Series 35 Episode 1

History

In Liverpool, following the launch of Sam Ryan’s new company, the Health Secretary is assassinated.

Sam summons the Lyell team with a plea to help investigate and Nikki finds herself unsure if she can trust Sam, who seems to know more than she’s revealing. Meanwhile, Jack and Nikki navigate their feelings for each other.

Starring Emilia Fox (Nikki Alexander), David Caves (Jack Hodgson), Genesis Lynea (Simone Tyler) Amanda Burton (Sam Ryan) Hugh Quarshie (Jomo Mashaba) David Leon (Oscar Harris) Matthew Gravelle (Tom Faulkner) Ian Puleston Davies (DSI Ronnie Boyle) Shireen Farkhoy (Martine Chalal) and Gina Bramhill (Fiona Mashaba).

Series 1 Episode 8

Brilliant Isles

The final episode of the series explores how the generation of artists who recorded the shocks of global war gave way in the 1950s and 1960s to an explosion of new voices from across the British Isles, reinventing the arts and creating a richer, more diverse culture.

Young artists rebelled against the old establishment, kicking against the confines of class, sex, nation and race. Actress Lesley Sharp performs passages from Shelagh Delaney’s breakthrough play A Taste Of Honey, which brought the ordinary lives and unheard voices of working-class women to a mainstream audience, while Chila Kumari Singh Burman explores the career of pop artist Pauline Boty.

As British pop culture seduced the world, other voices lamented for something they felt was being lost. Writer and comedian David Baddiel reflects on Philip Larkin’s elegy for the countryside, Going, Going; film director Amma Asante meets photographer Charlie Phillips, a photographic pioneer recording the fast changing community of 1960s Notting Hill, and we look at the impact of Hanif Kureishi’s novel about second generation immigrant life: The Buddha Of Suburbia.

The most striking art of the 1990s chipped away at easy stereotyping and mono
lithic identities. In Scotland, Irvine Welsh’s Trainspotting, rooted in raw Scots dialect and a brutal depiction of Edinburgh life, spoke for a world proudly distinct from its English neighbour, while the murals on and around the Belfast Peace Lines became loud spaces for declarations of distinct political allegiances.

With digital technology and installation art changing British culture, artist Liv Wynter explores the impact of Tracey Emin’s work and how it opened up attitudes to class and gender, while actor Michael Sheen remembers his ambitious 2011 production The Passion Of Port Talbot, a fusion of traditional mystery play and a 21st century social media event that could weld a community together. And poet Deanna Rodger reflects on how Stormzy and grime took Glastonbury by storm in 2019.

Art That Made Us (8 x 60’) was commissioned for BBC Arts and BBC Two by Emma Cahusac, BBC Arts Commissioning Editor. It is a ClearStory and Menace Production and is a co-production with The Open University. The Executive Producers are Russell Barnes, Denys Blakeway and Michael Jackson and the Series Producer is Melanie Fall.

Eight-part series starring Aidan Turner as the genius Leonardo da Vinci – set against the backdrop of Renaissance Italy comes to UK linear TV for the first time after only previously being available on streaming services.

Episode 1

Milan, 1506. Leonardo is arrested for poisoning Caterina de Cremona. After protesting his innocence to Stefano Giraldi, Leonardo remembers back to his days as an apprentice in Andrea del Verrocchio’s (Giancarlo Giannini) studio, where he first meets Caterina (Matilda De Angelis).

Episode 2

With Leonardo’s successes recognised and his reputation growing, a risky decision sets to destroy everything he has worked for. Leonardo receives support through new commissions (the Portrait of Ginevra de’ Benci and The Adoration of the Magi) but pays the price for his actions.