Arts & Classical Music

Spring/Summer 2002

1 Contents

BBC Arts & Classical Music: Spring/Summer 2002

Introduction 3 Publicity contact details 3

Arts & Classical Music on BBC TWO

Reading the Decades 4 Dickens 4 Art That Shook the World 4 The Golden Jubilee Concert - Prom at the Palace 5 Omnibus 5 St John Passion 6 The Sixties Exposed 6 Young Musician of the Year 2002- Contenders 7 Young Musician of the Year 2002 - The Final 7 Hollywood Inc 7 Rostropovich at 75 8

Arts & Classical Music on BBC ONE

The Royal Collection 9 Hollywood Greats 9 The F.A. Cup Classic 9 Jane Austen 10 BBC Proms 2002 10

Arts & Classical Music on BBC FOUR

Painting the Weather 11 Jeanne Moreau Season 11 The Trouble with Michel 12 Mali Music with Damon Albarn and Afel Bocoum 13 The Mystery of Charles Dickens 13 Richter: The Enigma 13 William Lawes 13 Film: Time Regained 14 Film: Kandahar 14 Film: A la Place du Coeur 14

2 Arts & Classical Music on the BBC this Spring/Summer

This Spring/Summer Season, the BBC features the best in arts and music programming offering viewers access to the biggest names and topical issues in the arts world.

Literature plays a key role this season across BBC One, BBC Two and BBC Four, with a documentary on Jane Austen on BBC One; for BBC Two, a new drama documentary series on Charles Dickens presented by Peter Ackroyd; a four-part series examining literature from the 1950s to the 1980s - Reading the Decades; an examination of Virginia Woolf’s Orlando in Art That Shook the World; an Omnibus on Edna O’Brien; and on BBC Four a documentary on the controversial French author Michel Houellebecq.

Visual art comes to the fore in the world’s first virtual art exhibition - Painting the Weather - on BBC Four. This is complemented on BBC Two by a two-part Omnibus on Matisse to coincide with the opening of the Matisse/Picasso exhibition at London’s Tate Modern; an Omnibus on Caravaggio; and on BBC One The Royal Collection, broadcast in celebration of the Queen’s Golden Jubilee. The Sixties Exposed examines the photography of the decade and the men behind it.

For music-lovers this season, The Proms returns to the BBC across BBC One, Two and Four - including a Golden Jubilee Concert. Other highlights include St. John Passion by English National Opera and Rostropovich at 75 on BBC Two; and Mali Music with Damon Albarn and Afel Bocoum on BBC Four. The F.A. Cup sees stars from the classical and pop music worlds combine in a concert at CRFC Cardiff Arms Park.

BBC Four continues with its commitment to world cinema, including a season of Jeanne Moreau films; coupled with a three-part series looking at films from conception to cinema release in Hollywood Inc on BBC Two.

3 BBC TWO Oliver, Little Nell, Pip, Scrooge, Fagin, Mr Micawber, Uriah Heep, David Copperfield, and Miss Haversham, all live on in the minds of readers and READING THE DECADES viewers. Yet, there is much about Dickens’ incredible life which is little known.

Resembling the plot of one of his own novels, From Lucky Jim to Adrian Mole, Reading the Dickens’s life is a tale of rags to riches, complete Decades examines British social history through the with bankruptcy, prison, and forced child labour. nation’s best-selling books. Literary classics and His fame and fortune were overshadowed by guilt cookery books, blockbuster airport novels and self- and secrecy. Dickens indeed drew strongly on his help manuals, are the books which have inspired, own life and experiences as the creative source for excited and forced readers to part with cash from the much of his fiction. 1950s to the end of the ‘80s. An innovative mix of documentary and dramatic Focussing on a particular decade each episode, the reconstruction vividly recreates the author’s programmes re-invoke the sentiments of the period, extraordinary life. For Dickens, Anton Lesser plays from fashion and film to politics and propaganda, the novelist; Prunella Scales and Timothy West, his from the desires and aspirations to the fears and parents; Miriam Margolyes is Catherine Dickens, his anxieties of the British people. wife; and Natasha Little takes on the part of Ellen “Nelly” Ternan, the 19 year old actress who Dickens Jilly Cooper, Tom Wolfe, John le Carre, Desmond fell in love with when he was 48. Morris, and David Attenborough are among an impressive cast of interviewees. In addition to the State of the art technology transports viewers to the key authors from the featured decades, the series heart of Victorian London as Peter Ackroyd visits includes contributions from leading contemporary key locations from Dickens’s work and life - as they writers, critics, journalists, actors, politicians, and were in the author’s day. Many of the locales, such book-lovers giving their personal responses. as the real Bleak House in Broadstairs and 48 Doughty Street in central London, are still standing, Reading the Decades surveys the works which but for others, now long gone, technology allows have defined generations, and traces how books Ackroyd to re-discover the streets and buildings have both responded to and affected public and that Dickens so evocatively painted in his works. private preoccupations. The series also examines the emergence of a literary family tree: revealing the Executive producer is Andrea Miller. Jilly Cooper of the 1950s and whether cookery A BBC production for BBC Two. books had iconic figure-heads before Delia Smith and Jamie Oliver. ART THAT SHOOK THE WORLD Executive producer: Mary Sackville-West A BBC production for BBC Two.

DICKENS In the worlds of literature, film, music, visual arts and theatre there have been works which have transformed everything in their wake. Works of art that shook the world. The life - and the London - of Charles Dickens is brought vividly to life in an innovative and Blending the compelling stories surrounding the revealing new series presented by acclaimed works, the social and political events of the time Dickens expert, Peter Ackroyd. with the passion they continue to inspire, Art That Shook The World offers a unique insight into the art Charles Dickens is one of the great literary geniuses that continues to shape our culture. of all time. His short stories and novels continue to delight and entrance readers all over the world. He is Best-selling author, Jeanette Winterson explores the the man who brilliantly depicted Victorian London, life and work of a literary giant who literally fought for social reform, almost single-handedly reinvented the novel, exploded conventional invented Christmas and created some of the most biography, and smuggled cross-dressing and memorable characters that fiction has ever known: lesbianism into the sitting rooms of 1920s England.

4 Virginia Woolf's Orlando is often misunderstood as The BBC Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, under just an enjoyable romp through English history. Art the baton of their Conductor Laureate Sir Andrew That Shook The World takes the viewer between the Davis, will form the backbone of the classical lines to find out how Virginia's fascination, and concert, Prom at the Palace. The two-hour feast of affair, with aristocrat Vita Sackville-West provided music includes a rare performance by the great the inspiration for a study of women, biography, Russian cellist Mstislav Rostropovich, gender and English culture that was simply decades internationally acclaimed soprano Dame Kiri Te ahead of its time. In dramatic excerpts, Joely Kanawa and top British baritone Sir Thomas Allen Richardson and Saffron Burrows play Virginia and will sing popular works from opera and musical Vita in the spectacular locations of Knole, theatre. Opera’s hottest duo, Roberto Alagna and Charleston and Hever Castle. Eddie Izzard, Peter Angela Gheorghiu, make a special appearance Ackroyd, Nigel Nicolson, Sally Potter and Margaret performing solos and a duet. Reynolds share their thoughts. The repertoire has been specially chosen to reflect Wagner’s Ring Cycle is a revolutionary work of art the century’s strong link between music and the conceived on the grandest of scales. Creating Monarchy. From Handel’s Zadok the Priest, sounds like no one before him, Wagner’s music has through traditional spirituals performed by the been described as so powerfully seductive that it London Adventist Chorale, to great works for full robs its listeners of their critical facilities. For Art orchestra, there will be something for everyone to That Shook The World, politician Michael Portillo enjoy at this historic and unique event. examines the impact and enduring fascination with the work - and its composer. Meeting musicians, Jenny Abramsky, the BBC's Director of Radio and directors and avid Wagnerians, Portillo explores the Music, says, “We are delighted to be working with music, the passion and the politics. Buckingham Palace on these two truly extraordinary events which will make for fantastic memories for The Bhagavad Gita is perhaps the defining text of years to come. Those lucky enough to receive an Hinduism, at least as it is concerned with daily invitation to the Palace will be joined by television living. The jewel at the centre of the Mahabarata, and radio audiences at home and from around the the longest poem ever written, the Bhagavad Gita world to enjoy these two spectacular musical takes place on the morning of a great battle between celebrations.” opposing factions of the ruling family. Girish Karnard, one of India’s leading playwrights, actors A BBC production for BBC Two. and award-winning film-makers, explores the Bhagavad Gita as the most important text for Indians through two millennia. OMNIBUS

Executive producer: Andrea Miller Wagner is a Diverse production for BBC Two. A BBC production of BBC Two. BBC’s flagship arts strand returns for a new series.

THE GOLDEN JUBILEE CONCERT - In July 1610 the most famous painter of the day died PROM AT THE PALACE in mysterious circumstances on his way to Rome to receive a Papal Pardon for a murder he had committed four years previously. His name was Michaelangelo Merisi, known as Caravaggio. As part of the Golden Jubilee celebrations in June During his lifetime he created not just a new way of the Queen has invited people from all over the painting, but a new way of seeing the world. country to attend two spectacular free concerts in Caravaggio is an enigma - he has been portrayed as the garden of Buckingham Palace. The classical the first modern artist, a profoundly spiritual concert on Saturday 1 June features some of the religious painter, a gay icon. He made his name in finest musicians, under the creative guidance of Sir Rome from paintings of sensational naturalism, and Andrew Davis. by including as his subjects the life of the streets. However he had to leave Rome when he killed This is the first time that a Monarch has invited Ranuccio Tomassoni in a brawl. From there he went people from every part of the country to to Naples, and then Malta, where he joined the Buckingham Palace for a concert. Twelve thousand Knights of St. John. Just over a year later he was in people, chosen by ballot, are invited to attend. prison again, in the Alcatraz-like Fort St. Angelo.

5 Miraculously, he escaped to Sicily where he the Evangelist, Paul Whelan as Jesus, David continued to paint; then returned to Naples where Kempster as Pilate, and Leslie John Flanagan as he was attacked and left for dead, before making his Peter, Gillian Keith (Soprano), Catherine Wyn- final voyage north to Rome. Andrew Graham-Dixon Rogers (Alto); Barry Banks (Tenor) and James travels in the footsteps of Caravaggio, following a Rutherford (Bass). trail of documentary evidence and the paintings themselves to piece together his final journey. Producer: Jonathan Haswell A BBC production for BBC TWO. In April 1994 novelist Edna O’Brien was travelling to Ireland from her London home when she first read about Imelda Riney, a beautiful 29 year old mother, THE SIXTIES EXPOSED (working title) and her young son who had been reported missing. The scene was County Clare which has particular resonances for O’Brien, as this is where she was raised. Three days later their bodies were found in a The Sixties Exposed tells the story of the secluded wood - Imelda had been brutally raped and photographers who cemented the image of swinging murdered. Brendan O’Donnell, a local youth, on London and who, through their pictures, irreversibly remand from prison was captured and convicted. He altered the face of fashion and pop. Through the was jailed for life but three years later was found first hand accounts of the models, musicians and dead by nursing staff in a mental hospital in Dublin. photographers themselves, The Sixties Exposed examines the breaking down of barriers, the ‘60s Seven years later, inspired by these events, O’Brien cultural melting pot and the explosion of began work on a fictionalised novel, interviewing opportunity and creativity for those fortunate friends and relatives of both the victims and the enough to be part of the scene. Ultimately, murderer. The resulting novel In the Forest (to be everyone could be a celebrity - both behind and in published by Weidenfeld and Nicolson) is a front of the camera. Aristocrats, musicians, models, haunting telling of the story from both sides. On the actors and even gangsters mingled together in clubs eve of publication Edna O’Brien returns to the scene and restaurants - a world captured by the decades of the true life controversial triple murder that newest stars - the photographers. inspired the story. The story begins in the ‘50s when the world of Other highlights of the season include a two-part fashion was dominated by the likes of Cecil Beaton, programme on Matisse to coincide with a new John French and Anthony Armstrong-Jones. It was Matisse Picasso exhibition at London’s Tate a world where the models were ex-debutantes and Modern. And architectural historian Dan the photographers themselves tended towards Cruickshank journeys to the war-torn cities and rarefied sensibilities. But at the beginning of the mountainous regions of Afghanistan to discover Sixties this was all blown apart when three young what remains of the country’s once rich cultural Eastenders, fresh out of the RAF, stormed the heritage after twenty years of successive civil war portals of Vogue. The young guns were David and the Taliban’s tyrannical regime. Bailey, Terence Donovan and Brian Duffy and their photographs and attitude were to change the image Executive producer: Basil Comely not just of Vogue but also of fashion forever. They A BBC production for BBC TWO. didn’t want ex-debs as models they found new muses such as Jean Shrimpton, Susan Murray and Celia Hammond. Not for them staid studio set ups - ST. JOHN PASSION they took their models onto the streets, on the steps of power stations and got them to race round on scooters giving fashion photography a new energy and vibrancy. The Sixties Exposed tells the story of English National Opera mark Good Friday with a how they and others transformed our notions of remarkable contemporary staging of J S Bach’s St fashion and celebrity forever through those that John Passion. This production, by acclaimed were there. The images the new young turks created director Deborah Warner, explores the intense where to become icons for an era: Lewis Morley’s personal relationships between the characters to lay memorable photography of Christine Keeler sitting bare the universal tragedy of Christ’s suffering. naked on a chair; David Bailey featured young guns David Puttnam, Mick Jagger and Michael English National Opera is conducted by Stephen Caine in his 1964 Box of Pin Ups; while pop Layton. The cast includes Mark Padmore as John photographer Gered Mankowitz captured iconic

6 images of a then unknown guitarist - Jimi Hendrix finalists comprise of one keyboard player, and a nineteen year-old Marianne Faithfull. The percussionist, string player, brass player and image of photographers, models and popstars was woodwind player. These five young finalists have further boosted by Antonioni’s classic 60s film the opportunity to play a concerto at the Barbican Blow Up. The documentary also looks at what with the BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by happens post Blow Up as the decade spiralled Sir Andrew Davis. down into hippie-dom and decadence. A BBC production for BBC Two. With such photogenic subjects and such a demand for images the photographers couldn’t go wrong. Adam Faith tells of the changes that took place in YOUNG MUSICIAN OF THE YEAR 2002 - THE the early ‘60s; Marianne Faithfull recounts her FINAL experiences in front of the lens with Bailey and Gered Mankowitz; David Puttnam relives his days as a photographers’ agent; and Max Clifford on his first job as an EMI publicisit in 1962. The Who were The Young Musicians Concerto Final - BBC Young famously photographed for The Observer in the Musician of the Year - broadcasts live on BBC same year that Twiggy-maina took off, and the Radio 3 and BBC TWO on Sunday 26 May from the Rolling Stones photographer Mike Joseph tells tales Barbican Hall. The finalists will be accompanied by of working with Mick and Keith in a decadent the BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Sir photo-shoot in a stately home. Andrew Davis. The winner receives a trophy designed by John Rocha for Waterford Crystal, the Other contributors include Celia Hammond, title BBC Young Musician of the Year plus the Snowdon, Christine Keeler, Molly Parkin, Mary Young Musicians Travel Award to promote his/her Quant, John Peel, David Puttnam, Adam Faith, Noel musical education. Redding, Max Clifford, Veruschka, Michael Heseltine, Edina Ronay, Jill Kennington, A BBC production for BBC Two. David Frost.

Producer/directors: Elaine Shepherd and Martina HOLLYWOOD INC Hall Executive Producer: Mary Sackville-West A BBC production for BBC Two Hollywood Inc explores the enigma of movie success. Box-office profits and lucrative spin-offs YOUNG MUSICIAN OF THE YEAR 2002 - have made Hollywood a £20 billion-a-year industry. CONTENDERS Inevitably everyone wants a piece of that action but few reach the “Promised Land.” Talking to the movie industry’s major players, Hollywood Inc explores the elusive recipe for success to discover Established in 1978, the biennial BBC Young why so many films fail. Is it the script, the stars, or Musician of the Year competition has become the special effects? Is it the way a movie is tested widely regarded as Britain’s leading classical music and promoted? Or is it simply down to luck? event for young people. The competition can be enjoyed not only on BBC Two and BBC Radio 3, but The three-part series follows the process of making this year also on BBC Four. movies from concept, through production, to the opening weekend. During the course of this prestigious competition, 600 talented musicians are gradually whittled down To open the series, Shut it Down explores where to one overall winner who will be declared Young ideas are hatched and journeys begin: revealing Musician of the Year 2002. how producers persuade studios to part with a hundred million dollars to share in their dreams; how Stephanie Hughes presents highlights from the final the studios use stars as insurance; and how much stages of the competition held at the Guildhall power the stars wield to green-light their own School of Music & Drama. Viewers follow the projects. fortunes, and sample musical highlights, of 25 Films are about people, so casting is all. In contenders who each hope to be judged best in Lightning in a Bottle casting directors reveal how their category. By the end of the evening the they put actors through their paces; why their

7 choices have shaped movies, changed lives and created stars. It is once a movie is cast and in Rostroprovich 75th Birthday Gala Concert can also production that it is most likely to fail. Epic films be heard on BBC Radio 3’s Performance On 3. create epic problems. With first hand accounts reveal the roller-coaster ride to near disaster on Presenter: Stephanie Hughes major blockbusters of recent years. Executive producer: Frances Whitaker A BBC production for BBC Two. The measure of success of any Hollywood film is its opening weekend. Battle of the Blockbusters explores how careers can be lost or fortunes made in just two days. With so much at stake up to fifty million dollars is spent releasing a studio picture. The final programme in Hollywood Inc explores the marketing campaign for summer blockbuster releases, following the testing, marketing, star- studded premieres, merchandising, and parties to see what movie and which studio will be top.

Contributors include Wes Craven; Denzel Washington; Pierce Brosnan; Bill Mechanic, Fox Studio Chief 1994-2001; Bryan Singer, Director of The Usual Suspects and X-Men; Oliver Stone, John Malkovich; Jon Voight; Ben Stiller, Bruce Willis and Tim Burton.

A Darlow Smithson Production for BBC Two.

ROSTROPOVICH AT 75

BBC Two broadcasts a Gala Concert from London’s Barbican Centre, marking the 75th birthday of one of the greatest musicians of the last century - Mstislav Rostropovich. Born in Azerbaijan on 27 March 1927, and acclaimed as the greatest living cellist. His international career has included prestigious awards, world premières and commissions by composers such as Prokofiev, Shostakovich, Benjamin Britten and James MacMillan. He was exiled from Russia as a dissident and returned to fight opponents of Yeltsin’s reforms in 1991.

Contributing to this memorable occasion are colleagues, soloists and conductors including Sir Colin Davis, Seiji Ozawa, Mariss Jansons, Zubin Mehta, Krzysztof Penderecki, Gidon Kremer, Maxim Vengerov, Yuri Bashmet, Martha Argerich and Evgeny Kissin.

Before the concert, Stephanie Hughes introduces a profile of Rostropovich, which explores his musical and humanitarian reputation. Filmed at his home in St Petersburg, Rostropovich talks exclusively about the events which have shaped his extraordinary life, illustrated with rare archive and personal photographs.

8 BBC ONE HOLLYWOOD GREATS - Steve McQueen, Doris Day, Burt Lancaster and Tony Curtis THE ROYAL COLLECTION

A third series of Hollywood Greats turns the spotlight on silver screen idols Steve McQueen, Five hundred of the most exquisite treasures from Doris Day, Burt Lancaster and Tony Curtis. the world’s finest private collection of art and Hollywood Greats - presented by Jonathan Ross - antiques are being gathered together from royal talks to friends, colleagues and family to paint an in- palaces and homes throughout the country to depth portrait of these icons, celebrating their work celebrate the Queen’s Golden Jubilee. and showcasing their amazing life stories. The Royal Collection records the preparations as Steve McQueen - cool, macho and driven; he was an army of specialists - curators, conservators, the reform school boy who grew up to be the architects, restorers, craftspeople, builders and highest paid star of the ‘60s. With films like Bullitt removal experts – work towards the opening of the and The Great Escape to his credit, Steve McQueen biggest exhibition ever sourced from the Royal is still regarded as one of the ultimate icons of cool. Collection. Doris Day - on screen she was the personification of With works by some of arts greatest names American apple pie; but backstage things were including van Dyck, Rembrandt, Vermeer, Canova, often less than rosy with four disastrous marriages. Sevres, Faberge and Chippendale, the Royal Despite this, she was still able to deliver feel-good Collection has been amassed over 300 years, from classics such as Calamity Jane and Pillow Talk. the Queen Anne era to that of the Queen Mother. The Collection is spread through all the Queen’s Burt Lancaster - the circus performer who became a royal palaces and residences. It offers fascinating star overnight. Charismatic and contradictory, liberal insights into the political, social and private lives of and sexually voracious, ‘Mr Teeth and Muscles’ Britain’s royalty, as well as their tastes and was a one-man whirlwind who pursued The Sweet obsessions. Smell of Success. Some pieces were specially commissioned; some Tony Curtis - the ‘pop idol’ pin-up of his day, the were fabulous gifts from monarchs and statesmen; kid from the Bronx took Hollywood and its women some were bought; some are highly personal items. by storm, but also found time to film a clutch of Items such as furniture, dinner services and classics from Sparticus to Some Like It Hot. jewellery continue to be used at state occasions today and are brought out at banquets, Executive producer: Allan Campbell presentations and formal gatherings. A BBC Scotland production for BBC One. The existing Queen’s Gallery at Buckingham Palace has been completely redesigned and is currently being refurbished to produce a state-of-the-art THE F.A. CUP CLASSIC exhibition space.

The Royal Collection will culminate in the opening of the exhibition by the Queen in May this year to On the eve of the F.A. Cup Final, Russell Watson, celebrate her Golden Jubilee. Lesley Garrett and Willard White are joined in a one- off spectacular concert by Bond, Faye Tozer A Bazal production for BBC One. (formerly of Steps) and boy-band A1. The concert is presented by Stephanie Hughes and Steve Rider.

Stars from the worlds of classical and pop music join an audience of approximately 15,000 at CRFC Cardiff Arms Park. Viewers at home share the evening’s entertainment which culminates in a stunning fireworks spectacular.

During the evening audiences will be treated to tenor Russell Watson performing classical

9 repertoire, as well as his latest single with former A BBC production for BBC One. Steps star Faye Tozer. Chart-topping boy band A1 perform a selection of their latest hits; and Bond take to the stage with their unique brand of crossover classics. The evening also includes performances from acclaimed baritone Willard White fresh from his starring role at the Royal Opera House, as well as popular soprano Lesley Garrett and a massed choir.

A BBC production for BBC One.

THE REAL JANE AUSTEN

Jane Austen remains one of the greatest British writers of all time. Almost two hundred years since her death, her novels such as Pride and Prejudice, Persuasion and Mansfield Park have continued to entrance generations of readers the world over.

The Real Jane Austen explores the woman behind the novels, and shatters any myths that Austen lived the elegant Regency life, of the financially comfortable heroines who ultimately found true love. Austen was born in a Hampshire village in 1775, where her father, the local clergyman, also ran a boy’s boarding school and a farm. With six brothers and a sister, Jane’s early life was far more modest than the comfortable lifestyle and grand homes featured in her novels. But the Austens encouraged their children to write and perform plays. When the man she hoped to marry disappointed her, Jane turned to the other love of her life - her writing. By the time she was 24, Austen had produced the first draft of Northanger Abbey; had written First Impressions, later re-worked as Pride and Prejudice; and had revised an earlier work, Elinor and Marianne into Sense and Sensibility. In 1810 Sense and Sensibility - “A new novel by a Lady” - was published; Pride and Prejudice followed. By the time she was 37, Austen had also completed Mansfield Park and begun working on Emma. At odds with her contemporaries, or the heroines of her novels, she had found financial independence without having to marry. Tragically only four years later, in July 1817 whilst writing Persuasion, Jane Austen died.

Filmed in many of the locations most associated with Austen, and illustrated with extracts from film and television adaptations of her work, together with readings, and dramatic reconstructions, The Real Jane Austen paints a vivid portrait of one of the greatest talents in English literature.

10 BBC ONE/TWO/FOUR

BBC PROMS 2002

The BBC Proms presents over 70 concerts between 19 July and 14 September 2002. Spanning an enormous range of composers and styles of music, the BBC Proms is one of the most vibrant and best-loved cultural events in Britain and beyond, and remains the “world’s greatest music festival”. Set in the splendour of London’s Royal Albert Hall, 1500 ‘promenaders’ stand in the arena, encircled by 4000 seated patrons. Ticket prices are spread to accommodate every pocket. The world-famous Last Night of the Proms spills out of the Hall and into Park venues in London and around the UK.

The BBC Proms brings together many of the world’s leading artists, ensembles and orchestras, with the BBC’s orchestras and choirs providing the backbone of the season. Comprised mainly of orchestral concerts, it also features semi-staged opera, specialist early music and contemporary concerts (with many UK and world premieres of works commissioned specially by the BBC), as well as world music, lunchtime chamber concerts, jazz and family events. In addition there is a spectrum of Proms extras to tempt – pre-concert talks, Composer Portrait concerts, Poetry Proms and the annual Proms Lecture – all of which are free.

The 108th season of Henry Wood Promenade concerts are all broadcast live on BBC Radio 3 and audio streamed via the web. Many are televised on BBC One, BBC Two and BBC Four, and webcast in pictures as well as sound.

A BBC production.

11 BBC FOUR available to digital satellite, digital terrestrial and digital cable viewers through BBCi. PAINTING THE WEATHER Digital satellite (sky) · Video explorations of more than thirty of the works featured in the Painting The Weather exhibition. Constable, Van Gogh, El Greco, Degas, John Martin, · Commentary and soundtrack allow viewers Hiroshige - works from some of the world’s best to explore and re-explore favourite works. loved artists come together in television’s first · Access via the red key on the remote interactive exhibition, Painting The Weather. control, or by navigating through the BBCi bar. BBC Four and the National Gallery, together with · Painting The Weather runs on digital another fifty museums and galleries throughout the satellite for two weeks. UK are collaborating in this unique venture. Digital Cable Through BBCi - the new name for all the BBC’s · Forty paintings based on the programme interactive services - viewers and web users can themes of Changeable, Storm, Sun and enjoy much loved and unfamiliar works in their own Rain homes. · Access via the interactive key on the remote control. In Painting The Weather, 110 paintings, by more · Available for six months from the weather than eighty artists, portray every aspect of the page of the BBC’s digital cable service. weather. Housed in public collections around the Digital Terrestrial country, from Orkney to Cornwall, the works have · A “Picture of the Day” which changes never before been exhibited collectively and, every day. because of fragility and transportation issues, could · Access by pressing red key on the remote never be exhibited in one place. Until now… control. · Available for two weeks. The centre of the project is the unique web exhibition allowing visitors to take their own virtual A catalogue which extends the themes of the BBC tour through the works. The exhibition is curated by Four Painting The Weather television series will be the National Gallery, with special in-depth published to coincide with this innovative commentary on fifteen key works by its Director Neil exhibition. Offering more in-depth information on MacGregor. A high quality zoom facility enables themes raised in the programmes, the catalogue also visitors to examine paintings in incredible detail. offers further information on all aspects of the visual Biographies of the artists, and further information arts. on the paintings and galleries are available on the site. Weatherman Bill Giles gives his reading of the weather featured in many of the works. The site can JEANNE MOREAU SEASON be accessed through bbc.co.uk/paintingtheweather, and there will also be a link from BBCi’s weather homepage www.bbc.co.uk/weather.

On BBC Four, Painting The Weather documentaries examine the collection thematically through different Jeanne Moreau was once described by Orson weather types: Changeable, Storm, Sun and Rain. Welles as "the greatest actress in the world". In the Filmed at galleries throughout the country, the Belle Epoch Hotel Meurice in Paris, where she often series explores many of the paintings featured in the stayed with Welles, Moreau takes Mark Cousins on exhibition, including Turner’s The Snowstorm, a guided tour of her life and career. This unique Monet’s Haystacks, Gillian Ayres’s Midsummer, portrait will be accompanied by a season of her Hokusai’s A Sudden Gust of Wind, and Howard films. Hodgkin’s The Storm. Gallery curators and art historians reveal more about the works and their A BBC production for BBC Four. creators; and art lovers share their enthusiasm for their favourite works and favourite galleries.

In addition, viewers can explore key works from the In Paris, 1900, two friends fall in love with the same exhibition further. Differing levels of service are woman. Catherine loves Jules and they get married.

12 But when the trio meet again in Germany, Catherine pornographer, a provocateur. A stunned liberal starts to fall in love with Jim. In the ever fluctuating establishment has no idea how to take him. As his relationships between Jules, Jim and Catherine, publisher says, “they hate, they want…they don’t director Louis Malle takes the viewer on a beautific know what they hate, what they want.” ride through the passionate simplicity of love and friendship. Houellebecq is an entirely new kind of literary Jules and Jim is broadcast in French with English phenonomen. No French writer since Jean-Paul subtitles. Sartre has had this kind of impact . As fellow French novelist Frederic Beigbeder puts it, “he is inventing the 21st century novel.” Les Amants (1958) Jeanne Moreau plays a bourgeois housewife, bored An obscure poet and recovering mental patient, with her husband and bored with her polo-playing Houellebecq stormed the European literary scene lover. Things change, however, when by chance with Atomised, a uniquely ferocious combination of she meets a young man who offers her a lift when high ideas and uncompromising pornography, part her car breaks down providing her with a possible self-portrait, part documentation of what he sees as escape. Louis Malle directs an absorbing study of the intellectual and emotional sterility of sexual yearnings. contemporary life. Les Amants is broadcast in French with English subtitles. Each of his books presents a central character called Michel, Houellebecq’s own first name, whose sexual Lift to the Scaffold (1958) misery is presented as a symptom of the damage In Louis Malle's directorial debut, a high-ranking materialism has done to the West. The author executive plots the perfect murder. However, his deliberately confuses his own life with those of plans to dispose of his mistress's tycoon husband these ‘Michel’ characters - one reason why the go awry when he is trapped in his victim's building. media follow his every move. Lift to the Scaffold is broadcast in French with English subtitles. BBC FOUR joined Houellebecq in Paris last September for the launch of his third novel, Le Feu Follet (1963) Platforme, where press attention was even more Maurice Ronet stars as an alcoholic writer who, hysterical - the book deals with sex tourism. But this upon leaving a drying-out clinic, decides to commit time his willingness to turn himself into a kind of suicide. He elects to visit all his friends to see if they scapegoat for the ills of modern world backfired on can provide him with a reason to live. him badly. Le Feu Follet, is directed by Louis Malle and is broadcast in French with English subtitles. The film also travels to Ireland where Houellebecq lives with his wife Marie Pierre on an island off the Pigalle Saint Germain des Pres (1950) remote west coast to avoid the constant attention André Berthomieu directs this musical starring the infamy of his books has brought upon him. But Jeanne Moreau, Gabriel Cattand and Henri Génès. also because he prefers the point of view of an Pigalle Saint Germain des Pres is broadcast in outsider. French with English subtitles. Filmed in the Canary Islands as well as France and Ireland, The Trouble with Michel is an intimate THE TROUBLE WITH MICHEL portrait of a troubling and troubled but unique cultural figure. Contradictory, challenging, provocative and profound - there really is only one BBC FOUR spends an hour in the company of Michel. Michel Houellebecq, Europe’s most controversial and dangerous writer - a man who manages to A BBC production for BBC Four. offend just about everyone and who over the summer had to go into hiding because of an anti- Islamic outburst during the launch of his new book, just days before September 11. Michel Houellebecq’s ingenious literary novels are unprecedented best-sellers wherever they appear. But celebrated as a visionary and a genius, he is also a figure of hate, attacked as a nazi, a

13 MALI MUSIC WITH DAMON ALBARN AND RICHTER: THE ENIGMA AFEL BOCOUM

One of the greatest pianists of all time, Sviatoslav In 2000 Damon Albarn (Blur/Gorillaz) travelled to Richter was a man who, in spite of living throughout Mali to play and record with some of West Africa’s the Soviet era, remained psychologically free of the greatest musical stars. Albarn spent a week in the regime and indifferent to politics, praise or material Malian capital, Bamako and in the villages of Kela, possessions. meeting blues singer and guitarist Lobi Traore, kamele ngoni player, Ko Kan Ko Sata Doumbia and Bruno Monsaingeon's award-winning biographical kora master, Toumani Diabate. film is based on rare interviews and archive footage of Richter in collaboration with many of this Two years on Damon is reunited with many he met century's greatest artists including Benjamin Britten on his travels for this BBC Four Sessions special (at the Aldeburgh Festival) and Dietrich Fischer- from the Barbican. Among those taking part are the Dieskau. The film features interviews with family great Kora master, Toumani Diabate and and friends, notably his wife, Nina Dorliac, a guitarist/singer, Afel Bocoum. renowned singer in her own right. There are also filmed reminiscences with Glenn Gould, Artur The programme begins with Damon’s video diary of Rubinstein, Van Cliburn and a number of young his trip to the Malian capital Bamako. musicians.

A BBC production for BBC Four. This biography is rich in archive performances by Richter, from concerts given in Moscow in the 1950s, to his celebrated relationship with Benjamin THE MYSTERY OF CHARLES DICKENS Britten at the Aldeburgh Festival, to his partnership with such great singers as Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau.

Heinrich Neuhaus, one of Russia's foremost piano Simon Callow’s acclaimed performance in Peter teachers, once wrote of him: "I must say in all Ackroyd’s stage play The Mystery of Charles honesty that there was nothing more I could teach Dickens comes to BBC Four in a television premiere. Richter". In 1941, Prokofiev asked Richter to Ackroyd’s kaleidoscopic journey through the life perform his fifth piano concerto with the composer and writings of the great 19th century novelist, conducting. It was a tremendous success, and not journalist and inveterate man of the theatre is based so much the beginning of a career as the birth of a on his own biography of Dickens and was specially legend. written for Callow. A BBC production for BBC Four. Ackroyd has blended his own narrative about the writer with Dickens’s own recollections, other people’s memories of Dickens and generous extracts WILLIAM LAWES from the author’s best-loved works. In addition to taking on the role of Dickens, Callow also gives bravura portraits of the whole gallery of Dickensian characters. From Miss Havisham and Mrs Gamp, to William Lawes was the greatest English composer Mr Micawber, Uriah Heep and Bill Sykes, some of before Purcell, creating music centuries ahead of his the most memorable characters in English literature time. He was a man at the centre of the court of are brought vividly to life by Simon Callow. Charles I, dying tragically young in defence of his king in the English Civil War. This programme A Performance Company production for BBC Four. explores the nature of his genius, and includes a concert performance to celebrate his fourth centenary.

Director: Jonathan Haswell A BBC production for BBC Four.

14 FILM: TIME REGAINED (1999) FILM: A LA PLACE DU COEUR (1998)

An Official Selection at both the Cannes and New Set against the backdrop of working class York Film Festivals, Raoul Ruiz's Time Regained Marseilles, A la Place du Coeur, centres on the performs the remarkable feat of bringing the work of relationship of childhood sweethearts Baby and Marcel Proust to the screen. With brilliant Clim, who despite their tender ages are determined execution, Time Regained realises the mixture of to get married. An inter-racial couple - Baby is black space and time, of image and memory, which flows and Clim is white - their lives are shattered when throughout Proust's multi-volume Remembrance of Baby is framed for rape by a racist police officer. Things Past. Aided by an outstanding cast of Whilst Baby awaits trial in prison, Clim discovers international film stars, including Catherine she is pregnant. Deneuve, John Malkovich, Emmanuelle Béart and Vincent Perez, Ruiz has made a glowing reverie on a Clim, her family and Baby’s family unite to support passing age that both overwhelms and entertains. each other in the formidable struggle to prove Baby’s innocence. A remarkable bond develops Time Regained is broadcast in French with English between Clim’s father Joel (Jean-Pierre Darroussin) subtitles. and Baby’s adoptive father Franck (Gerard Maylan) which sees them resort to theft to pay for a lawyer.

FILM: KANDAHAR Robert Guediguian directs Ariane Ascaride, Jean- Pierre Darroussin, Gerard Meylan, Christine Brucher, Alexandre O’Gou and Laure Raoust.

Nafas is a reporter who was born in Afghanistan, In French with English subtitles. but fled with her family to Canada when she was a child. One day she receives a letter from her sister, living in Taliban-controlled Kandahar. After being maimed by a landmine, her sister can no longer endure the torture of life under the Taliban and vows to commit suicide at the next solar eclipse - a mere three days away. Desperate to spare her sister's life, Nafas makes haste to Afghanistan, where she attempts to enter and travel through Taliban territory, undetected as a Westerner, to reach and save her sister.

Kandahar, from internationally acclaimed Iranian director Moshen Makhmalbaf, was inspired by a true story. It won the Ecumenical Jury Prize: Cannes International Film Festival 2001 and the Freedom of Expression Award: National Board of Review.

The film stars Niloufar Pazira; Hassan Tantai; Sadou Teymouri and Hayatalah Hakimi.

It is broadcast in Farsi and English and has English subtitles.

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