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The South Bank Show
Series Titles (2006 version)
Format	Arts
Presented by	Melvyn Bragg
Country of origin	United Kingdom
No. of series	32
No. of episodes	736
Production
Producer(s)	LWT (now branded ITV Studios)
Running time	60 minutes
Broadcast
Original channel	ITV
Picture format	16:9 (1978 - 2010)
Original run	14 January 1978 – 30 May 2010

The South Bank Show was a television arts magazine show, originally made by London Weekend Television (now part of ITV Studios), presented by Melvyn Bragg, broadcast on ITV and seen in over 60 countries worldwide — including Australia, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Sweden and the United States. Its stated aim was to bring both high art and popular culture to a mass audience.

In May 2009, ITV announced that the show was to come to an end. Although it was originally reported that the show was ending due to Bragg's retirement,^[1] Bragg later made it clear that he decided to leave after they ended the show, and thought ending it was a mistake; according to him, "they've killed the show, so I thought, I'll go as well."^[2][3]

On Monday 28 December 2009 the final edition of The South Bank Show was broadcast featuring The Royal Shakespeare Company as its subject. Melvyn Bragg announced on this programme, after the final South Bank Show Awards in January 2010, there would be a series of ten 'South Bank Show Revisited' programmes transmitted in early 2010 featuring updates on previous South Bank Show subjects.

Contents 1 History 2 Awards 3 Subjects 4 Directors 5 Theme music and visuals 6 Parody 7 Podcast 8 Rumoured Return 9 References 10 External links

[edit] History

The programme was a replacement for Aquarius, LWT's arts series which had been running since 1970. It first aired on 14 January 1978, with topics on Germaine Greer, Gerald Scarfe and Paul McCartney. It is the longest continuously running arts programme on UK television.

From the beginning the series' intent was to mix high art and popular culture. This has remained, and the programme has always focused predominantly on art of the 20th and 21st centuries.

[edit] Awards

The programme has been awarded more than 110 awards (including 12 BAFTAs, 5 Prix Italia and 4 RTS Awards). Pat Gavin's animated title sequences have won two BAFTAs.

[edit] Subjects

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There have been many subjects of the show, including:

Paul McCartney in 1978 Ken Dodd in 1978 Francis Ford Coppola in 1979 Arthur Miller in 1980 Sir Laurence Olivier in 1982 Peter Gabriel in 1982 Julian Lloyd Webber in 1982 Gene Hackman in 1983 Oscar Peterson in 1984 Sir Alec Guinness in 1985 Francis Bacon in 1985 John Cleese in 1986 Fay Godwin in 1986 Eric Clapton in 1987 The Smiths in 1987 Penguin Cafe Orchestra in 1988 John Houseman in 1988 Paul Bowles in 1988 John Zorn in 1989 Robert Redford in 1989

Mark Morris Dance Group in 1990 Pet Shop Boys in 1990 Terry Gilliam in 1991 Douglas Adams in 1992 Anthony Hopkins in 1992 Agnes Habereder in 1993 Paul Simon in 1993 Clive Barker in 1994 Coronation Street in 1995 Clint Eastwood in 1995 Sting in 1996 Elaine Paige in 1996 Marlene Dietrich in 1996 Sir John Mills in 1996 Bee Gees in 1997 Björk in 1997 Iain Banks in 1997 Cher in 1999 Blur in 1999 Judith Weir in 2001 Bernie Taupin in 2002 Juan Diego Florez in 2002 Ewan McGregor in 2003 Ron Wood in 2004

Sir Malcolm Arnold in 2004 The Darkness in 2004 John Lennon's jukebox in 2004 Little Britain in 2005 Dusty Springfield in 2006 Steve Reich in 2006 George Michael in 2006 Jarvis Cocker in 2007 Victoria Wood in 2007 June Whitfield in 2007 Annie Lennox in 2007 Eric Clapton in 2007 The Nutcracker (ballet) in 2007 Nick Park in 2007 Liza Minnelli in 2008 James Bond in 2008 Will Young in 2009 Peter Kosminsky in 2009 Coldplay in September 2009 Disney Pixar in October 2009 Elbow in November 2009 The Royal Shakespeare Company in December 2009

[edit] Directors

Sir David Lean once said, "The best directors in Britain are working on The South Bank Show"^{[citation needed]}. Directors who have made editions of the programme include:

• Kim Evans
• Andy Harries
• Mary Harron
• James Ivory
• Tony Knox
• Ken Loach
• Jeremy Marre
• Tony Palmer
• Ken Russell
• Irshad Ashraf

[edit] Theme music and visuals

The theme music is taken from Andrew Lloyd Webber's Variations composed in 1977 for his brother, the cellist Julian Lloyd Webber. This is based on the theme from Paganini's "24th Caprice". The brand image of the programme is an animated version of a detail from Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel ceiling painting, specifically the image of the Hand of God giving life to Adam. It shows the two hands meeting, generating a lightning bolt.

[edit] Parody

The comedy series Dead Ringers often parodies The South Bank Show. It does this in a series of sketches called South Bank, a cross between The South Bank Show and the American cartoon South Park, set in the South Bank of London. In these sketches, Melvyn Bragg is Stan Marsh, Alan Yentob is Kyle Broflovski, Mark Lawson is Eric Cartman and Kenneth Branagh is Kenny McCormick.

A sketch in The Smell of Reeves and Mortimer featured Vic Reeves as Melvyn Bragg (with felt-tip marks on his face) presenting a feature on fictional folk singers Mulligan and O'Hare. Reeves' depicts Bragg as an unlikely A-Team obsessive.

Harry Enfield's TV film Norbert Smith - a Life is a parody edition of The South Bank Show.

Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant's second series of Extras featured a reference to a fictional episode of The South Bank Show focused on madcap children's television presenters Dick and Dom.

Private Eye tends to parody Melvyn Bragg's name, and Spitting Image would rather accentuate his nasal accent.

Benny Hill once parodied Bragg in a 1978 episode of The Benny Hill Show as Melvyn Dragg. The name of the show was also parodied, and it was called "The South Blank Show."

[edit] Podcast

From 18 September 2006, ITV have begun releasing a podcast of the interviews from the show, including extra material not included in the broadcast editions. There are plans to release past interviews as part of the podcast as well.^[4]

[edit] Rumoured Return

At the British Academy of Film and Television Arts awards show in January 2010 Lord Melvyn Bragg said he was baffled by ITV's decision to axe The South Bank Show after 30 years on air. Also at the awards show Prince Charles said in a taped testimonial that it was the end of one of the most important beacons of arts in this country which this country was lucky enough to enjoy.

In July 2010 it was revealed that Bragg had bought the rights to the brand and had first right of access to the South Bank Show archives.^[5] It was also rumoured that Sky TV would be bringing back The South Bank Show by broadcasting the show on the Sky Arts channel. Sky responded by saying they had not ruled anything out, but had no current plans to bring back The South Bank Show.

Despite this, Sky Arts continues to show South Bank Show archive editions and hosted "The South Bank Sky Arts Awards" on 25 Jan 2011, presented by Melvyn Bragg, accompanied by a new arrangement of the South Bank Show theme.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• The South Bank Show at itv.com
• Complete list of subjects from epguides.com
• The South Bank Show at the Internet Movie Database
• Variations performance by Julian Lloyd Webber and Colosseum II, from YouTube