´óÏó´«Ã½ Four Winter/Spring 2007
Programmes A-H
Archive Of The World
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In 1907, the Lumière Brothers unveiled their latest invention to the public. It was called the autochrome – the world's first practical system for taking true colour photographs.
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Flabbergasted by this amazing technological development, French financier Albert Kahn resolved to undertake what would become one of the most ambitious projects in the history of photography.
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For the next two decades, Khan spent much of his vast personal fortune on the creation of what he called "a photographic inventory of the planet as it is inhabited and managed by humanity at the beginning of the 20th century".
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In this fascinating, nine-part series for ´óÏó´«Ã½ Four, Archive Of The World charts his photographic journey across the continents.
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Between 1908 and 1930, Kahn dispatched his team of photographers to more than 50 countries around the world. In the course of these missions, they took more than 72,000 autochromes. Many of these luminously beautiful colour pictures document the intimate details of everyday life.
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However, more importantly, Kahn's photographers also used the system to record some of the most momentous events of the age, including the collapse of the empires, the birth of new states and the mechanised destruction of Europe during the First World War.
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In addition to Kahn's stunning autochromes, the series showcases highlights of the 100 hours of cine footage shot by his photographers to offer today's viewers unique, new, colourful insights into the cultural and political shape of the world in the formative years of the last century.
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The Art Of Eternity
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Andrew Graham-Dixon goes in search of the pre-perspective world – the art of the early Christians, the tumultuous world of the Byzantine Empire and the dramatic shift in Western art between the 12th and 14th centuries – in this new, three-part series.
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Andrew journeys through the Mediterranean and Middle East to follow the evolution of this spiritual art form, from the mysterious catacombs of Ancient Rome to Coptic Egypt and Medieval Florence.
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He also visits the awe-inspiring Gothic cathedrals of France, with their pointed arches and impressive stained-glass windows, and shows how they conveyed a vision of Heaven on Earth to the medieval world.
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To many in the West, some of this art seems static, alien and primitive, but Andrew reveals it as bold, sophisticated and complex.
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Deliberately putting aside ideas of perspective, these medieval artists looked beyond the material world to place the Divine centre stage and to enshrine timeless spiritual truths. And, as Andrew discovers, many in the East still see the Renaissance as a decline in values rather than a progression.
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Classic Britainnia
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A powerful mix of composers, stars, institutions, technologies and audiences comes together as Classic Britannia tells the compelling story of British classical musical life from 1945 to 2006 – a period bristling with experimentation, confrontation, political engagement, social idealism, fallen crowns and rising stars.
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The series features all the key players on Britain's classical music scene: composers and performers ranging from the iconic Benjamin Britten to the revolutionary Cornelius Cardew and from the hugely popular Jacqueline du Pré to today's T-shirted starlets such as Vanessa Mae.
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Viewers hear from Britain's major living composers and performers and the series also features extraordinary interviews and performances from a wealth of archive material.
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Never before has there been such an exhaustive study of what makes Britain's musical heritage so uniquely fascinating.
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This music, and the people who made it, powerfully reflect Britain's social and political life since the Second World War.
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The journey starts with the uneasy complacency of a nation victorious in war, explores the explosive creative burst that was the Sixties and Seventies, investigates the conflicts and challenges that faced the arts in Thatcherite Britain, and finally looks at which direction Britain's classical music may take in the future.
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The Genius Of Photography
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For the first time on British television, ´óÏó´«Ã½ Four chronicles the history of photography.
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A comprehensive look at one of the most influential art forms in the world, the series explores every aspect of photography – from daguerreotype to digital, portraits to photo-journalism and art to advertising – in the UK, America, China, Japan, Africa and beyond.
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The series explores a multitude of the greatest photographs ever taken and the photographers who took them, from the likes of Jacques-Henri Lartigue and Man Ray, to the more contemporary genius of professionals such as Richard Avedon, Sally Mann and Martin Parr.
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Centre stage in the series is the photography itself, which, interspersed with exclusive interviews with some of the world's greatest photographers, conjures up a picture of just how the camera has changed the way in which people view themselves and the world around them.
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