Programme Information

Modern Masters – Dali Ep 4/4

Sunday 23 May

9.00-10.00pm BBC ONE and BBC HD

• www.bbc.co.uk/modernmasters
• Feature
• Press release

Alastair Sooke argues that Dali was one of the most influential men of the 20th century

Spanish artist Salvador Dali (1904-1989) remains one of the art world's most controversial figures. An artist with brilliant technical abilities, his dreamscapes have become some of the most famous pictures ever painted. As BBC One's modern art series looking at some of the most notable and influential artists of our time concludes, Alastair Sooke discusses whether Dali's often comical behaviour and his eager readiness to embrace advertising and the media as part of a quest for fame and fortune, undermined the seriousness of his purpose.

Sooke argues that Dali was one of the most influential men in the 20th century, whose influence has spread through fashion, comedy, advertising and art. But was he also a great artist?

Discovering the importance of Dali's childhood as a source of his art, Sooke goes back to the Spanish seaside towns the artist frequented as a child. Together with Dali's biographer, Ian Gibson, he finds the landmarks that became the source for motifs that occurred throughout his career.

For Dali it was the surrealists, led by French poet, philosopher and agitator Andre Breton, who proposed an agenda and a direction in art that he considered he could make his own. Inspired by the theories of Freud, Breton and the surrealists proposed an art movement that would focus on interior worlds, tap into the unconscious mind and reflect the human fascination with sex. Though Dali joined the movement late, he quickly became its champion and evangelist.

Sooke travels to the US to see Dali's most celebrated painting, The Persistence Of Memory (1931). Featuring melting clocks in a hunting desert, it is still much referred to in advertising and popular media, and Sooke considers why Dali's work has such perennial appeal.

Talking about Dali's own paranoia, leading psychoanalyst Darian Leader explains that he used the real world as a prompt to discover alternative possibilities. Dali could look at a rock and see a face; he could look at a melting Camembert cheese and see a melting clock signifying mortality.

One of Dali's most controversial contributions to art was his reconfiguration of everyday objects to make them suggestive and thought-provoking. Visiting the home of Dali's British patron, Edward James, with the Victoria & Albert Museum's curator Ghislane Wood, Sooke is shown several of these: Dali's telephone with a lobster receiver; the sofa made in the shape of Hollywood actress Mae West's lips; and an armchair made from ... arms.

Leading contemporary artist Jeff Koons describes how Dali's provocative art in the 20th century gave artists like him permission to experiment in new ways. But it is not just the art world that has taken on the mantle of surrealism. Sooke explores how creative industries from advertising to fashion have absorbed the potential of surrealism's promotion of the ridiculous and the suggestive. From the adverts Dali himself designed or appeared in, to those on screens today, commercials continue to delight and provoke by making surreal links.

From the early dress designs that Dali made with Elsa Schiaparelli to those created by the late Alexander McQueen and worn recently by Lady Gaga, fashion's debt to Dali remains profound. The entertainment industries also owe much to the artist. His sense of the absurd set a marker for comics from Monty Python to today's Mighty Boosh, as writer and performer Noel Fielding reveals. The admiration that film-makers Alfred Hitchcock and Walt Disney had for the painter is also explored as Sooke heads to Hollywood to unearth Dali's collaborations with these titans of the silver screen.

The journey ends in the Dali Theatre Museum in Figueres, Spain, where Sooke marvels at the output of the man and admits the irrevocable impact he has had on the contemporary world.

Modern Masters – Dali is simulcast on the BBC HD channel – the BBC's High Definition channel, available through Freesat, Sky and Virgin Media.

AH

MotoGP – Le Mans Live

Sunday 23 May

12.30-2.00pm BBC TWO

• www.bbc.co.uk/sport

Jennie Gow presents coverage from the Le Mans MotoGP.

The iconic motorsport venue in Northern France was host to a classic Grand Prix last year that saw Spain's Jorge Lorenzo battle difficult weather conditions to win. He will be among the favourites on the grid as he clearly likes the track, having also finished second in the race in 2008. As ever, the legendary Valentino Rossi will be the man to beat as he showed in the opening race of the season in Qatar.

This is only the third MotoGP of the season after the Japanese GP was postponed due to the disruption caused to air travel by the Icelandic volcano, so riders will be keen to get some points on the board.

LW

To top

Golf – PGA Championship

Sunday 23 May

2.00-6.30pm BBC TWO

• www.bbc.co.uk/sport

Hazel Irvine presents live action from the final round of the PGA Championship from Wentworth. Last year, Paul Casey picked up the trophy and a cheque for €750,000 after emerging victorious from a nail-biting duel with fellow Englishman Ross Fisher.

Casey needed three birdies in the last four holes to secure the win, which lifted him up to third in the world rankings. With the Ryder Cup looming in September, the vital qualification points on offer here will ensure competition at the top of the leaderboard will be fiercer than ever.

SB4

To top

Money Ep 1/2

Sunday 23 May

9.00-10.00pm BBC TWO and BBC HD (Schedule addition 12 May)

• www.bbc.co.uk/drama

Nick Frost plays John Self in Money, a two-part adaptation of Martin Amis's blackly comedic cult novel

Nick Frost stars as John Self in this timely two-part adaptation of Martin Amis's blackly comedic cult novel Money, set among the greed and excess of early-Eighties capitalism.

Self, a successful director of commercials, quits his agency and travels to America to direct his autobiographical feature film debut, with the assistance of high-flying moneyman Fielding Goodney.

As they begin to make headway with the production, getting their pitch accepted and securing major names for the film, Self receives obscure late-night phone-calls from an anonymous and threatening caller who appears to know his every move.

Undeterred and sustained by a diet of pornography, alcohol and room service, Self attempts to juggle his pursuit of the money with his dysfunctional relationship with girlfriend Selina, his old friend Martina and bitter father Barry.

Meanwhile, conflict between his stars, Lorne Guyland and Caduta Massi, over the proposed nudity or lack thereof in their sex scenes, as well as the script-changing demands of moralistic actor Spunk Davis, threaten to ruin his feature film.

Things take a darker turn for Self when, unable to remember a particularly hedonistic night's events, he finds himself stranded and bleeding after being attacked. With nothing taken, though, who attacked him and what was the motive?

One thing is central to all of this – money – and as Self notes at the start of this compelling drama, "Money doesn't care if you say it's evil, it just makes it stronger."

Nick Frost is John Self, Vincent Kartheiser is Fielding Goodney, Emma Pierson is Selina Street, Hattie Morahan is Martina Twain, Tim Pigott-Smith is Barry, Oliver Cotton is Lorne Guyland, Jerry Hall is Caduta Massi and Joshua Dallas is Spunk Davis.

Money is part of the Eighties season on BBC Two, which also features Abi Morgan's Royal Wedding and the Boy George biopic Worried About The Boy. Part two can be seen on Wednesday 26 May at 9pm on BBC Two.

Money is simulcast on the BBC HD channel – the BBC's High Definition channel, available through Freesat, Sky and Virgin Media.

LH2

The WAGs volunteer for projects in a notorious Johannesburg suburb

Three different projects in the notorious Johannesburg suburb of Hillbrow receive help from the five footballers' wives and girlfriends (WAGs) who have left their pampered lives behind to experience the reality of life behind the gloss of the World Cup by working in some of the poorest and most deprived neighbourhoods in the host nation, South Africa.

Formerly an affluent white suburb under apartheid, Hillbrow is now the home of the poor, dispossessed, illegal immigrants and criminal gangs. Prostitution and sex trafficking are massive problems here and the WAGs tackle the issues head on, working with charities and organisations that help women and girls.

Elen Rivas and Ellie Darby work days and nights with former prostitutes, going into brothels to teach sex workers the dangers of HIV infection and trying to persuade them to leave the brothels to begin a new life. Shocked by what they find, Ellie says: "I feel sick ... the smell of marijuana and heroin was too much for me."

They eventually convince a 21-year-old prostitute to take herself and her baby out of a brothel and into a woman's shelter. Ellie continues: "All it took was two people to ask her about her story, take an interest. One phone call and she's in this great shelter; she'll be looked after now and at peace."

Chantelle Tagoe is based at the controversial Central Methodist Church, which offers 3,000 immigrants a place to sleep. It's dirty, squalid and dangerous. Chantelle breaks down when she first witnesses the human misery. "For this to be the last resort, it's awful. Just all the overcrowding and the children ... it's like their whole life is with them."

In the crèche she meets three-year-old Moses – a withdrawn boy who was abandoned at the church when his mother never returned to pick him up. Chantelle is drawn to him and makes a connection. "What a week's wages of a footballer could do, imagine what it would do in a place like this... £5,000 would feed a family for 10 years! It puts it all into perspective." At the end of her stay she pledges to sponsor Moses until he is 18.

Amii Grove and Imogen Thomas are based in a shelter for abused women and teenagers. They work long hours in the kitchens to feed the 150 women who live there. Again, for Imogen the gruelling hours almost prove too much. She walks out in a temper, but eventually returns to work after a rest.

BR/LS2

To top

Radio 1's Big Weekend

Sunday 23 May

7.00-8.00pm and 11.10pm-12.10am BBC THREE and BBC HD

• www.bbc.co.uk/radio1
• Feature

BBC Three broadcasts exclusive coverage from the UK's biggest free music festival, BBC Radio 1's Big Weekend, which this year comes from Vaynol Estate, Bangor, North Wales.

Presented by Radio 1 DJs Edith Bowman and Reggie Yates, the TV highlights include live performances from a dazzling line-up of international and UK artists as well as side-of-the-stage interviews with many of the acts, and all the news and behind-the-scenes fun from around the site.

This year is Radio 1's 10th Big Weekend and the event promises to be even better than ever. With live music across four stages, the two-day event is also broadcast on BBC Radio 1 and BBC Radio 1Xtra and has a major interactive presence online at bbc.co.uk/radio1.

This evening's show features performances from JLS, Paolo Nutini, Rihanna and Vampire Weekend.

Radio 1's Big Weekend is simulcast on the BBC HD channel – the BBC's High Definition channel, available through Freesat, Sky and Virgin Media.

ER