The next few months are particularly action-packed for arts at the BBC so we've put together a brochure on some of the highlights...
BBC TWO has two ambitious landmark series with Simon Schama's Face of Britain and Dominic Sandbrook's take on the arts in Britain since the Second World War - both of which feel like substantial statements on key areas of our culture. Also on the channel, Artsnight is back on air with an impressive line -up of hosts from Irvine Welsh to Hofesh Schecter, George the Poet to Ana Matronic. While BBC TWO Scotland has a new four part landmark on The Story of Scottish Art with Lachlan Goudie.
I'm hugely excited by Contains Strong Language: A Season of Poets and Poetry Across the BBC, which will put poetry right in the mainstream of national consciousness in the way only the BBC can. It focuses around National Poetry Day on 8 October when Radio 4 is embarking on an ambitious project to tell the story of Britain through poetry in one day, hosted by Andrew Marr with many of our leading poets. There are also powerful new documentaries on Ted Hughes, Philip Larkin and Tony Harrison on BBC Two and BBC Four. And I'm thrilled BBC Four is playing Simon Armitage's Black Roses: The Killing of Sophie Lancaster, originally commissioned by the brilliant Katy Jones for BBC Learning. Poetry at its most powerful and urgent.
And in November, we're bringing the whole BBC together again in the 'BBC On Stage' theatre season. Richard Eyre has directed Ian McKellen and Anthony Hopkins in an astonishing new adaptation of The Dresser for BBC Two, using the original play text and shot in a single location. BBC Four is putting some of the nation's leading independent theatre companies in the spotlight with a series of one-act plays Live From Television Centre. The project has been created in close partnership with Arts Council of England and Battersea Arts Centre. It's a new way of working for us - joining in with the Battersea Arts Centre on a series of 'scratch' days with the theatre companies from across the country - and has proven eye-opening, invigorating and humbling too. And the power of our local services is at its most evident in no less than eleven documentaries from BBC English Regions putting a focus on the everyday heroism of our regional theatres - from Liverpool to Leicester.
I'm loving the way Radio 3 has been integrating its music and speech output more closely. The Proms Plus Literary has become as important to me as the music. And, likewise, music is going to have a greater role in this autumn's Free Thinking Festival. Radio 4 has been placing arts output - like a Front Row Edinbuergh special and an edition of Open Book on the pleasures of reading - more prominently than ever in the schedules, in that much coveted 9am slot. As ever, it's hosting the BBC National Short Story Award, and there will also be a brand new Young Writers Award with Book Trust: a major commitment to emerging talent.
Arena turns forty at pretty much the same point I do. Anthony Wall and his team have created a 24-hour film experience that matches extracts from the Arena archive to the times of the day. So you can have lunch with Warhol, tea with William Burroughs and wait outside the pub at 10.55am with, well, far too many artists and writers who ought to know better. It's an extraordinarily ambitious and moving experience that drives home the sheer importance of what Anthony Wall and his colleagues have been doing the last forty years.
There's so much more besides: BBC Two's Great British Pottery Throw Down will be encouraging the nation to get creative with clay, a December Dance season will showcase Carlos Acosta and the Ballet Boyz.Imagine is back on air with a brilliant line-up of profiles ranging from Howard Jacobson to Anthony Gormley, and throughout all this our day-in day-out arts strands will be keeping us plugged into the best of British arts and culture.
Jonty Claypole is Director, BBC Arts.
- Read/download the BBC Arts Autumn 2015 Brochure.
- Find out more at the BBC Arts website.
- Like BBC Arts on facebook.
- Follow BBC Arts on twitter.
