume reflect the times we live in? A topical look at the latest film, TV, music, books and theatre - through the eyes of their creators and their audiences.
Episodes (5)
1. Episode 1
Aired 24 September 2020 • 30 min
Mary Beard visits Stonehenge, where she meets leading creative voices, including Turner Prize-winning artist Jeremy Deller. Mary explores which cultural forms are the winners and losers of the pandemic.
2. Episode 2
Aired 2 October 2020 • 30 min
Mary enters the glitzy world of awards and prizes. There are hundreds: not just for books and movies, but poetry, museums and gardens. How do they influence what art is created and what culture we consume? And has the pandemic helped us see beyond the glamour and red carpets and reassess what prizes are for? Mary talks to Emmy-nominated actor Brian Cox and Bernardine Evaristo, who last year shared the Booker Prize with Margaret Atwood.
3. Episode 3
Aired 8 October 2020 • 30 min
Mary inhabits the worlds of architecture and fashion to analyse how we live now, during a pandemic, and fulfils a 40-year-long dream of reuniting the cast of renowned 1970s BBC drama I, Claudius.
4. Episode 4
Aired 15 October 2020 • 30 min
Mary examines what the future holds for museums post-lockdown, venturing out of her study to the British Museum to take on the role of museum guide.
5. Episode 5
Aired 22 October 2020 • 30 min
Mary talks to award-winning filmmaker and Turner Prize winning artist Steve McQueen, discussing his views on growing up in London and his new BBC One anthology series Small Axe.