British Art

John le Carré led a life entirely constructed of secrets—not just in his first career, as a British spy and agent runner during the height of the Cold War or in his second, as a world-renowned writer of espionage fiction, but also in his personal involvements. He guarded his private life with fierce determination, fending off all would-be biographers until his ninth decade, when he finally relented and permitted his life story to be written. But there was still one element that he insisted be excluded, even then: the women.

When the leaders of the French Revolution executed Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette in 1793, they sent a chilling message to the hereditary ruling orders in Europe. Believing that monarchy anywhere presented a threat to democratic rule in France, the leaders of the revolution declared war on European aristocracies, including those of Great Britain. For more than 20 years thereafter, France and England waged a protracted war that ended in British victory.

CRT's hit feature Ticonderoga is now a new series! The series picks up where the feature left off, with Captain Taylor; his son, Adam; Mohawk scout Dagadawidah; and Captain Campbell of the 42nd Highlanders remaining at the fort, with a small contingent, while the main army has moved on to Crown Point, poised to follow the French into Canada.

After a wealthy woman was brutally murdered in her Glasgow home in 1908, the police found a convenient suspect in Oscar Slater, an immigrant Jewish cardsharp. Though he was known to be innocent, Slater was tried, convicted, and consigned to life at hard labor. Outraged by this injustice, Arthur Conan Doyle, already world famous as the creator of Sherlock Holmes, used the methods of his most famous character to reinvestigate the case, ultimately winning Slater’s freedom.

Shortly after moving into an old house Coraline discovers a big, carved, brown wooden door at the far corner of the drawing room. And it is locked. Curiosity runs riot in Coraline's mind and she unlocks the door to see what lies behind it. Disappointingly, it opens onto a brick wall. Days later, after exploring the rest of the house and garden, Coraline returns to the same mysterious door and opens it again. This time, however, there is a dark hallway in front of her.

In January 2014, Tom Baker celebrated his 80th birthday. In March 2014, Tom sat down with Nicholas Briggs to look back over his 80 amazing years - his youth, his early acting career, his great success with Doctor Who and beyond...and his return to his most famous role with Big Finish. This candid and intimate interview forms two fascinating hours of engaging entertainment in the unique company of Mr. Baker.

Joe Jackson is a life-long Scott Walker fan who, after interviewing Leonard Cohen in 1985, became an interviewer "purely to talk with more of my heroes," he says. First on his list was Scott Walker, when they finally did the interview a decade later, Walker thanked Jackson for a review he did of the Climate of Hunter album in 1984 and said it helped him redefine for himself how his music could best be described at that point. They did two in-depth interviews, unlike any ever given by Scott Walker. Both interviews, plus the backstory, will be in the second digital magazine in this two-part ...

Gary Barlow is one of the most successful British musicians and songwriters of all time, but 15 years ago, as he himself admits, he hit rock bottom - he was out of shape, out of work, depressed. Food for him had become an addiction, a means not only of comfort but almost of self-medication as he grappled with the cruel twists of fate of musical stardom. In 2003, as he struggled with the disappointment of an underperforming solo career alongside the tireless media taunts; Gary turned to food.

In the first series, Armando Iannucci and his guests pull apart the news with a heady mix of topical comedy, messed-about archive, chat and outrageous fibs, recorded in front of a live studio audience. Across the complete six episodes, they start a new religion and update some Cockney rhyming slang, and as the strike by BBC workers starts to bite and the army steps in, we hear a debate on breastfeeding from 'Woman's Hour' hosted by Gunner-Sergeant Harry Donaldson of the 5th Norfolk Fusiliers.

Before The Beatles landed on American shores in February 1964, only two British acts had topped the Billboard singles chart. In the first quarter of 1964, however, the Beatles alone accounted for 60% of all recorded music sold in the United States; in 1964 and 1965 British acts occupied the number one position for 52 of the 104 weeks; and from 1964 through to 1970, the Rolling Stones, Herman's Hermits, the Dave Clark Five, the Animals, and more placed more than 130 songs on the American Top Forty.

Read by Juliet Stevenson and Simon Callow, A Literary Christmas is a seasonal anthology that collects together poems, short stories, and prose extracts by some of the greatest poets and writers in the English language. Like Charles Dickens’ ghosts of Christmas Past and Present, they are representative of times old and new - from John Donne’s Elizabethan hymn over the baby Jesus to Rudyard Kipling’s "Christmas in India", from Thomas Tusser counting the cost of a Tudor feast to Laurie Lee’s "Cider with Rosie".

The Book-Makers is a celebration of 550 years of the printed book, told through the lives of eighteen extraordinary men and women who took the book in radical new directions: printers and binders, publishers and artists, paper-makers and library founders. This is a story of skill, craft, mess, cunning, triumph, improvisation, and error.

J. R. R. Tolkien, an orphan in love with words, spent most of his life as an unassuming Professor of Literature at Oxford studying and teaching old languages. During his time there, he created his very own languages and a mythological world, Middle-earth. Middle-earth was inhabited by Hobbits, Dwarves, Elves, and other fascinating creatures. It was a world that became almost more real to Tolkien than the one he lived in. Tolkien’s two masterpieces, The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, have set the standard in mythological literature.

Here comes the fifth globetrotting adventure in the fast-paced Bodies of Art Mystery series from USA TODAY bestselling author Ritter Ames. A masterpiece swapped for a forgery, a murder victim left behind, and a relentless game of hide and seek keeps Laurel Beacham and Jack Hawkes on the run. They are racing to find answers despite roadblocks at every turn. The chase crisscrosses the Atlantic as they pursue threads to murders and thefts that extend from the current day and back several decades. A startling forgery points toward an unexpected new nemesis, and the team pursues a Paris forger ...

“As engaging and entertaining a worldwide romp as the first two books…Ritter Ames has penned a marvelous story with Laurel Beacham continuing to show her cleverness and intuition portraying a strong character…I was thrilled!” – King’s River Life Magazine Abstract clues lead to new questions. New leads turn to “dead” ends. A heist plot ties to forgeries. Adversaries resurface twisting an already complicated case. And art recovery expert Laurel Beacham must not only outwit criminals, but keep her wits around Jack Hawkes’s cheeky ego. Before the criminals they were tracking ...

When the Cowley sisters employ a carer to look after the ailing Carmela, Morag appears to suit their needs perfectly. But after a spectacular jewel theft on the night of the Hunt Ball, it appears that the perfect carer might be implicated.

Mock the Week regularly produces the sharpest and funniest comedy on TV. With Dara O Briain, Hugh Dennis, Frankie Boyle, and Andy Parsons, it's no surprise. Here is the material that didn't make it to our screens!

Peter Cook and Dudley Moore were two of the brightest stars ever to light up the world of comedy. They set standards that will probably never be surpassed. Cambridge graduates who met in Beyond the Fringe, their chemistry produced some of the funniest, most inventive and downright brilliant comedy ever recorded.They came to wider fame with the tv series Not Only… But Also. The writing and performances were superb....

Hal and Clunk have been hired to transport artworks for a travelling exhibition. These pieces are valuable and fragile, which is strike one. The artist is highly-strung individual who takes an instant dislike to Hal, which is strike two. And Hal is determined to make a quick buck on the side, which is never going to end well. Strike three! The only question is... which will last longer, Hal or the artworks?

Mark Kermode’s compelling study of this horror classic was originally published in 1997, and then extensively updated and expanded in 2003 to incorporate the discovery of new material. This revised edition documents the deletion and reinstatement of key scenes that have now been integrated into the film to create The Exorcist: The Version You’ve Never Seen. Candid interviews with director William Friedkin and writer/producer William Peter Blatty reveal the behind the-scenes battles which took place during the production.