Contrasts Season 1, Episode 23: A Writer and His Sword

Graduation Ball

The Royal Danish Ballet performs 'Graduation Ball' in the first of a new series of music and arts features.

Ted

Ted Chapman is a potter who lives in North Wales where nature gives him peace and the materials for his craft.

McLuhan Tutorial

John Duncan reads an essay on Marshall McLuhan and McLuhan comments.

Music of India

The Man Behind the Book, Part 1: The Writers of the Twenties

Alexander Frere talks to Margaret Lane in the first of two conversations.

Julius Katchen

Julius Katchen plays Brahms' 'Variation and Fugue on a theme of Handel, Op. 24'.

Concepts of Freedom

A live studio discussion on the freedom of writers and artists and their role in Russian and British societies between Alexander Chakovsky and Malcolm Muggeridge.

Romeo and Juliet

A presentation of the East German film of 'Romeo und Juliet', the Tchaikovsky ballet,choreographed by Juan Corelli.

The Scriblerus Club

A reconstruction of the 1714 All Fools' Day Scriblerus Club dinner party to mark the tercentenary of Jonathan Swift's birth.

The Pre-Raphaelites

The story of a group of young Mid-Victorian painters who revolted against the established order and banded together under the leadership of Dante Gabriel Rossetti.

Dan Leno, Hys Book

A recreation of the music hall artist Dan Leno's semi-imaginary autobiography.

Take on Craig

Edward Gordon Craig influenced the course of European theatre, yet his work is hardly acknowledged in England.

The Vegh Quartet

The Vegh Quartet plays Bartok's 'String Quartet No. 1, in A minor '.

The Sunshine

Jeremy James reports on the oldest established event of its kind -The All-England Sunshine Dancing Competition for Children.

Marble Arch to Edgware

The poet John Betjeman journeys from Marble Arch to Edgeware, reciting specially-written poems and pointing out areas of interest.

Famous Gossips: The Years with Mother

Alan Bennett, portraying the English writer Augustus Hare, recollects stories about Jenny Lind, Sam Johnson, Lord Nelson, Oscar Wilde and more. Adapted from Hare's autobiography. Originally broadcast in 1965.

Episode 17

Bracha Eden and Alexander Tamir, the Israeli duo pianist duo, play pieces by Saint-Saens, Milhaud, and Lutoslawski.

Who Is Ahead of Whom?

John Berger and Alexander Cockburn discuss extremism in the arts.

The Knight Has Been Unruly

A memorial for actor-manager Sir Donald Wolfit, CBE.

Small Wonder

Robin Ray discusses some of the problems which face musical prodigies.

Bold Nash

How John Nash planned London.

Simon Preston

Simon Preston plays Liszt's 'Organ Fantasy and Fugue'.

The Green Table

A re-presentation of Kurt Jooss' antiwar dance drama.