Imagine (TV series)

Imagine (typeset as imagine...) is a wide-ranging arts series first broadcast on BBC One in 2003, hosted and executive produced by Alan Yentob. Most series consist of 4 to 7 episodes, each on a different topic. Episodes have been directed by, among others, Geoff Wonfor, Lucy Blakstead, Jill Nicholls, Roger Parsons and Zoë Silver.

List of episodes
Series 1 (from 11 June 2003):


 * "The Saatchi Phenomenon" – about businessman Charles Saatchi
 * "Barbara Hepworth: Shapes Out of Feelings"
 * "The Hip Hop Generation"
 * "Stella McCartney: Stella's Story"
 * "Carlos Acosta: The Reluctant Ballet Dancer"
 * "The Portrait of Omai"
 * "John Mortimer: Owning Up at 80"

Series 2 (from 12 November 2003):


 * "The Voice of Bryn Terfel"
 * "A Funny Business" – A look at British and American sitcoms
 * "John Soane – Entertaining Mr Soane"
 * "Martin Parr – The World According to Parr"
 * "From Pencils to Pixels" – Celebrating the phenomenon of the animated feature film
 * "An A-Z of the OED"

Series 3 (from 2 June 2004):


 * "Edward Hopper – The Mysterious Mr Hopper"
 * "Sitting for Lucian Freud"
 * "Saint John Coltrane"
 * "Peter Finlay – Dirty But Clean Pierre"
 * "Unsuitable for Children?" – Exploring modern children's fiction
 * "The Smoking Diaries" – about playwright Simon Gray

Series 4 (from 24 November 2004):


 * "Arthur Miller – Finishing the Picture"
 * "Beautiful Dreamer: Brian Wilson's Smile"
 * "Bruce Nauman – The Godfather of Modern Art"
 * "Marlon Brando"
 * "Antonio Pappano – A Year at the Opera"

Series 5 (from 11 May 2005):


 * "A Short History of Tall Buildings" (3 parts)

Series 6 (from 22 June 2005):


 * Fantastic Mr Dahl – about children's author Roald Dahl
 * Frida Kahlo
 * "Being a Concert Pianist"

Series 7 (from 23 November 2005):


 * "Elgar and the Missing Concerto"
 * "Amos Oz – The Conscience of Israel"
 * "Chuck Close – Close Up"
 * "Rhythm Is It!"

Series 8 (from 17 January 2006)


 * "Sweet Home New Orleans" – examining the city's musical heritage
 * "Andy Warhol – Warhol Denied"
 * "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Studio"
 * "Sitting Comfortably" – Tracing the changing styles of the modern chair

Series 9 (from 23 May 2006)


 * "Being Hamlet" – about actor Wayne Cater as he prepares to play Hamlet
 * "The Artist Formerly Known As Cat Stevens" – telling the story of pop star Cat Stevens and how he became Yusuf Islam.
 * "The Ingenious Thomas Heatherwick"
 * "A Picture of the Painter Howard Hodgkin"

Series 10 (from 17 October 2006)


 * "Peter Pan: a Hard Act to Follow"
 * "Velazquez, the Painter's Painter"
 * "A Play for Today" – about Jeremy Weller's play, The Foolish Young Man
 * "The Movie Brats, Take Two" – about a group of maverick American directors
 * "Who Cares About Art?" – follows the work of five art curators
 * "Hans Holbein, International Man of Mystery"
 * "Being a Diva" – about operatic divas
 * www.herecomeseverybody.co.uk – a history of the World Wide Web
 * "And Then There Was Television" – about the early days of television

Special (27 December 2006)


 * "The Beatles in Love" – documenting the creation of The Beatles project Love

Series 11 (from 8 May 2007)


 * "Gilbert and George" – No Surrender
 * "Stealing Klimt" – the story of a 90-year-old's struggle to recover her family's paintings.
 * "Scott Walker"
 * "It's the Surreal Thing" – a history of Surrealism

Special (4 July 2007)


 * "Damon and Jamie's Excellent Adventure" – documentary about cartoon pop group Gorillaz' foray into opera

Series 12 (from 23 October 2007)


 * "Henry Perkins: Bolshoi Boy" – following a British boy at the Bolshoi Ballet Academy
 * "Bollywood's Big B" – a profile of Bollywood actor Amitabh Bachchan
 * "Helvetica"
 * "Louise Bourgeois: Spiderwoman" – (with interviews from leading British artists Tracey Emin, Antony Gormley and Stella Vine)
 * "How to Get on in the Art World" – featuring material on the Frieze Art Fair
 * "The Secret of Life" – looking at the popularity of self-help books
 * "Richard Rogers, Inside Out"
 * "Marc Newson: Urban Spaceman"

Series 13 (from 23 May 2008)


 * "Doris Lessing – The Hostess and The Alien"
 * "Oliver Sacks – Tales of Music and The Brain"
 * "Annie Leibovitz – Life Through a Lens"
 * "A Trip to Asia: On the Road with the Berlin Philharmonic"
 * "A Wild Sheep Chase: In Search of Haruki Murakami"
 * "Werner Herzog – Beyond Reason"
 * "Love, Loss and Anthony Minghella"

Series 14 (from 5 October 2008)


 * "The Story of the Guitar – In the Beginning"
 * "The Story of the Guitar – Out of the Frying Pan"
 * "Dangerous Liaisons: When Akram Met Juliette"
 * "The Story of the Guitar – This Time It's Personal"
 * "A Love Story"
 * "Jay-Z: He Came, He Saw, He Conquered"
 * "Let There Be Light"
 * "How an Orchestra Saved Venezuela's Children"
 * "Richard Serra: Man of Steel"
 * "Heavy Metal in Baghdad"

Series 15 (from 23 June 2009)


 * "Save the Last Dance for Me: The Company of Elders"
 * "David Hockney – A Bigger Picture"
 * "Rufus Wainwright – Prima Donna"
 * "William Eggleston – The Colourful Mr Eggleston"
 * "Art in Troubled Times: A New Deal for Art"
 * "Art in Troubled Times: The Home Front"

Series 16 (from 17 November 2009)


 * "The Year of Anish Kapoor"
 * "Dame Shirley Bassey – The Girl from Tiger Bay"
 * "Own Art" – looking at an Arts Council scheme that enables people from all walks of life to buy a piece of art
 * "Joan Baez – How Sweet the Sound"
 * "Placido Domingo - The Time of My Life"
 * "Scrabble – A Night on the Tiles"

Series 17 (from 5 April 2010)


 * "Vincent Van Gogh: Painted with Words"
 * "The Rolling Stones – The Stones in Exile"

Series 18 (from 15 June 2010)


 * "Nigel Kennedy's Polish Adventure"
 * "Art Is Child's Play"
 * "Diana Athill – Growing Old Disgracefully"
 * "Tom Jones – What Good Am I?"

Series 19 (from 16 November 2010)


 * "Ai Weiwei – Without Fear or Favour"
 * "Ron Galella – Smash His Camera"
 * "The Weird Adventures of Eadweard Muybridge"
 * "Ben Hur in Bath"
 * "Ray Davies – Imaginary Man"

Special (23 February 2011)


 * The Plinth, the Model, the Artist and his Sculpture – Film about Marc Quinn's sculpture "Alison Lapper Pregnant" in place on Trafalgar Square's Fourth plinth during 2005 to 2007.

The Trouble with Tolstoy (from 27 March 2011)


 * "At War with Himself"
 * "In Search of Happiness"

Series 20 (from 28 June 2011)


 * "The Man Who Forgot How to Read and Other Stories"
 * "The Pharaohs' Museum on Liberation Square"
 * "Lennon: The New York Years"
 * "Harry Nilsson: The Missing Beatle"
 * "Iraq in Venice"
 * "U2: From the Sky Down"

Series 21 (from 1 November 2011)


 * "Grayson Perry and the Tomb of the Unknown Craftsman
 * "Simon & Garfunkel – The Harmony Game"
 * "Alan Ayckbourn – Greetings from Scarborough"
 * "Vidal Sassoon – A Cut Above"
 * "The Lost Music of Rajasthan"
 * "Books – The Last Chapter?"
 * "The Art of Stand-Up – Part One"
 * "The Art of Stand-Up – Part Two"

Series 22 (from 26 June 2012)


 * "Theatre of War"
 * "Paul Simon's Graceland – Under African Skies"
 * "Just One Falsetto"
 * "Glasgow: The Grit and The Glamour"
 * "Dancing with Titian"

Series 23 (from 19 September 2012)


 * "The Fatwa – Salman's Story"
 * "Freddie Mercury: The Great Pretender"
 * "Ian Rankin and the Case of the Disappearing Detective"
 * "Do or Die: Lang Lang's Story"
 * "The Many Lives of William Klein"
 * "How Music Makes Us Feel"
 * "Jeanette Winterson: My Monster and Me"
 * "A Beauty is Born: Matthew Bourne's Sleeping Beauty"

Series 24 (from 28 March 2013)


 * "Beyoncé: Life Is But a Dream"
 * "David Bowie – Cracked Actor"
 * "Vivian Maier – Who Took Nanny's Pictures?"

Series 25 (from 5 Nov 2013)


 * "Edmund de Waal: Make Pots or Die"
 * "Broadway Musicals: A Jewish Legacy"
 * "Turning the Art World Inside Out"
 * "Judith Kerr: Hitler, the Tiger and Me"
 * "Who's Afraid of Machiavelli?"

Series 26 (from 18 May 2014)


 * "Rio 50 Degrees: Carry On CaRIOca"
 * "Philip Roth Unleashed" (2 parts)
 * "Monty Python: And Now for Something Rather Similar"

Series 27 (from Winter 2014)


 * "The Art That Hitler Hated: The Sins of the Fathers"
 * "Bette Midler: The Divine Miss M"
 * "Bette Midler: The Showgirl Must Go On"
 * "Anselm Kiefer: Remembering The Future"
 * "The One and Only Mike Leigh"
 * "Colm Toibin: His Mother's Son"

Series 28 (from Summer 2015)


 * "Frank Gehry: The Architect Says, Why Can't I?"
 * "Jeff Koons: Diary of A Seducer"
 * "Beware of Mr Baker"
 * "Toni Morrison Remembers"
 * "Richard Flanagan: Life After Death"

Series 29 (from Autumn 2015)


 * "Shylock's Ghost"
 * "Antony Gormley: Being Human"
 * "My Curious Documentary"
 * "The Last Impresario"
 * "The Ecstasy of Wilko Johnson"
 * "David Chipperfield: A Place to Be"
 * "Carlos Acosta: Cuba Calls"

Summer 2016


 * "One Night in 2012"
 * "DANGER! Cornelia Parker"
 * "Georgia O'Keeffe: By Myself"
 * "Sir Roderick Stewart: Can't Stop Me Now"

Shorts (2016-7)


 * "The Handmade Films of William Kentridge - Part 1"
 * "The Handmade Films of William Kentridge - Part 2"

Autumn 2016


 * "The Seven Killings of Marlon James"
 * "The Triumph and Laments of William Kentridge"
 * "Serial Killers - The Women Who Write Crime Fiction"
 * "The Art World's Prankster: Maurizio Cattelan"
 * "Listen to Me Marlon"

Winter 2016


 * "She Spoke the Unspeakable"
 * "Maya Angelou: And Still I Rise"
 * "Alice Neel: Dr Jekyll and Mrs Hyde"
 * "Chris Ofili - The Caged Bird's Song"

Summer 2017


 * "Mapplethorpe: Look at the Pictures"
 * "Margaret Atwood: You Have Been Warned!"
 * "Alma Deutscher: Finding Cinderella"
 * "Cameron Mackintosh: The Musical Man"

Winter 2017-8 2018 2019
 * "Rachel Whiteread: Ghost in the Room"
 * "Mel Brooks: Unwrapped"
 * "Philip Pullman: Angels and Daemons"
 * "Ingrid Bergman in Her Own Words"
 * "Andrew Lloyd Webber: Memories"
 * "Habaneros: You Say You Want a Revolution? Part One"
 * "Habaneros: You Say You Want a Revolution? Part Two"
 * "Rupert Everett: Born to be Wilde"
 * "Orhan Pamuk: A Strange Mind"
 * "Rose Wylie: This Rose Is Blooming"
 * "Tacita Dean: Looking to See"
 * "Hockney, The Queen and the Royal Peculiar"
 * "George Benjamin: What Do You Want to Do When You Grow Up?"
 * "Tracey Emin: Where Do You Draw the Line?"
 * "Becoming Cary Grant"
 * "Andrea Levy: Her Island Story"
 * "James Graham: In the Room Where It Happens"
 * "Jo Brand: No Holds Barred"
 * "Bill Viola: The Road to St Paul's"
 * "Edna O'Brien: Fearful... and Fearless"
 * "Faith Ringgold: Tell It Like It Is"
 * "Olafur Eliasson: Miracles of Rare Device"
 * "EastSide Story"

2020


 * "This House is Full of Music"
 * "Lemn Sissay: The Memory of Me"
 * "Kate Prince: Every Move She Makes"
 * "Kwame Kwei-Armah: ... My Name is Kwame"
 * "Marina Abramovic: The Ugly Duckling"

2021
 * "We'll Be Back"
 * "Bernardine Evaristo: Never Give Up"
 * "Tom Stoppard: A Charmed Life"
 * "Kazuo Ishiguro: Remembering and Forgetting"

2022
 * "Marian Keyes: My (not so) Perfect Life"
 * "Labi Siffre: This Is My Song"
 * "Wayne McGregor: Dancing on the Edge"
 * "Miriam Margolyes: Up for Grabs"
 * "Jacob Collier: In the Room Where It Happens"

2023
 * “Stephen Frears: Director for Hire”
 * “The Factory: Made in Manchester”
 * “French & Saunders: Pointed, Bitchy, Bitter”

Other (2006)


 * Imagine... A Mildly Amusing Panel Show – a special highlights edition of Never Mind the Buzzcocks, a parody of the Imagine series, presented by Yentob himself.