The Arts on Film

Cinema-goers escape their worries by stepping into the glorious Art Deco luxury of the Odeon picture palaces.

Commemorations for 'The Blue Boy' author, English painter Thomas Gainsborough, in his home town of Sudbury; a local newsreel to mark the bi-centenary of his birth.

Ken McMullen and Stuart Brisley consider the links between performance art and folk ritual.

Matchstick men and so much more - the work and world of Lawrence Stephen Lowry, recorder of the industrial north.

A self-taught Lancashire artist reflects on the town that inspired his creative career.

Perusing body embellishment in the early eighties, tattoo fans talk about their enthusiasm for staining skin long before it dominated Dalston.

Author of Gulliver's Travels faces trial by television

Playful experimental film about one of the most famous, widely reproduced paintings in the world.

Dinos and Jake Chapman create a mannequin for Justine Frischmann and Sam Taylor-Wood mounts an innovative installation.

An analysis of the use of photomontage to distort meaning and create subversive and oppositional art, exemplified by the work of Peter Kennard.

From Llanrwst to Australia, Rome to London, and then finally to Rhyl, Robert Evans-Hughes painted what he saw and, having painted, he would ponder his work with a pipe.

Katrina McPherson’s dance film intimately tracks the frenetic movements of a solo dancer, accompanied by an electronic score by Philip Jeck.

Part of Wonderful London, the BFI National Archive’s programme of restored London travelogues, filmed in the capital in the 1920s.

London swallowed up by the green belt? Fantasy and horror writer Jane Gaskell muses on how the future looks for the hippie generation.

Anglia TV’s Mike Robson visits eccentric British artist Rufus De Pinto at his home in Stradbroke, Suffolk.

Humphrey Jennings and Stewart McAllister's masterly collage of the various people and classes of Britain - at home and at work, at war and at peace - is one of the great films of war-time Britain.

A peek inside the Munnings Art Museum in Dedham, Essex, a memorial to England’s finest painter of horses, known as the artist who hated Picasso.

At home with Brenda Chamberlain. The artist/writer from Bangor lived on Bardsey 1947-62 and is filmed there by a regular visitor to the island.

Join Spectrum as Ulster Television celebrate two rarities in Northern Irish art, orchids and an entirely female exhibition.

Figurative sculptor of the human form, Daphne Hardy Henrion’s solo exhibition at the Old Fire Engine House in Ely, Cambs. Anglia Television.

Seamus Heaney on how writers help give a nation its sense of self

Five poetic responses to war, from Michael Redgrave's reading of Henry V to a musical rendition of a 1950s folk classic.

Imagining the unimaginable through the eyes of Wilfred Owen, combining reconstructions of Owen’s war experiences with animation and readings from his poems and letters.

Cambridge graduate, English poet and wit, C.S. Calverley's poem, read by Dick Graham for Anglia Television, with accompanying visuals to illustrate the verse.

Immerse yourself in the beautiful serenity of the Lake District and the poetry this treasured landscape inspired.

A long-lost BBC documentary of John Betjeman reflecting, in his unhurried manner, his sense that something vital was being lost and singling out what should be preserved.

Lenkiewicz and a relationship study on self portraiture.

Lenkiewicz takes people in with his exceptional art.

Lenkiewicz is filmed talking about his projects.

Self-confessed recluse admits to Living on the Brink.

Bernard Leach offers an insight into his life’s work.

Compelling personal stories from 13 artists as they wrestle with difficult questions during troubling times in Northern Ireland.

"Why in the height of a world war, should there be this terrific interest in painting?"

Lutz Becker’s innovative homage to the work of Kazimir Malevich uses one of his unrealised film scripts as the basis for a portrait of the artist and his theory of abstract art, Suprematism.

Iconic images by photo-pioneer Eadweard Muybridge come to life in this striking video collage.

The artist discusses his inspiration, early education and enslavement by Cubism in an un-broadcast interview from the UTV archives.

Meet the McCormick Players and experience one of Ireland’s last travelling theatres before it falls victim to the TV epidemic.

Capturing an image - a picture of an accomplished portrait painter at work.

Song and dance folk hit the streets of Middlesbrough with a splash of international colour for the Tees-Side International Eisteddfod.

A shot against time: the last ‘pitman painter’ turns an unblinking eye on the near-vanished world of the County Durham coalfields.

“A bundle of nerves, no music, one black dress”: Scarlet O’Hara, a Geordie queen of comedy, looks back at her life of grit and glamour.

Brimham Rocks provides the perfect setting for an entrancing and hypnotic enactment of a primitive ritual in front of bemused sightseers.

Fascinating glimpses into the life and work of Alfred Wallis.

Historic fishing village of Polperro is mecca for artists

Pay a visit to the celebrated playwright's home in Ayot St Lawrence, Hertfordshire.

Irish culture makes an ambitious leap in search of an audience beyond its own shores. How will London react to Ireland’s new found confidence?

The writer and talker from North Dublin makes one of his final TV appearances in both an interview and scenes from his funeral.

Escape to the rocky shore of Strangford Lough for a windswept encounter with a painter who captures its beauty.

David Thompson’s wordless film from 1963 presents an unsettling montage of images from Bacon’s major mid-period works.

Stirring account of the man who was perhaps England's greatest painter, narrated by Michael Hordern.

Barbara Hepworth discusses a life of dedication to visual arts.

Barbara Hepworth is grappling with forms in her studio garden.

Artists are honoured as valued members of the St Ives Art Colony.

A record of the famed sculptor’s 1968 Tate retrospective, accompanied by a fascinating narration by Hepworth herself.

Art on the move - behind the scenes at Bolton Museum.

From solitary Idle Rock to recumbent sculptured stone, from terraced house and pit shaft to Sheep Piece, a national treasure in the making.

The north east’s finest flat-capped stand-up, Bobby Thompson, talks about his life in comedy.

The creator of Sherlock Holmes, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, relaxes with his family in Windlesham and goes on tour to Egypt, Africa and Australia

Orkney evoked through poetry, the sounds of nature, and the music of Peter Maxwell Davies.

A Northumbrian soul: the language and history of a landscape in the music of Kathryn Tickell.

A powerful documentary which sees a community of artists under threat as their London studios face demolition.

Insightful documentary exploring the inspirations, environments and working methods of three contemporary artists.

This long-form portrait of an iconic opera star looks behind the voice to her youth in the segregated American South

Composition is the key as Nancy Kuo guides us through the strength and grace of her art in her Camden Town studio.

An isolated life can mean that home is nothing more than an “airy tomb”, as imagined by poet and rural parish priest R S Thomas.

What do artists do all day? Join the art students of Manchester to find out.

Immerse yourself in the work of Frida Kahlo and Tina Modotti - icons of the Mexican Renaissance.

A portrait of the artist as a "sublime demon with the archangel's face", with an innovative musique concrète soundtrack.

Take a mesmerising journey through the world of Bill Brandt's shadowy black and white photography.

Glimpses on Super 8 film of the picturesque landmarks and pretty countryside that inspired Romantic artist John Constable's paintings.

A man with a historic mission, dedicated to preserving the magnificent artistry of the medieval glaziers of York for future generations.

The transformative power of both nature and art meet as a tree becomes an elegant bird in the hands of a skilled craftsman.

Affable Beryl Cook downplays her gift.

The people’s painter who dared to defy the art world.

A night at the operetta with the Thornton-Cleveleys Amateur Operatic Society.

A chance to see and hear the last mining village, and last generation, to keep alive a cultural practice that knitted a community together.

The many joys of barbershop singing on display as our Sheffield hopefuls are cajoled into a winning chorus by an inspirational teacher.

The satirical novelist pokes fun at the places he loves to hate.

What passions burn behind doors in Downpatrick? Enjoy a tale of two unknown artists who have both found something they can truly call their own.

Potter Ted sells his work in London, to keep the wolf from the door, but practises his art at Felin Wen, his home-cum-studio at Pontrug, Gwynedd.

This "musical profile of the Watersons" is a precious document of the British folk revival, much of it shot in their hometown, Hull.

Rat-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat Ka-Boom! Introducing … an anarchic spoof tour of the cult satirical rag Viz with creator Chris Donald.

Enter the imaginative world of acclaimed sculptor Rolanda Polonsky, a resident of Netherne Psychiatric Hospital, Surrey.

The artist's place in 1950s Britain - and how it's paid for.

An exploration of creative and technological innovation, with images from the Hayward Gallery's groundbreaking 1970 show.

Novelist Cressida Lindsay and Commune Movement pioneer Sarah Eno feature in this Anglia TV documentary about life in a commune.

Author Cressida Lindsay has created a commune in rural Norfolk for fellow writers, artists, sculptors, and the occasional pop group.

In a ten mile triangle giant toads are sculpted in bronze, the intricacies of trees are captured in oil and the first space invader is exhibited.

A pre-Civilisation Kenneth Clark fronts this impressive early arts broadcast on the great Flemish painter.

From peep shows to opera glasses: how war and state funding turned a "Philistine, sports-loving people" into connoisseurs of the high arts.

Out on the wiley, windy moors, by rundown stone cottages, the bonneted Brontë sisters feed their imagination, and Emily (aka Ellis Bell) dreams of meeting her Heathcliffe.

Richard Whiteley joins children on the Worth Valley Railway Santa’s Special, while the Haworth Town Band sing On Ilkla Moor Baht 'at.

An intriguing film of an amateur filming a documentary about Emily Brontë on location, up on the Yorkshire moors, and editing it in his home.

Edna O’Brien interviewed by Russell Harty about her writing and her relationship with Ireland

Musings on life and literature in this student drama made by the Cambridge Film Unit.

Bloomsbury Group antics at the Wiltshire home of Dora Carrington and Lytton Strachey.

Daphne du Maurier curates, and Cyril Cusack presents, the poetry of WB Yeats in this evocative centenary commemoration.

A tribute to poet Thomas Gray's elegiac masterpiece.

Travelogue of places in the Lake District associated with William Wordsworth

Behind the scenes at the very first Brighton Festival

What do pigeons want? Patience, punctuality and kindness, according to William Robinson of Rhymney who loves his birds.

Someone new, someone old, something borrowed and something blue combine to make a school tale that pits inspired youth against aged cynicism.

Sculptor Anish Kapoor offers insight into his work for a major exhibition of new British sculpture at the Hayward Gallery

Where would a world of movers and shakers be without the makers and soul-feeders? Long live the poets and musicians, artists and performers!

War and a grinding economy take their toll on the spirit and soul of the Welsh in this haunting, poetic study

No place to hide: sculptor accepts challenge of creating piece for Holyhead comprehensive school working in an open Trearddur Bay studio.

Profile of artist Paul Nash, who was fascinated by the atmosphere of places and the surreal aspects of landscape.

The strange life and obsessive creativity of psychotic outsider artist Adolf Wölfli.