The South Bank Show

The return of the long-running arts programme presented by Melvyn Bragg, with this run of the show focusing on the nominees for this year's Sky Arts South Bank Times Breakthrough Awards, as well as previous winners. beginning with Arlo Parks and Samuel Bailey.

Melvyn Bragg talks to Beverley Knight. Regarded as one of Britain's greatest soul singers, she was awarded an MBE in 2006 for services to music.

Melvyn Bragg returns with a new series of The South Bank Show, meeting more leading lights of the arts world, starting with comedian Tracey Ullman.

Melvyn Bragg meets award-winning Norwegian author Karl Ove Knausgård to discuss his life and work, including his six-volume Min Kamp series of autobiographical novels.

Melvyn Bragg meets award-winning writer and director Amma Asante on the set of her latest film, Where Hands Touch, to find out more about the inspirational filmmaker.

Beverley Knight has sold over a million albums in the UK in a career spanning two decades and is widely considered to be one of the UK's most successful singers. Since her initial success in the 90s, Beverley has recently branched into musical theatre, with roles in productions such as Cats. and The Bodyguard, she has scored major hits with singles Made It Back, Greatest Day and Shoulda, Woulda, Coulda. Melvyn joins her working on new material with Guy Chambers and the upcoming hip-hop musical Sylvia at The Old Vic. This South Bank Show explores her experiences of racism growing up in Wolverhampton as the child of Windrush parents and her first steps in the music industry, inspired partly by a chance childhood meeting with 80s soul star Jaki Graham.

In a new series of his arts show, Bragg features five inspiring women, starting with comedienne Tracey Ullman. The documentary looks at Ullman's role as one of the most important women in the history of British comedy.

Bragg meets Norwegian author Karl Ove Knausgaard to discuss his life and work, including his six-volume Min Kamp series of autobiographical novels.

Bragg meets award-winning writer and director Amma Asante on the set of her latest film, Where Hands Touch, to find out more about the inspirational filmmaker.

Arts documentary series presented by Melvyn Bragg. A look through the register of those students of the comedic arts who learnt their trade among the Footlights at Cambridge University. Stephen Fry, Griff Rhys Jones, John Fortune, Clive James and David Mitchell top the bill as pontificators on the influence of Fotlights on mainstream and alternative comedy. Plus a plethora of comic clips featuring alumini of the ultimate school of comedy.

This show follows Mike Skinner, the man behind The Streets, as he records his fourth album in Prague, Everything is Borrowed. Skinner's one man band has successfully portrayed a picture of urban life for today's youth in the UK. He came to prominence in 2001 with his influential debut album Original Pirate Material, which was recorded in his bedroom. He still records this way, but in Prague he's filmed with a symphony orchestra, displaying a relaxed attitude to working with classical musicians. With contributions from Pete Doherty, and critics Chris Salmon and Alexis Petridis.

Eric Clapton last spoke to The South Bank Show exactly twenty years ago, near the end of a long spiral of addiction and alcoholism, just before going in to rehab. Now, 20 years later – and still one of the great guitarists of our time - we pick up the story again with the 62-year-old Clapton talking exclusively to Melvyn Bragg. They discuss conquering his demons, the drugs, the drink, the death of his son, his troubled family background, the intensity of his relationships with other great guitarists and with women, and his influences and his most moving songs. Clapton speaks openly about the music - the one constant in a life of emotional turmoil - and how he has finally found peace. It would be difficult to find a rock star that has experienced more ecstatic highs or despairing lows than Eric Clapton. As one of the greatest rock musicians this country has ever produced, his career has spanned over 40 years from being the fresh faced guitarist of the Yardbirds, to the spaced out solo artist of the 70s, to the reformed, prolific performer of today. Far more than a rock star Clapton is an icon and a living legend. His guitar playing has seen him hailed as ‘God’ and his tracks such as Layla, Sunshine Of Your Love, Wonderful Tonight and Tears In Heaven have become anthems for generations of music fans. The South Bank Show is illustrated with previously unseen performance footage and rare, revealing archive. This is Clapton at his most candid ever.

This episode of The South Bank Show provides a unique insight into Damien Hirst not as the enfant terrible of an art world but as an art collector and businessman. Known for creating one of the most famous icons of modern art, a 14ft tiger shark suspended in formaldehyde, which shocked the public, he also produces decorative spot and spin paintings. His prolific output and entrepreneurialism have made him one of the world's most expensive living artists, with an estimated fortune of £100 million. One of Hirst's motivations for his growing art collection is Toddington, a dilapidated Gothic Manor house in Gloucestershire, which he purchased in 2005 for £3 million and will one day house his entire collection. Here, he shows Melvyn Bragg around Toddington, outlining his plans for its future. They discuss his art collection, his artistic heroes and the relationship between money and art.

Bill Bryson revisits the haunts of his childhood

Melvyn Bragg interviews George Michael regarding Michael's return to touring on the "25 Live" tour, as well as George Michael performs in the studio rehearsing songs for the tour.

The iconic Dusty Springfield remains the 'white lady of soul' and in this compelling South Bank Show, her moving and dramatic story is told in its entirety for the first time. An array of intimate friends, lovers and show business talents go on record to describe the intense highs and lows of Dusty's swinging life, before her untimely death in 1999. Born Mary O'Brien in London as war began in 1939, in the 60's as Dusty Springfield, she came to represent renewed British optimism and modernity, epitomising swinging London. A plain convent educated girl, Dusty's transformation of herself into a blonde glamour icon was a remarkable act of will. A lesbian with a great deal to lose and a great deal to hide, Dusty hid for many years behind the mask of the Girl Singer. The unique qualities of her voice attracted the creme de la creme of songwriters and producers; she had close relationships with Burt Bacharach, Carole King, and Gamble and Huff, the men who created the sound of Philadelphia Soul. Dusty made herself an expert on black American soul music after she fell in love with Motown. Her career waned in the seventies and she fled to America, where she floundered in variety shows. She moved to Los Angeles where she struggled with drink, drugs and self harming. She later returned to Britain to critical acclaim when she re-invented herself in partnership with Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe better known as the Pet Shop Boys. Dusty's life is nothing if not dramatic, although this can never obscure her remarkable gifts as a musician and performer, which have continued to be rediscovered by new generations. A soul searching South Bank Show, on arguably Britain's greatest ever Pop Diva, Dusty Springfield.

Alan Bennett rarely does television interviews. He claims that if you want to find out about him, “it’s all in the work”. But in this exclusive ‘South Bank Show’ one of Britain’s best loved playwrights and diarist agrees to talk candidly about his life, work and what inspires him. Filmed with specially shot monologues and pieces to camera.

Original Air Date—14 March 2004 In the mid-1960s, John Lennon bought a portable jukebox and stocked it with 40 of his favorite 45-rpm records. This documentary showcases those songs and uses them to explore Lennon's musical tastes and influences. Featured are interviews with many of the artists whose songs were in Lennon's jukebox.

In 2001, American author Bill Bryson headed home to Des Moines, Iowa, to reflect on his early life in the Midwest for The South Bank Show.