Acclaimed actor Maxine Peake (Silk, The Village, The Theory of Everything) takes over editorial control, 'curating' the opening episode of this exciting new arts series. Celebrating voices marginalised by mainstream culture, Maxine talks to the most controversial band in Britain, Sleaford Mods. She discusses the role of women and television with an all-female panel, including W1A's Jessica Hynes, and she explores the life and legacy of Salford's Shelagh Delaney, the writer who helped inspire Coronation Street and the Smiths.
Sunday Times journalist Lynn Barber takes over editorial control to 'curate' the second episode of this new arts series. Lynn wants to look at some of the most exciting developments in popular culture in 2015. She chats to Mark Ronson, the most intriguing pop star of the modern age, as well as looking at the boom of ingenious, inventive magazines bought by and made for young people. She sticks up for that supposed 'Mickey Mouse degree' - media studies - while former media studies student Jon Ronson explores the theme of shame in the internet age.
Writer, director and satirist Armando Ianucci takes the reins of Artsnight for the third episode of the series. Armando looks afresh at high culture - poetry, classical music and fine art - to ask why some people feel excluded from it, and why these arts matter. He talks to acclaimed poet Kate Tempest about her life and work, visits an exhibition of Goya's drawings, meets Apollo Music Projects, who are transforming children's lives with classical music, and invites stand-up comedian Josie Long to reflect on the cultural life of the nation in an age of austerity.
Chris Dercon, director of Tate Modern, takes the helm of Artsnight for the fourth episode of the series. Chris asks why Berlin is the creative capital of Europe; the city is a magnet for artists and musicians, with an expanding array of galleries, museums and public arts intuitions. He talks to iconoclast Ai Weiwei, who has recently opened a studio in the city despite being unable to leave China. He explores the intriguing world of drone art and the pioneering work of the late Berlin-based artist Harun Farocki. He also commissions a new film about Nick Cave's formative years in West Berlin, when the city was burgeoning with creative talent prior to the fall of the Berlin Wall.
Andrew Marr champions some great Renaissance dramatists who aren't Shakespeare.
Model and actress Lily Cole explores whether children inhibit or enhance an artistic life.
Journalist Lynn Barber indulges her passion for American pop culture.
Broadcaster Samira Ahmed takes editorial control and looks at photography.
Martha Lane Fox explores how the west's two cultures - science and arts - work together.
Richard Wilson looks at Samuel Beckett, speaking to Ian McKellen and Hugo Weaving.
Irvine Welsh goes to Edinburgh to see what effect the Scottish referendum had on the arts.
Hofesh Shechter explores how embarrassment can be rich territory for artistic exploration.
Ben Okri explores the transformative effect of the prize on the career of its recipients.
BBC arts editor Will Gompertz investigates the thriving art market.
Lynn Barber considers the idea of taking risks in art.
Spoken word artist George the Poet explores the heritage and future of black culture.
Josie Rourke looks at the changing idea of the hero in contemporary culture.
Clara Amfo, one of BBC Radio 1's rising stars, looks at how the fame industry works.
Artist Edmund de Waal looks at the theme of memory and art.
Conservative MP Kwasi Kwarteng is the guest curator of this episode of Artsnight. The author of the book Ghosts of Empire, Kwasi looks at how the British Empire impacted on art, architecture and literature. He meets one of Australia's greatest living novelists - Peter Carey - to discuss the writer's obsession with early colonial life, as well as exploring Tate Britain's Artist and Empire exhibition. And comedian Shazia Mirza discusses why fabric and clothing is so vital to the story of the Indian sub-continent.
Scissor Sisters' front-woman and DJ Ana Matronic is a lifelong robot fanatic. For her episode of Artsnight, she explores how robots are taking over mainstream arts and culture - co-presenting the episode with a real robot. She finds out how robots are flexing their creative muscles - having her portrait done in a life-drawing class of sketching robots created by French artist Patrick Tresset, and talking to the electro-acoustic musician Squarepusher about his recent collaboration with a robot band. She meets New York-based cyborg artist Neil Harbisson to discover why he has become part-machine all in the name of art. And scientist and broadcaster Adam Rutherford will be sorting fact from fiction, visiting a house populated by real robots to ask just how close we are to creating the clever synths portrayed in recent science fiction films. And on the eve of the release of the latest film from the Star Wars franchise, Ana discovers how the Star Wars robots have been brought to life for the big screen.
In his second edition of Artsnight, the director of Tate Modern Chris Dercon talks to the world-famous photographer Juergen Teller. Teller's CV could not be more star-studded, as he has photographed the likes of Charlotte Rampling, Vivienne Westwood, Victoria Beckham, Lily Cole, Nirvana - an incredible body of work over nearly three decades, which has turned the celebrity photograph into a work of art. He came to prominence in the 90s with a radically sparse approach to his work - not that it put off the many famous people desperate for a touch of Teller magic. And most recently, he hit the headlines with his astonishing photos of Kim Kardashian and Kanye West. In this revealing and soul-bearing interview, Juergen talks about his work and how he has drawn on his personal life to create a unique form of photography.
Masks have been part of our global culture for centuries. For her episode of Artsnight, ventriloquist, comedian and documentary film-maker Nina Conti explores how masks allow us to step out of our psychological skins and be someone else - with a little help from her cheeky puppet, Monkey. Nina joins a masked theatre workshop at Trestle Theatre Company, and explores the visual and political art world with masked feminist artists Guerrilla Girls and V For Vendetta co-creator David Lloyd, who tells how the Guy Fawkes mask has become an internationally understood symbol of protest. She also looks at how musicians have used masks, including the metal band Slipknot, and meets the artist Mark Wardel, who had made a series of beautiful masks of the late, great David Bowie.
Maria Balshaw is director of The Whitworth, University of Manchester, which is Museum of the Year 2015, and Manchester City Galleries. For her episode of Artsnight, Maria Balshaw asks why, over a century since the Suffragette movement, are women still not equal? To help her answer the question, she talks to artist Sarah Lucas, who emerged onto the British art scene in the late 1980s as one of the YBAs, or young British artists, who gives an extremely rare TV interview to Artsnight. Maria also talks to Glenda Jackson, undoubtedly one of our key public figures with two highly successful careers - one in acting and one in politics. And in a quest to understand how to redress the imbalance, she profiles collector Valeria Napoleone, a major collector who only collects art made by women artists, and looks at the women-only art Max Mara Art Prize.
Andrew Graham-Dixon has been a professional art critic for nearly three decades. But for his edition of Artsnight he wants to explore what people outside the ‘art bubble’ make of the kinds of sculptures and paintings he writes about. In a unique experiment with the Tate, a cross-section of British society reveals exactly what they think of some of our most famous public art works. Using concealed cameras, we eavesdrop on their often frank conversations as they come face to face with a range of works that deal with love, family and friendship.
For her fourth episode of Artsnight, Lynn Barber meets two American comedians who have both found success in the UK - Rob Delaney and Ruby Wax. Both performers have been open about the demons in their personal lives. Rob talks to Lynn about his battle with alcoholism and clinical depression, while Ruby discusses the role mindfulness has played in her own mental health, her shows and now in her campaigns.
Karl Ove Knausgaard is one of the most important authors writing today. His obsessively autobiographical books have been compared to Proust and James Joyce, but he has also attracted controversy as he made his private life into public property. Henry Marsh is a leading neurosurgeon whose best-selling book Do No Harm opened up the world of brain surgery to readers, to rapturous reviews. In this Artsnight special, Henry interviews the Norwegian author, in what should be an entertaining and cerebral encounter.
Magazine arts show. In 2016, punk rock celebrated its 40th anniversary with a series of events across some of Britain's major cultural institutions. Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth was in New York in 1976 - but he had a passionate interest in British punk. Now a London resident himself, Moore explores the music that changed his life, meeting Buzzcocks' Pete Shelley, Chrissie Hynde, director Julien Temple and celebrating one of his favourite bands, X-Ray Spex.
Magazine arts show. Artist Ryan Gander believes that there is too much of a 'fear factor' around the idea of art. Ryan proposes that everyday life can be a deeply creative act. He explores an artistic colony, encounters a couple who have made their house into an aesthetic experience and travels to Berlin to meet the award-winning artist Olafur Eliasson, who is fascinated by cookery.
David Baddiel travels to New York to investigate Thomas Carlyle's Great Man theory.
Sir Nicholas Serota, director of the Tate, investigates why contemporary art matters.
Lionel Shriver asks why economics has become one of the most exciting subjects for writers
Charlotte Church meets musicians pushing the boundaries of what a voice can do.
Paul Mason talks to six writers engaged with the most urgent issues of our time.
The V&A's architecture curator Kieran Long explores the future of the home in Britain.
Mumford & Sons talk to Lynn Barber about becoming an international super group.
Maria Balshaw visits the five museums shortlisted for the 2016 Museum of the Year award.
Rarely seen interviews in which writer Carla Lane discusses her life and work.
Is fiction the best way to access the truth?
Lynn Barber meets up with the self-ordained king of punk John Lydon.
Novelist Meg Rosoff explores the relationship between art and the unconscious mind.
A look through the BBC archives to show how bards turned into broadcasters, featuring some of the most beloved poets Britain has produced.
Michael Palin travels to north Wales to interview legendary travel writer Jan Morris.
Julie Walters meets Willy Russell to find out how he became such a successful playwright.
David Baddiel introduces the six novels on the 2016 Man Booker Prize shortlist.
A look at why Lear resonates so deeply with contemporary audiences.
Magazine arts show. The Turner Prize is probably the most prestigious contemporary art prize in the world. It puts art in the headlines - though not always for the right reasons. In this programme, critic and broadcaster Waldemar Januszczak looks back over three decades of critical acclaim, public outcry and artistic controversy, hearing from the winners, nominees and judges to find out what the history of the prize can tell us about our relationship to the relevance and purpose of contemporary art.
If there were an olympic league table for design, Britain would be right at the top. Since the Second World War, British designers have revolutionised our homes, our workplaces, our roads and our public institutions. In November 2016, the Design Museum opens its new ú83m home in Kensington. To mark this great moment for British design, BBC Arts profiles ten great living British designers. Arts reporter Brenda Emmanus meets and profiles our 'Top 10', to find out what inspires them to make such phenomenal objects and to explore how designers have responded to society's evolving tastes.
The dramatist Stephen Poliakoff has long been obsessed with the secret history of Britain in the 20th century. His latest work, Close to the Enemy, looks at the clandestine work of the secret service after the end of the Second World War. Historian and broadcaster David Reynolds talks to Poliakoff about the inspiration behind Close to the Enemy, as well as the always tricky relationship between history and fiction.
Alistair Sooke celebrates the protean genius of one of America's most prolific and original artists, Robert Rauschenberg. Fearless and influential, he blazed a trail for artists in the second half of the 20th century, and yet his work is rarely seen here in the UK. That is about to change with a major retrospective at Tate Modern in December 2016. Rauschenberg was the first artist to win the Golden Lion at the Venice Biennale in 1963, creating a crucial bridge between the abstract expressionists of the 50s and the pop artists who emerged in the 60s. Famous for his 'combines' that elevated the rich junk of life to the status of high art, he continued to work right up to his death in 2008, collaborating with dancers, scientists and social activists on a startlingly broad array of projects. Alastair travels to the east coast of the USA to talk to those closest to Rauschenberg.
