Directing
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.
Sparks fly in this upbeat and funny film about the lives of Mei, Kenny, Ciaran, and Niamh, four young people coping with a tangle of friendships, family life, and local politics in Belfast. Mei, a local Chinese girl, finds that falling in love with Kenny, a Protestant boy, is far from simple as they try to negotiate their way through their cultural differences. Complications arise for both of them when their relationship overlaps with that of Ciaran and Niamh from the Catholic Falls Road. Matters finally come to a head in a frightening confrontation which severely tests cross-community relations. This ‘made for schools’ drama explores the narrow ground of conflicting loyalties, identities and family traditions. Shining through is the Belfast humour – sometimes unforgiving, but more often full of warmth and humanity. The film is scored by John O’Neill of the Undertones.
An intimate portrait of British sculptor Rachel Whiteread as she unpacks her life's work for a major retrospective at Tate Britain in London. Her work explores themes of memory and absence, casting sculptural forms from familiar domestic objects small and large, from sinks and hot water bottles to living rooms - and a terraced house.
More than half of all Lego sales come in the last three months of the year. This documentary goes behind the scenes at the secretive superbrand as it prepares for Christmas.
Kirsty Wark celebrates the life and work of Scottish writer Dame Muriel Spark, one of the 20th century's most enigmatic cultural figures, on the 100th anniversary of her birth.
A revealing profile of the Nobel Prize-winning novelist Kazuo Ishiguro, author of The Remains of the Day and Never Let Me Go, as he publishes his much-anticipated new book, Klara and the Sun.
Alan Yentob meets sculptor Antony Gormley, creator of the iconic Angel of the North, and uncovers the influences that have shaped his life and work. Across a career spanning more than 40 years, Gormley has used sculpture as a means to examine the human condition. He explains how his strict Catholic childhood and his subsequent search for enlightenment in India influenced his decision to become a sculptor. 'If you are brought up a Catholic you may lose your Catholicism but the fact is it has marked you for life. And the need to replace its belief system with something else becomes your life's work.' Imagine shows rare archive footage of the creation of Gormley's key works, including the sculptor being fully encased in plaster to create casts of his own body, as well as footage of the installation of the Angel of the North. We also follow exhibitions this year in Paris, Florence and on Lundy Island.
The British sculptor travels across the world to view early examples of art in France, Spain, Indonesia and Australia as he seeks to find out where art first began.
