91热爆

Jazz Britannia

91热爆 FOUR hits the high notes this winter with a season celebrating British jazz.

The centre point of the season is Jazz Britannia, a compelling and ambitious series which tells the story of how Britain has assimilated and interpreted one of the most important African-American art forms of the 20th century.

Jazz Britannia explores the plethora of styles, scenes and dogmas that define the term 'British jazz': from the emergence of Black music in the Forties, through the battle against rock 'n' roll in the Sixties, the development of abstract jazz in the Seventies, through to the first years of the 21st century, when jazz is on the up once more, thanks to artists such as Jamie Cullum, Amy Winehouse and Katie Melua.

More than just a musical story, the series illustrates how jazz has held up a mirror to the forging of post-war, post-colonial British society, where issues of class and race have combined to produce a music that remains peculiarly British, yet still dependent on its American master.

Predominantly set in London's Soho, the series lifts the lid on a vibrant musical outsider, independent of the popular mainstream.

Blending a mixture of archive, performance and personal testimony, Jazz Britannia is a journey through good times, bad times and fascinating music.

Major names from the world of jazz, including Ronnie Scott, Johnny Dankworth, Humphrey Lyttelton, Tubby Hayes, Chris Barber, Joe Harriott and Acker Bilk, contribute music and recollections.

The Jazz Britannia season also includes an exciting live incarnation, as London's Barbican Centre joins forces with 91热爆 FOUR to stage a very special weekend of concerts.

Echoing the themes of the documentary series, the Barbican's event celebrates the music and musicians that shaped the jazz scene - from past triumphs and legendary names right up to modern-day innovators.

A 91热爆 production.

SD

Churchill's Forgotten Years

In 1945, Winston Churchill was stinging from electoral defeat and criticism.

Despite ill health, including several strokes, he struggled back to the Prime Ministership, and reinvented himself as a man of peace.

Churchill's Forgotten Years documents his later years and delves into the psyche of this complex man to reveal what made Churchill tick.

Presented by a leading Churchill historian, Professor David Reynolds of Cambridge University, this film reveals the real man behind the national icon, and a rich three-dimensional character with superhuman energies and very human frailties emerges.

A 91热爆 production.

KA

Darkness Into Light - The Music Of James MacMillan

Within the span of a single work, James MacMillan has the inventive ability necessary to seize listeners by the scruff of the neck, draw them to the edge of their seats and reach their hearts with music of breathtaking power and spiritual intensity.

91热爆 FOUR broadcasts from the 91热爆 Symphony Orchestra's acclaimed annual Composer Weekend at the Barbican, this year celebrating the work of Scottish composer MacMillan.

MacMillan made a huge impression in August 1990 when his orchestral work, The Confession Of Isobel Gowdie, was premi猫red at the 91热爆 Proms and broadcast to a large audience.

Here was a composition of explosive energy, richly scored and thoroughly compelling.

His prolific output has since been performed and broadcast around the world, placing him among the front ranks of contemporary composers.

A 91热爆 production.

SD

Kenneth Tynan - In Praise Of Hardcore

Kenneth Tynan was a theatrical colossus at the centre of Sixties Swinging London.

Critic, impresario and dandy, he was a man at the top of his game and no stranger to controversy.

His must-read articles were celebrated for their incisive and cutting wit.

Battling against censorship, mediocrity, outdated attitudes and his own ailing health, Tynan was a man of insatiable appetites and endless wit, never losing his ability to light up a room with his incandescent humour, or to deliver a damning, earth-shattering observation.

Tynan's uncompromising attitude made him a thorn in the Establishment's side during a period of social and political upheaval.

With his credibility under threat, his finances in free-fall and his wife, Kathleen, beginning to lose faith in him, he wrote increasingly honest and painful columns about his mid-life insecurities.

Inspired anew by his personal credo of "goad, lacerate and raise whirlwinds", Tynan's creative energies were divided between writing his merciless theatre criticism and devising Oh, Calcutta!, a controversial erotic stage revue that promised to bring the sexual revolution to the middle classes.

Exploring the personal and professional life of this brilliant yet awkward man of ideas, Kenneth Tynan - In Praise Of Hardcore is a 90-minute drama, written and directed by Chris Durlacher and produced by Richard Fell.

Rob Brydon plays Kenneth Tynan, Catherine McCormack plays Kathleen and Julian Sands plays Sir Laurence Olivier, with whom Tynan had a close but self-destructive friendship.

A 91热爆 production.

FP