How to Look at and Understand Great Art

Becoming Frida Kahlo

January 2025 •English

A look into Frida Kahlo's world, revealing an artist driven by politics, power, sex and identity, with her epic love affair with Diego Rivera at the heart of it all.

Great British Buildings: Restoration of the Year

January 2025 •English

Kevin McCloud and Dr Anna Keay explore the UK's most incredible restorations of historic buildings of 2016

Painting With John

January 2025 •English

Part meditative tutorial, part fireside chat, each episode finds artist John Lurie ensconced at his worktable, where he hones his intricate watercolor techniques and shares his reflections on what he’s learned about life.

How Art Made The World

January 2025 •English

Nigel Spivey reveals how the images which surround us today come from the ancient world. It's an epic journey spanning five continents and a hundred thousand years of history.

Streets of Your Town

January 2025 •English

A look at the aesthetics of our suburbs. Tim Ross – comedian, broadcaster and aficionado of the Modernist era – is tour guide for this very personal journey exploring how and why our suburbs look the way they do. Travelling the country gaining unprecedented access to some of our most epic homes, meeting their owners, peeling back their history and revelling in their beauty Tim poses the question: from Modernism to McMansionism – how did we get here?

Les mégastructures Romaines en Gaule

January 2025 •French

The Homes That Built Australia

January 2025 •English

This four-part history series looks at how Australia has been shaped by its many definitions of home. Historic moments impacted homes, their designs, and the way we live as a society. From economic booms and busts to the fight for Land Rights and recognition, from various cultural migrations to the unrelenting force of nature, emerges a country building its way into the future.

Glories of Islamic Art

January 2025 •English

Professor Akbar Ahmed explore the architectural splendor of Islamic heritage and the profound connection between artistry and religious expression in Islam.

The Art of Punk

January 2025 •English

The Art of Punk, a series of documentaries from MOCAtv, the video channel of Los Angeles’ Museum of Contemporary Art. Emphasizes its focus on, literally, the visual art of punk: its posters, its album art, its T-shirts, and even — un-punk as this may sound — its logos.

Art That Made Us

January 2025 •English

An alternative history of the British Isles, told through art. Looking at 1,500 years and eight dramatic turning points, acclaimed artists and thinkers encounter key historic art works from across the UK that have shaped the history of the British Isles and inspired their own work.

Art of France

January 2025 •English

Andrew Graham-Dixon examines the history of French art, revealing how it emerged from a struggle between tradition and revolution, and rulers and citizens. He compresses centuries of culture into three thematically linked chapters.

The Art of Gothic: Britain's Midnight Hour

January 2025 •English

Andrew Graham-Dixon explores how a group of 19th-century architects and artists spurned the modern age and turned to Britain's medieval past to create iconic works and buildings.

An Art Lovers' Guide

January 2025 •English

With sumptuous palaces, exquisite artworks and stunning architecture, every great city offers a dizzying multitude of cultural highlights. So what should an art lover see on a flying visit? Art historians Dr Janina Ramirez and Alastair Sooke take us on entertaining and revealing cultural city breaks, offering surprising new insights into famous locations and uncovering hidden gems and untold stories, as they discover how religion, revolution and trailblazing individuals can shape the art - and soul - of a city.

Animal Art: Photogenic Creatures

January 2025 •German

Long regarded as mere subjects for amateur or specialist nature photographers, animals are increasingly inspiring art photographers to produce surprising creations, sometimes with a social message. Five photographers present their work and their perspectives on the animal world.

Grand Designs

January 2025 •English

British television series which features unusual and often elaborate architectural homebuilding projects.

No 57: The History of a House

January 2025 •English

A 200-year journey through the history of British interior design, examining how design has affected one Georgian house and its inhabitants in Bristol, from when it was first built in 1779 right up to the present day. Fashions in interior design have mirrored social, political and economic trends. Six different periods are explored, each covering between 30 and 50 years. The interior is restored with objects and gadgets, revealing how the different families occupying the house might have lived and how design influenced their lifestyle.

Dreaming The Impossible: Unbuilt Britain

January 2025 •English

The fascinating and dramatic stories behind some of the grandest designs never built.

Painting Birds with Jim and Nancy Moir

January 2025 •English

Comedic ornithological series, Painting Birds with Jim and Nancy Moir will follow prolific artist Jim and his wife Nancy as they explore some of Britain’s best beauty spots, joined along the way by a few famous friends. Their challenge? Create an original piece of bird art celebrating the unique species native to that region over the course of a weekend. Accompanied in each episode by local twitchers, artists and conservation experts, Jim, and Nancy will be guided through forest and fen as they venture through wild countryside and local bird sanctuaries to gather inspiration. They’ll spend meditative weekends sketching and painting their feathery subjects, tackling everything from grouse to goshawks and bitterns to bearded tits.

Magnolia Workshops

January 2025 •English

Move from inspiration into action with hand-picked experts in home, kitchen, garden and the arts. Whether you're looking to style a room, start a garden or cook a new dish, each class is designed for anyone to roll up their sleeves and try something new.

Secrets of the Superfactories

January 2025 •English

Secrets of the Superfactories is a fast-paced and fact-filled documentary series that lifts the lid on the production of some of the world’s biggest, greenest and smartest factories around the globe. The series explores how everything from everyday products to iconic design is made and takes viewers into the hidden world of the hyper-efficient and flexible factories of the future.