2019

The Royal Academy summer exhibition is the world’s longest running and largest open-submission show. What does that mean? That any artist can enter and stand a chance of hanging alongside the great and the good within these hallowed halls. Kirsty Wark and Brenda Emmanus follow every step of the way with three hopeful amateur artists, and delve into the fascinating process of curating and hanging the most complicated exhibition in the British art calendar. They visit celebrity artists creating work for this year’s show, including Bob & Roberta Smith, Polly Morgan and Jeremy Deller, and get to know this year's co-ordinator Jock McFadyen. The programme finishes by taking viewers behind the scenes of the glamorous opening night party where some famous faces hope to snap up an art bargain and hear chart-topping singer-songwriter James Bay perform live.