The South Bank Show

Tom Stoppard

Grace Under Pressure (Anthony Burgess on Hemingway)

Woody Allen

Anatomy of an Opera: Jonathan Miller's Figaro

Rhythm of Resistance (South African music)

Harmony of the Spheres (Neil Ardley)

Circus Clowns/Schubert recital by Richter

Royal Shakespeare Company on tour

Brimstone & Treacle (Dennis Potter) / John McLaughlin, a Musical Journey

The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith / Edward Gorey / Gunter Grass

Michael Cimino / Alan Bennett, Stephen Frears

Gordon Williams, Alan Sharp, Eddie Boyd

Derek Boshier / Ingrid Bergman, Ingmar Bergman

Neil Simon

Beryl Cook / Cloud Nine rehearsals

Graham Sutherland

Darryl Way / Howard Brenton

The Europeans (film) / Joseph Heller

Asian Arts festival

Billy Connolly

Jessye Norman

Rough Trade (record label) / Allen Jones

Scum (film) / Keith Jarrett

Michael Tippett (90 min.)

Francis Ford Coppola

Royal Shakespeare Company masterclass (1)

Royal Shakespeare Company masterclass (2)

Talking Heads

Love and the Ice-Cream Vendor

Fay Weldon / Richard Hogart on Northern Ireland in drama

Merce Cunningham

Elegies for the Deaths of Three Spanish Poets

A Time There was ... (Benjamin Britten)

The Greene Adaptations (Graham Greene films)

Salsa (Puerto Rican music)

The Worlds of Edward Bond

Yehudi Menuhin and Stephane Grappelli / Kinglsey Amis

new British rock films / The Tin Drum (film)

Roman Polanski

Tom Wolfe

Andrew Wyeth

Angus Wilson

Jane Austen (film)

Arthur Miller

William Golding

Akira Kurosawa

Stravinsky's The Firebird

No Need to Lie

The Passion (National Theatre's updating of medieval plays)

Toni Morrison

The Trespasser (film)

Don Juan in Hell

poetry workshop

Martin Scorsese

Elizabeth Taylor / John Hubbard

Bob Fosse

Robert Redford / Martin Amis

Verity Bargate / Howard Hodgkin

At the Haunted End of the Day: the Life of Sir William Walton

Gore Vidal

The Roots of the Tree (Ermanno Olmi)

Colin Welland

Christopher Logue / Phillip King

Lulu's Last Act (Berg opera)

Dame Ninette De Valois / David Hockney on Picasso

Clive James / Craig Raine

Soviet Art

Rhythm and Blues (The Blues Band, Dr. Feelgood, Nine Below Zero, Paul Jones)

Music for a City: Venice

The French Lieutenant's Woman

Elvis Costello

Old Glory: the Journey and the Book

Ian McKellan / Ian McEwan

Brian Moore / Patrick Caulfield

A Talent to Vex: John Osborne

Mama Lu Parks

Bernard D'Ascoli / Theatre of the 8th Day

Milos Forman

Germaine Greer

Pauline Kael / George Steiner's The Portage to San Cristobal of AH

Jerry Lieber and Mike Stoller

Blacck Theatre Cooperative / Laurie Anderson

Guys and Dolls (at the National Theatre)

Richard Alston's Bellezza Flash

Peter Maxwell-Davies

Saul Bellow

Indian wallpainting

Stravinski (1)

Stravinski (2)

Julian Lloyd-Webber

Miles Davis / Robert Nye

Caught in the Act (Pillar to Post at Wormwood Scrubs)

Joseph Papp / James Galway

Werner Herzog

Why Don't I Love Opera Anymore (by Stephen Oliver)

Phillip Larkin

In March 1981 Melvyn Bragg travelled to Hull to interview the poet, librarian and jazz critic Philip Larkin.

Laurence Olivier, a Life (1)

Laurence Olivier, a Life (2)

Peter Gabriel

Cameras follow Peter Gabriel during the recording of his fourth solo album.

Bruce Chatwin

Patricia Highsmith

Steven Spielberg

Gospel at Colonus

Simone De Beauvoir

Barry Flannigan / Seamus Heaney

David Hare

Agnes De Mille

Handel's Semele (by the Royal Opera House)

Sam Fuller

Local Hero (film)

R.K. Narayan

Ivo Pogorelich

John Le Carré

Choirs and Places Where They Sing

William Trevor

Gene Hackman

Keith Waterhouse

Robert Lowell / Benjamin Britten's Quartettino

Cowboy Art

Jiri Kylian

Producing Don Giovanni

Ken Russell's View of The Planets

Piper's Way

Yuri Lyubimov

Jack Lemmon

Catherine Cookson

Lillian Gish/Glen Baxter

Alberto Moravia

Ian Hamilton Finlay/Lord Gowrie

Barry Tuckwell: Master of the Horn

Trevor Griffiths

Weather Report

Claudio Arrau

Kathy Acker

Ralph Vaughan Williams

Sir Ernst Gombrich

Michael Frayn

Ed McBain

David Bintley: New Ballet at Sadler's Wells

Stephen Sondheim

Elisabeth Vellacott / DeCocoa, Hot Chocolate

adaptation of Ivy Compton Burnett's Elders and Betters

Kipling (one-man play with Alec McGowen)

Anthony Caro

Alan Bennett

McCartney's Broad Street

Behind the scenes look at the making of Paul McCartney's 1984 movie Give My Regards To Broad Street.

The Forming of the Phoenix (Phoenix Dance Company)

Paolo and Vittorio Taviani

Norman Nicholson

Joseph Heller

Mstislav Rostropovich

Max Wall

Alan Bleasdale

Anthony Burgess on D.H. Lawrence

Stravinsky's Oedipus Rex

Marc Chagall

David Lean: a Life in Film

Simon Rattle / finale of Messiaen's Turangalila Symphony

Little Richard

George Malcolm on Scarlatti

Silent Partners: Second Stride Dance Company

Michael Crawford/Billy Bragg

David Mamet

Olivier Messiaen: The Music of Faith

The Cotton Club (night club)

Prez (jazz opera about Lester Young)

Francis Bacon

As part of The South Bank Show series, director David Hinton and interviewer Melvyn Bragg accompany Francis Bacon for a

George Steiner on Vienna at the turn of the century

Sir Alec Guinness

Peter Ackroyd's Hawksmoor

Ian McKellen, Diary of a Year

Theatre of Comedy workshop

Pete Townshend: After the Fire

Sir Stephen Spender

Marguerite Duras

Karole Armitage

Peter Shaffer

John Cleese

Cleese was silently scripting A Fish Called Wanda at the time this interview was filmed. It is not mentioned in this pro

Vladimir Ashkenazy

Paul Schrader

Purcell's Dido and Aenaes

Patrick Heron

Blue Note Records

Michala Petri

Elisabeth Schwarzkopf

Absolute Beginners (film)

Arthur Boyd

Hal Prince: Rethinking the Musical

British Soap Operas

Hull Truck Theatre Company

Velvet Underground

The South Bank Show’s Velvet Underground documentary contains interviews with Lou Reed, John Cale, Sterling Morrison,

Al Jolson

John Mortimer

Michael Powell

Truman Capote

Fay Godwin

The Andrew Lloyd-Webber Story

Agatha Christie, How Did She Do It?

The Dream is Over (Christopher Bruce ballet on John Lennon)

Arts Review '86

Anthony Hopkins / David Hare

Philip Glass

Alvin Ailey Dance Theater

Anthony Green: RA, a Love Story

birth of Frankenstein and Dracula

Thomas Allen

The Wooster Group

The London Underground in art

Barbara Dickson

Penguin Cafe Orchestra

Turner at the Tate

George V. Higgins

Peter York lecture

The Aida File: The Making of the Opera (1)

The Aida File: Aida Performance (2)

Maria Callas

Toni Morrison

The Smiths

This documentary on The Smiths was filmed just days before the band went their separate ways in 1987. Contains interview

Andy Warhol

Frank Rich / Suzanne Vega

Sir Terence Conran

Gore Vidal

African music / Russian theatre

Sir George Solti

Eric Clapton

Arts Review '87

The Last Emperor (1988 film)

Australian Aboriginies

Boogie Woogie Music

The Golden Age of Television

A lecture about television given at the British Film Institute.

George Barker

Jackson Pollack

Lenny Henry

Peter Dickinson

A Day on The Grand Canal with the Emperor of China

Nicuragua: Poets as Politicans

Ken Russell's ABC of British Music

Doris Lessing

Sir Peter Hall's last National Theatre production

The Art of Walt Disney

Bernard Shaw

Under Milk Wood

Toulouse-Lautrec

David Puttnam

David Hockney

Two Women in Three Dimensions (Wendy Taylor, Nicola Hicks)

Bristol WWII bombing raids reenactment

Raymond Chandler

Neil Jordan

John Houseman

David Bailey

Derek Walcott

Patrick Leigh Fermor

National Training Orchestra

Christopher Hampton

Istvan Szabo

Robert Redford

Tony Palmer on the concerto

Ben Elton

John Burnett

A special 3 minute parody episode made for Comic Relief. Melvin interviews painter John Burnett.

Put Blood in the Music (New York avant garde music)

John Ogdon

Sir William Golding

Martin Amis

Dustin Hoffman, Sir Peter Hall

Jimi Hendrix

Tom Keneally in Eritrea

Ken Russell

Steven Berkoff

Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Fitzrovia

Dame Edna Everage

Evelyn Glennie

Peter Brook

Arts Review '89

Boris Pasternak

Sir David Lean, Robert Bolt

Christopher Hogwood

Chinua Achebe

Hans Werner Henze

Jock Tamson's Bairns (Gerry Mulgrew, Liz Lochhead)

Yuri Bashmet

DV8 Physical Theatre

Mark Morris: the Hidden Soul of Harmony

Carl Davis, Temba

Vivienne Westwood

Hindemith

Robert Altman

George Michael

Peter Ackroyd on Dickens

Spike Lee

Salman Rushdie

Roy Lichtenstein

Ken Russell on Anton Bruckner

Clear Cool Crystal Streams (Irish rock music)

John Updike

East German writers

Alan Parker

Cameron Mackintosh

Spitting Image

The Talis Scholars

Stan Laurel

August Wilson

Oscar Marzaroli

Anne-Sophie Mutter

Bonfire of the Vanities (1991 film)

Willard White

The Five Blind Boys of Alabama / R.S. Thomas

Steve Martin

Rudolph Nureyev

Kiri Te Kanawa

Private Eye

David Lodge

Terry Gilliam

Neil Simon

Heinrich Schiff

Seamus Heaney

John Osborne

Dame Britain (Vera Lynn)

Arthur Miller

Jose Carreras, a Life Story

Dame Kiri Te Kanawa

Arts Review '91

Douglas Adams

Interviews with Douglas Adams Some parts of Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency are filmed as link items, including

Lenny Henry Hunts the Funk

Hakan Hardenberger

Cecilia Bartoli

Les Murray

Colin Thubron

Pet Shop Boys

Paula Rego

Noel Coward

Anthony Hopkins

Terence Davis

Making Naked Lunch

The Making of Sgt. Pepper

Billy Connolly

Alice Walker

Peter O'Toole

Two Royal Ballet Dancers (Darcey Bussell, Viviana Durante)

Robert Zemeckis

George Formby

Sir Richard Attenborough

The Secret Life of Sir Arnold Bax

The World of Jeff Koons

Jimi Hendrix

Dracula

Monserrat Caballe

Annie Leibowitz

Guggenheim Museum

Dmitri and Sasha Sitkovetsky

Jean Genet

I, Berlioz

Richard Price

John Banville

Henryk Gorecki's 3rd symphony

Dudley Moore

Dudley talks candidly about his life and work alongside contributions from Peter Cook, Jonathan Miller, Blake Edwards, B

Frink, 1930-1993 (Dame Elisabeth Frink)

Benny Goodman, the King of Swing

Paul Simon

Norman Wisdom

Sydney Pollack

Willy Russell

Ken Loach

British director Ken Loach first came to fame in the Sixties with plays such as UP THE JUNCTION and CATHY COME HOME and

Margaret Atwood

John Lee Hooker

Stevie Wonder

Sylvie Guillem

Tim Rice

Lynda La Plante

John Williams

John Lloyd's A-Z of Comedy (1)

John Lloyd's A-Z of Comedy (2)

Cliff Richard

Bheki Mseleku

Darker Than Me

Jean-Claude Carriere

Danny Kaye: Nobody's Fool

Looking for the Perfect Beat: Rap

Larry Adler Plays Gershwin

Kiri's 50th Birthday Concert

Clive Barker

Dawn French

Christian Boltanski

Eric Newby

John Steinbeck

Kenneth Williams

Marilyn Horne

New Generation Poets

Vanessa Redgrave

David Mamet

The Shearing Touch (George Shearing)

Alan Ayckbourn

Frankenstein

Thora Hird

The Glory of Gershwin

P.J. O'Rourke

Lionel Bart

Carl Orff

Classic Widows

Jonathan Miller

Flags of the Fante Coast

Catherine Bailey, the Lady is a Tramp / Roger Ballen

Edward Albee

Jodie Foster

Martin Amis

Country Music

Miriam Makeba

Clint Eastwwod

Ackroyd's Blake

Tom Sharpe

kd lang

Pavarotti at 60

Jimmy Nail

Dame Judi Dench

Coronation Street

Documentary about the origins, the history and the making of CORONATION STREET, including interviews with cast and crew

Dame Barbara Cartland

Jonathan Raban: Badlands / Wynton Marsalis

Elaine Page Special

Sting

This report brings you back in 1996, when Sting records "Mercury falling". You will see Sting in his home of lake house,

Albert Finney

Marlene Dietrich

John Eliot Gardiner

Vermeer: Light, Love and Silence

Claes Oldenburg

Baaba Maal

Maxine Peake / Wynton Marsalis in New Orleans

Alan Ayckbourn Workshop

Victoria Wood

Sir John Mills

Michael Crawford

Norman Mailer on Picasso

Chanson

Michael Collins

Bryn Terfel

Howard Hodgkin

Jimmy McGovern

Bogart: Here's Looking at You, Kid

Maggi Hambling

The US and Us (1)

The US and Us (2)

Gilbert and George (1)

Gilbert and George (2)

Valery Gergiev

Paganini

David Helfgott

Paul Auster

Young Directors (Preya Lal, Alexander Kelly, Franca Cereghini, Chris Dooks)

Scarfe on Hercules

Michael Flatley: Lord of the Dance

Kay Mellor

Björk

Iain Banks

Matthew Bourne's Adventures in Motion Pictures

Steven Bochco

Simon Raven

Franco Zeffirelli

Saul Zaentz

Gillian Wearing / Gary Hume

Marks and Gran

Hail Bop: a Portrait of John Adams

Nigel Kennedy

Gary Oldman

Body Art

John Tavener

The Bee Gees

Will Self

Afro-Cuban Allstars

This is Not an Exit: the Fictional World of Bret Easton Ellis

Wayne Sleep

Ossie Clarke (1)

Ossie Clarke (2)

Lesley Garrett

Harold Pinter

Maxine Peake/Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo

Walter Mosley

Petula Clark

Warren Beatty

John Tomlinson

Javier du Frutos

UB40

Anish Kapoor

New South African Artists

Lucy Gannon

Tony Harrison

Dolly Parton

Paul Merton

Frank McCourt

Howard Jacobson

Jose Cura

James Galway

The Lion King (stage play based on the film)

Joan Collins

Blur

Yoko Ono

Cher

Countertenors

Bing Crosby

Shakespeare

Millennium Dome

Sam Mendes

Michael Douglas

Chuck Close

Emir Kusturica

Amis on Amis

(composing classical music) (1)

Simon Holt's Sunrise, Yellow Noise (2)

Andrew Lloyd Webber, Ben Elton

Santana

Joyce [Carol Oates] on Marilyn [Monroe]

Mark Morris Dance Group

George MacDonald Fraser

Courtney Pine

Ron Howard

Dame Gillian Weir

[Marlene] Dumas and [Jemima] Stehli

Mark Quinn

Tom Jones

Ken Russell

Shirin Neshat

Russell Watson

Amos Oz

Greta Garbo

Elvis Costello with Annie Sofie von Otter

Bill Bryson

In 2001, American author Bill Bryson headed home to Des Moines, Iowa, to reflect on his early life in the Midwest for Th

Ian Rankin

Ian Bostridge

Edmund White

Steve Coogan

Ravi Shankar

Tracey Emin

High and Low Culture in the Age of Television

(highlights)

Rachel Whiteread

Norman Foster

Dr. John

Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings

Ladies and Gentlemen, Miss Renée Fleming

The Sopranos

Leif Ove Andsnes

Why the Novel Matters

Meera Syal

Johnnie Ray

Mario Vargas Llosa

Fay Weldon

R.E.M.

Neil LaBute

Cinema of Fire (Iranian cinema)

Moby

Bernie Taupin

Mike Leigh

Akram Khan

Graham Vick: Beethoven in the Big Top

Craig David

Andrew Davies

Joan Rivers

Willie Nelson

James MacMillan

Irek Mukhamedov

Gerhard Richter

Hanif Kureishi

How to Get Rich: Felix Dennis

Philip Pullman

Caryl Phillips

Conor McPherson

Herbie Hancock

Caetano Veloso

Ang Lee

The Real George Orwell

Juan Diego Florez

Nick Cave

Albert Camus

Robert Harris Takes on Rome

Andrew Lloyd Webber, the Full Picture

Ewan McGregor

Germaine Greer

Daniel Barenboim and the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra

TV Stories (1)

TV Stories (2)

Jamie Cullum

The Wilson Twins

John Lennon's Jukebox

Original Air Date—14 March 2004 In the mid-1960s, John Lennon bought a portable jukebox and stocked it with 40 of his

Jack Vettriano

The Dance Theatre of Harlem

Jeanette Winterson

Johnny Hallyday

Othello

Ian McKellen

Street Music Stories

Ronnie Wood

Willie Nelson

Malcolm Arnold (1)

Malcolm Arnold (2)

Robert Frank

Michael Frayn

The Darkness

Iggy Pop

Ruth Rendell

Howard Goodall

Pete 'n' Dud, The Lost Shows

Ian McEwan

Going Sane

Khaled and Rachid

Alina Cojocaru, Johan Kobborg

The Garden of Cosmic Speculation

John Boorman

Red Priest

National Theatre's production of Henry IV

The Secret Art of War

Paul Abbott

Eric Sykes

Melvyn Bragg talks to Eric Sykes about his remarkable career, which started in the 1940s when he began writing for Frank

Margot Fonteyn (1)

Margot Fonteyn (2)

Sophie Calle

Karl Jenkins

Eric Sykes

Maxim Vengerov

Alan Bennett

Alan Bennett rarely does television interviews. He claims that if you want to find out about him, “it’s all in the w

Pablo Trapero, Lucrecia Martel, Daniel Burman

The Life and Times of Tristram Shandy (film)

Peter Hall (1)

Peter Hall (2)

Little Britain: A South Bank Show Special

Armando Iannucci

Armando Iannucci

Manga Mania

The iconic Dusty Springfield remains the 'white lady of soul' and in this compelling South Bank Show, her moving and dra

John Rutter

PD James

Dusty Springfield

Seu Jorge

Romeo and Juliet

George Michael: I'm Your Man

Melvyn Bragg interviews George Michael regarding Michael's return to touring on the "25 Live" tour, as well as George Mi

Peter Blake

Nick Park & Aardman Animations

Steve Reich

Bill Bryson

Bill Bryson revisits the haunts of his childhood

JG Ballard

Robbie Coltrane

Episode 4

Spamalot

Claire Tomalin on Thomas Hardy

Sue Townsend

Lorenzo Da Ponte

Peter Blake

Nick Park and Aardman Animations

Steve Reich

Grayson Perry

Damien Hirst - Addicted To Art

Damien Hirst

This episode of The South Bank Show provides a unique insight into Damien Hirst not as the enfant terrible of an art wor

Victoria Wood: A South Bank Show Special

Isabel Allende

Shane Meadows

Jarvis Cocker: Running The World

Martin Sheen On Playing It Real

Marianne Faithfull: A Life In Song

Zaha Hadid

MacBeth

Ian McMillan, Bard Of Barnsley

Emma Kirkby, The Unsung Heroine

June Whitfield

Michael Sheen On Playing It Real

Joan Dision

Ken Follett

The Mersey Sound

The Last Laugh: John Bird and John Fortune

Annie Lennox

Eric Clapton

Eric Clapton last spoke to The South Bank Show exactly twenty years ago, near the end of a long spiral of addiction and

The Making Of Viva La Diva

The Nutcracker Story

Kevin Spacey

Tim Burton

David McVicar

Revolution 68

Liza Minnelli

The Damned United

Gore Vidal

Sarah Waters

Tasmin Little

Billy Joel

The Streets

This show follows Mike Skinner, the man behind The Streets, as he records his fourth album in Prague, Everything is Borr

The One Ronnie

Bond

Cildo Meireles

Sam Taylor-Wood

The Mariinsky Theatre

The South Bank Show Awards

Arts documentary series presented by Melvyn Bragg. A look through the register of those students of the comedic arts who

Beyond the Footlights

The Tempest

Will Young

Messiah

William Goldman

William Goldman's career began as a novelist, but he soon turned to screenplays, including those for iconic films such a

Out Of Nigeria

Out Of Nigeria (2)

Peter Kosminsky

John Lloyd

Kate Atkinson

Abi Morgan

King Lear

Angel Blue

Daniel Radcliffe

Episode 7

Episode 8

Episode 10

Episode 11

George R.R. Martin

Paul Greengrass

Margaret Drabble

Laura Mvula

Joseph Calleja

Mark Rylance

Episode 7

Episode 8

Episode 9

Episode 10

Sly & Robbie

Joyce DiDonato

Russell T Davies

Ballet Black

Benedict Cumberbach's 'Hamlet'

Jackie Kay

Amma Asante

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

Karl Ove Knausgaard

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

Sally Wainwright

Bragg meets Sally Wainwright, one of the UK's most revered TV writers who has won BAFTA awards for her dramas Last Tango

Benjamin Clementine

Bragg meets Benjamin Clementine to discuss his roller-coaster ride from busking in Paris to becoming a world-renowned si

Obsession: Jude Law & Ivo Van Hove

Bragg talks to double Oscar nominee Jude Law and director Ivo van Hove about their production of Obsession at London's B

Yinka Shonibare

Tracey Ullman

In a new series of his arts show, Bragg features five inspiring women, starting with comedienne Tracey Ullman. The docum

Beverley Knight

Beverley Knight has sold over a million albums in the UK in a career spanning two decades and is widely considered to be

Danielle de Niese

Sonia Friedman

Sonia Friedman is a multi-award winning theatre producer who, in the past 20 years, has been unrivaled in her success of

Gail Rebuck

Gail Rebuck has been the most powerful woman in British publishing for three decades, holding the posts of Chief Executi

Why the Arts Matter

Jed Mercurio

Jack Thorne

Steve Pemberton & Reece Shearsmith

Heidi Thomas

Gillian Anderson

Bernardine Evaristo

Benjamin Zephaniah

Simon Armitage

Arlo Parks & Samuel Bailey

The Pin, Marina Kemp & Nick Rowland

Noah Jupe, Mishka Rushdie Momen & Alex Woolf

Arielle Smith & Alberta Whittle

The South Bank Sky Arts Awards 2022

Frank Skinner

Helen Mirren

Carlos Acosta

David Hockney: A Celebration

David Hockney: In Normandy

The celebrated British artist discusses his life and work in his Normandy studio, revealing his influences, inspirations

David Hockney: 50 Years on Film

Using over 50 years of archive footage, Hockney's life and career is explored.

David Hockney: In London

Filmed in his London studio, Hockney sits down to discuss his remarkable life and career, illustrated by a wide range of