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

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

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

As part of The South Bank Show series, director David Hinton and interviewer Melvyn Bragg accompany Francis Bacon for a day during his second retrospective at the Tate Gallery, London, in 1985. The conversation reveals the artist’s influences, theories and obsessions.

Cleese was silently scripting A Fish Called Wanda at the time this interview was filmed. It is not mentioned in this program. What is mentioned is Cleese's spectrum of work from sketch comedy to industrial training films to therapeutical books. Video clips include sequences from Cleese's classics: At Last the 1948 Show, Monty Python's Flying Circus, and Fawlty Towers.

The South Bank Show’s Velvet Underground documentary contains interviews with Lou Reed, John Cale, Sterling Morrison, Moe Tucker, Nico, Andy Warhol and lots of early Velvet performance footage.

This documentary on The Smiths was filmed just days before the band went their separate ways in 1987. Contains interviews of Morrissey, Marr, Joyce and Rourke, as well as Linder, Shaun Duggan, Jo O'Keefe, John Peel, Nick Kent, Sandie Shaw and Viv Nicholson.

A lecture about television given at the British Film Institute.

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

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

Dudley talks candidly about his life and work alongside contributions from Peter Cook, Jonathan Miller, Blake Edwards, Bo Derek, Sir Georg Solti and others.

British director Ken Loach first came to fame in the Sixties with plays such as UP THE JUNCTION and CATHY COME HOME and films including KES. To coincide with his latest film, RAINING STONES, Loach, unashamedly political in his outlook, talks to Melvyn Bragg.

Documentary about the origins, the history and the making of CORONATION STREET, including interviews with cast and crew and footage from behind the scenes of the production.

This report brings you back in 1996, when Sting records "Mercury falling". You will see Sting in his home of lake house, talking about the writting process, see him recording the varied tracks of the album and heard them as working versions... a superb moment...

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.

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.

Melvyn Bragg talks to Eric Sykes about his remarkable career, which started in the 1940s when he began writing for Frankie Howerd in the hit radio show Variety Band Box, and how he evolved from being a top comedy writer to one of Britain's best loved performers who continues to appear on stage, TV and cinema.

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.

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.

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.

Bill Bryson revisits the haunts of his childhood

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.

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 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.

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.

William Goldman's career began as a novelist, but he soon turned to screenplays, including those for iconic films such as `Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid' and `All the President's Men'. But in the 1980s he fell out of favour and turned to writing his memoirs, which feature sometimes affectionate, sometimes damning looks at the film industry.

A look at the 18 year career of a band who, until their latest album The Seldom Seen Kid, were considered a well-kept secret. Now with a host of prizes and awards, Elbow are the music story of 2009. Melvyn Bragg interviews lead singer Guy Garvey, while keyboardist Craig Potter talks about the band's evolution musically and his other role as producer. Including exclusive footage of Elbow at their MEN arena gig in Manchester, and archive footage of the band when they were teenagers in Bury.

The final South Bank Show goes behind the scenes of The Royal Shakespeare Company, as it embarks on an ambitious and exciting new programme of work inspired by Russia and the ex-Soviet Union.

Melvyn Bragg presents the final South Bank Show Awards in front of a star-studded audience at The Dorchester in London. These unique awards celebrate the best of British talent across the arts including classical music, comedy, dance, literature, film, pop, TV drama and theatre. The event includes a world exclusive premiere, the first public performance of the title song from Andrew Lloyd Webber's long anticipated new show Love Never Dies, sung by its star Sierra Boggess.

Melvyn Bragg interviews the novelist Ian McEwan, focusing on his latest novel 'Saturday', which follows the day in the life of a successful neurosurgeon Henry Perowne set against the background of protest against the Iraq War. In addition Bragg also looks at the author's life and previous work. McEwan's style has moved from macabre short stories to novels which test and explore their characters ruling ethos (particularly an interest in science). McEwan makes for a engaging and thoughtful interviewee who can often be fascinating, even for those not familiar with his work.

Melvyn Bragg presents a new interview with acting legend Ian McKellen, who has been a subject of the show three times before, beginning in 1981. From the earnest young man discussing the craft of acting and his passion for the theatre to the established film star who attributed his newfound emotional freedom to having publicly come out, the programme comes up to date with McKellen's life and career.

Melvyn Bragg meets Judi Dench at the Rose Theatre in Kingston where she was recently performing in Midsummer Night’s Dream, re-uniting her with long time friend and collaborator, Sir Peter Hall, who is directing the production.

The National Theatre's artistic director Nicholas Hytner gives Melvyn an exclusive look at his past successes and current projects.

Pat Barker talks to Melvyn and offers an insight into her fascination with World War I and the inspiration behind her books.

The series discovers how grime music evolved from its humble beginnings on an East London housing estate to become a global phenomenon.DJ Trevor Nelson and rapper Dizzee Rascal are featured on the show.

The series finds out how male dance and how the role of the male dancer has developed in classical ballet over the last one hundred years. Carlos Acosta, Edward Watson and Tamara Rojo are featured on the show.

Melvyn Bragg talks to composer, songwriter and comedian Tim Minchin about his life and career, including his award-winning work on the West End adaptation of Roald Dahl's book Matilda. He talks about his love of satire and puns, as well as his fascination with linguistic taboos and decision to move to England. The programme also features clips of Minchin performing at the Royal Albert Hall.