Pet Shop Boys' Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe are the most successful duo in UK Music history. They have sold more than 50 million records, produced over 40 Top singles, four UK number ones, performed in several world tours, and they are still making new music together. In April this year, Pet Shop Boys are releasing a new album which comes 40 years after the original release of their classic song West End Girls. IMAGINE... is given a sneak preview of the album and talks to Tennant and Lowe about its creation and their evolution over the past four decades: pioneering, original, highly influential but always maintaining the integrity and quality of their inimitable style, sound and songwriting. Their songs have often commented on Britain and the world around them with wit, sensitivity and intelligence driving the stories they want to share through some of the most memorable synth-pop music ever created. For their tours they have worked with the most innovative theatre personnel to create original and thrilling performances. Now for the first time they have allowed backstage access as IMAGINE... accompanies them on their global Dreamworld tour, filming rehearsals in London and backstage in Helsinki.
On the second part of his journey through the dark ages Richard Rudgley continues into the age of the wandering peoples, the Volkerwanderung. These Northern people enjoyed a golden age unaffected by Rome and just 30 years after the Romans relinquished Britain, the 'Anglo-Saxons' made their move. The bedraggled legions are in retreat. Walls are pulled down. Mosaics shattered. And yet there never was a people called Anglo-Saxon. We look at the lasting influence of Saxon leaders like Alfred the Great, and his blue print for social justice.
'In Search of Beethoven': takes a comprehensive look at the composer's life through historical research and Beethoven's biography and letters, but with the emphasis always on the performance -- and interpretation -- of Beethoven's music. From his early piano concertos through the "Moonlight Sonata," "Für Elise," and the immortal notes of the Fifth and Ninth Symphonies, Beethoven's music remains as beloved, popular, and relevant as any work of art has ever been. "In Search of Beethoven" brings together the world's leading performers and experts on Beethoven to reveal new insights into this celebrated composer.
Above all, 'In Search of Beethoven' addresses the central myth of Beethoven's life and work -- that of the heroic, tormented figure battling to overcome the tragic fate of being struck down by deafness in his prime; a man who searched for his elusive, eternal 'immortal beloved,' yet was never to attain lasting happiness.
There is a tendency to deny German culture the equal reverence of Italy or Spain, and this enlightening new series provides a wonderful opportunity to explore a great, yet often neglected, artistic tradition whose influence has been just as profound. Andrew Graham-Dixon concludes his exploration of German art by investigating the dark and difficult times of the 20th century. Dominating the landscape is the figure of Adolf Hitler, failed artist, would-be architect and obsessed with the aesthetics of his 1,000-year Reich". In a series of extraordinary building projects and exhibitions, Hitler waged a propaganda war against every form of modern art as a prelude to unleashing total war on the whole of Europe. After the war the shadow of the Third Reich persisted, Germany remained divided and traumatised. How would artists deal with a past that everybody wanted to forget? Journeying through the work of Otto Dix and George Grosz and the age of the Bauhaus to the post-war painters Georg Baselitz, Hilla Becher and the conceptual artist Joseph Beuys is a long and strange journey, but the signs that art has a place at the heart of the new reunited Germany are clearly visible.
In the 1960s, US President John F Kennedy proposed landing a man on the moon before the decade was finished. This film has interviews with most of the surviving astronauts of the Apollo program who were making ready to make that great voyage with an army of experts determined to make the endeavour possible. Through training, tragedy and triumph, we follow the greatest moments of one of Humanity's great achievements. The documentary reviews both the footage and media available to the public at the time of the missions, as well as NASA films and materials which had not been opened in over 30 years.
In April this year, Pet Shop Boys are releasing a new album which comes 40 years after the original release of their classic song West End Girls. IMAGINE... is given a sneak preview of the album and talks to Tennant and Lowe about its creation and their evolution over the past four decades: pioneering, original, highly influential but always maintaining the integrity and quality of their inimitable style, sound and songwriting.
Their songs have often commented on Britain and the world around them with wit, sensitivity and intelligence driving the stories they want to share through some of the most memorable synth-pop music ever created. For their tours they have worked with the most innovative theatre personnel to create original and thrilling performances. Now for the first time they have allowed backstage access as IMAGINE... accompanies them on their global Dreamworld tour, filming rehearsals in London and backstage in Helsinki.