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Classicist and broadcaster Professor Mary Beard explores a broad range of thought-provoking and sometimes controversial works of art that tackle unsettling subjects – works that have been fought over, removed from view or simply 'forbidden'. She delves into the questions of what, why and how art gets forbidden, who gets to decide and how that has changed over time.

In the first programme, Mary explores some of the challenging ways that artists have shown the human body. She begins with the Romans, heading to the British Museum to discuss a statue of the god Pan having sex with a she-goat, and from there moves through art from the Renaissance to the present day that portrays sex, death, violence and beyond.

Mary meets renowned portraitist Daphne Todd as well as contemporary artists Tracey Emin and Martin Creed to discuss works they’ve produced which feature usually private bodily acts or experiences that, for some, have seemed to go too far. She asks why art which depicts some of those actions common to us all can be so disturbing – and what confronting these works might tell us about being human.