About this season
The biggest names from the world of art, film, music, literature and dance. Alan Yentob gets close up with those shaping today's cultural world.
Episodes (6)
1. Jimi Hendrix: Hear My Train A Comin'
Aired 29 October 2013 • 90 min
The story of how a shy, former private in the 101st Airborne - Jimi Hendrix - became the greatest rock guitarist of all time, using never-before-seen performance footage.
2. Edmund de Waal: Make Pots or Die
Aired 5 November 2013 • 75 min
Documentary following bestselling author Edmund de Waal over the course of a remarkable year, as he exhibits his pottery work for the first time and researches his next book.
3. Broadway Musicals: A Jewish Legacy
Aired 12 November 2013 • 90 min
Alan Yentob looks at the unique role Jews have played in creating the modern American musical, from Porgy and Bess to West Side Story and Cabaret.
4. Turning the Art World Inside Out
Aired 19 November 2013 • 70 min
Alan Yentob explores outsider art, examines why the oeuvre is only now being accepted by the art establishment and meets some visionary outside art creators and their enthusiasts.
5. Hitler, the Tiger and Me
Aired 26 November 2013 • 70 min
Documentary telling the story of Judith Kerr, creator of well-loved children's books including Mog and The Tiger Who Came to Tea. Now 90, she revisits her childhood home of Berlin.
6. Who's Afraid of Machiavelli?
Aired 3 December 2013 • 60 min
Marking the 500th anniversary of Machiavelli's book The Prince, which has been a manual for tyrants from Napoleon to Stalin. Featuring performances from Peter Capaldi.