Season 1
19 episodes · 1997
1The Van Gogh Fakes
Geraldine Norman investigates the growing body of evidence that casts doubt on the authenticity of paintings which have long been held to be works of Vincent Van Gogh.
2Big War in Lilliput
Hungarian businessman Gyorgy Klapka attempts to resurrect the once-famous Lilliput dwarf theatre in Budapest, closed down long ago by the Communists, to mount a production of Alfred Jarry's Ubu Roi. But after suffering years of exploitation as well as banishment, the dwarf actors are keen to maximise their assets by appearing in other, perhaps more lucrative productions.
3In Search of the Amber Room
Anthony Wilson tries to solve the mystery of the Amber Room of the tsars in St. Petersburg, stolen by the Germans and never found.
4A Very British Psycho
Vilified on its release in 1960 as pornographic, Michael Powell's film Peeping Tom is now regarded by many as a masterpiece.
5Rebel With a Cause
Can flamboyant US ad-man Tony Kaye market himself as a serious artist?
6Naked and Famous
Profile of rap artist and writer Tricky, who returns to the Bristol estate where he grew up.
7Ivanov Goes to Moscow
Ralph Fiennes, Harriet Walter, and the rest of the Almeida Theatre Company earlier this year took their acclaimed production of Chekhov's Ivanov back to its roots in Moscow.
8Songs from the Golden City
Returning from exile, Joe Mogotsi of the legendary Manhattan Brothers, takes us on a cinematic journey into the virtuosity, exuberance and resistance of South African jazz. Joe reconnects with jazz greats Hugh Masekela and Abdullah Ibrahim as he seeks justice, recognition, and recompense for the Manhattan Brothers’ extraordinary catalogue of music.
9Making a Killing
Through the story of the Gutmann family's quest to recover the art collection stolen by the Nazis from their parents, questioning the international art market's collusion in Nazi art looting.
10Spy in the House of Love - Anaïs Nin
Back in the 1960s, the novelist Anaïs Nin was acclaimed as a feminist icon when her revelatory diaries were published. But she had omitted much of her bigamous past, and it is only now that a complete picture of this secretive writer is emerging.
11The Fine Art of Crime
The theft of a Caravaggio from a Palermo church nearly 30 years ago shocked the art world. Since then, art has come to play an integral part in the laundering of the proceeds of crime. Reviewing some of the most famous stolen works of art.
12The Other Francis Bacon
Art-world orthodoxy holds that Bacon did not prepare or rehearse his paintings. But Bacon's friend and neighbour Barry Joule has revealed an enormous cache of sketches and treated photographs he claims Bacon left to him.
13The Lost Frescoes
Restoration of frescoes in the Basilica of St. Francis in Assisi, badly damaged in a 1997 earthquake, is being held up.
14Tuning With the Enemy
American piano tuner Ben Treuhaft tries to get pianos into Cuba.
15Daydream Believers
Tells the story of five people who auditioned to become Monkees but failed to make the cut. Their feelings about it range from relief to embarrassment, self-justification, and regret.
16A Roll of the Dice: The Story of The Capeman
The 40-member cast of Paul Simon's Broadway musical disaster The Capeman grapple with the staging of the controversial show based on a true story about a 16-year-old Puerto Rican kid, Sol Agron, who murdered two people in the 1950s.
17The Lost Supper
The restoration of Leonardo da Vinci’s famous masterpiece, The Last Supper, produced results some call glorious and others call tragic. Da Vinci’s famously fragile fresco was always going to be a challenge for its secretive Italian restorers. No one, however, could have foreseen how problematic and strange their task would become. Marked by a series of extraordinary mishaps, mistakes, and miscalculations, the incredible restoration is hilarious to watch but may have resulted in the loss of a masterpiece.
18Loving Lenin
Imaginative use of archive footage and interviews to examine how Lenin achieved mythical status, and why his death is still mourned by some in Russia.
19The Cowboy and the Eclipse
James Turrell is famous for creating the world's largest piece of "land art" - reshaping a volcano. But he has also built a giant camera obscura on a Cornish hillside to record the eclipse image.