The Culture Show Specials: Episode Guide & Ratings

As he brings his Berlin tour to Britain, Lou Reed talks to The Culture Show's Lauren Laverne about why he's recreating his cult 1973 album. Reed reminisces about Andy Warhol and The Factory, the Velvet Underground, and how he felt about the critical response to the album on its initial release. Also featuring exclusive footage of Reed performing as he rehearses for the Berlin tour, and contributions from collaborators and admirers including Anthony Heggarty and Peter Hook.

Lauren Laverne presents a celebration of all things Springfield as the Simpsons celebrate their 20th anniversary. Looking back over the show's success it features contributions from creator Matt Groening, plus stars of one-off episodes Ricky Gervais, Stephen Hawking and Bridget Jones creator Helen Fielding.

Verity Sharp meets the four-piece band Sigur Rós in their native Iceland and on their visit to the UK for the 2007 Electric Proms. They have sold two million albums globally and their haunting music has been used as a soundtrack on trailers for the BBC series Planet Earth. They talk about their unique sound and their film Heima, which chronicles a series of unannounced gigs in Iceland in 2006.

Host Lauren Laverne casts her eye over the best bits of the series, which has seen her interview and jam with Sir Paul McCartney, point guns at Quentin Tarantino and flirt with Lou Reed, while Andrew Graham-Dixon took a helicopter journey over Britain to survey natural art galleries. Plus, revisiting exhibitions from the Chapman brothers and David Lynch; behind-the-scenes looks at the Cannes Film Festival, the Venice Biennale and the re-opening of London's Royal Festival Hall; and interviews with the Coen Brothers, Michel Gondry, David Cronenberg and Danny Boyle.

Arts show. Lauren Laverne presents highlights from the opening weekend that launches Liverpool's year as the European Capital of Culture. Awarded the title in 2004, the city will put on musicians, singers, dancers and special effects. Friday's artists include Ringo Starr and indie band the Wombats. Saturday's events come from the city's Liverpool Echo Arena and feature the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic with Dave Stewart, No Fakin DJs, Echo and The Bunnymen and Ian Brodie.

Lauren Laverne and Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen present a special edition of The Culture Show from the preview party of the 240th annual Summer Exhibition at the Royal Academy in London, the biggest open submission art show in the world. With exclusive behind-the-scenes access to Tracey Emin hanging her erotic-themed room, Gavin Turk making a new piece for the show, and Sir Anthony Caro installing his massive five-part sculpture Promenade in the RA courtyard. Including music from Jarvis Cocker.

In the run-up to the Beijing Olympics, Tom Dyckhoff and Miranda Sawyer meet those shaping the most rapidly changing culture in the world. Featuring Norman Foster 's Beijing Airport, Chinese hip-hop, fashion designer Han Feng , and a dinner party packed full of leading artists, writers and designers.

On the eve of the release of Death Magnetic, their first album for five years, hard rock giants Metallica grant Verity Sharp up close and personal access in Norway during their summer tour of Europe. More usually seen on massive stages playing to huge audiences, The Culture Show goes backstage to intimately capture the band's rehearsals and pre-show activities, and in revealing interviews with band stalwarts James Hetfield and Lars Ulrich, Verity Sharp, herself an ardent metalhead as a teenager, discusses the band's origins and turbulent history, their own notoriously volatile relationship, and how to grow old gracefully while still epitomising rawk.

Angelina Jolie talks frankly to Mark Kermode about her considerable film career. Together they discuss her impressive back catalogue - from her breakthrough appearance in Hackers, through her Oscar winning turn in Girl, Interrupted and Golden Globe nominated performance in A Mighty Heart, to her current starring role in Clint Eastwood's acclaimed thriller Changeling. Is there a second Oscar waiting for Angelina Jolie?

Lauren Laverne and the Culture Show team are in Liverpool to look back at the city's year as European Capital of Culture. The programme features highlights of the year plus a look at what the long-term legacy will be for the city. There is a special focus on how the buzz and investment has - or has not - really affected people and communities in the city.

In December 2008, Alfred Brendel, one of the greatest classical pianists of our time, stopped performing for good. In a rare interview to mark the occasion, he talks to conductor Charles Hazlewood about his final concert and what he is going to do next. He talks about his parallel profession as a published poet, gives an exclusive reading of three of his poems and explains how his love of absurd films, art and cartoons has influenced his poetry and his life. The film contains a very special short extract of Brendel playing Mozart's Sonata in F Major recorded at his last ever recital.

Andrew Graham-Dixon, Lauren Laverne and Mark Kermode present a special edition of The Culture Show devoted to the Royal Academy's Summer Exhibition. The hour-long special will showcase the best of the 2009 exhibition and look back to uncover the secret of its enduring appeal.

Coverage of the literary awards, presented by Mishal Husain. Before the winner's name is revealed, there are profiles of the six books that made it to the judges' shortlist.

The death of Michael Jackson was undoubtedly one of the biggest shocks of 2009. This special tribute leaves aside the court cases, scandal and bizarre behaviour to focus purely on the music. Contributors such as Smokey Robinson, Jermaine Jackson and Martha Reeves assess Jackson's place within African-American culture, his mainstream appeal and his remarkable musical legacy.

Andrew Graham-Dixon meets his childhood hero John Lydon, revealing the more sensitive, artistic side of the man once known as Johnny Rotten. Lydon talks about his childhood, his love of Shakespeare and Mozart - and why he's reformed his legendary band, Public Image Ltd.

A special edition of The Culture Show marking the start of a landmark project in which the BBC and the British Museum focus on the span of human history through 100 objects held at the museum. This programme, presented by Mishal Husain from the British Museum, profiles all the elements of the project, which includes one hundred programmes on Radio 4, a massive online factor, as well as programmes on CBBC and coverage from the BBC right across the country.

A one-hour special on one of the most important and popular British sculptors of the twentieth century, Henry Moore. Presented by Alan Yentob, the programme takes a unique approach to Moore by examining his life on film.

To mark the 70th anniversary of the Battle of Britain, the Culture Show presents a special on the art of World War II. Despite being locked into a life-or-death struggle, wartime Britain saw an extraordinary explosion of art. From portraits to posters, cartoons to huge canvases, art was suddenly everywhere. Among the works were some of the most intense and immediate creations of the 20th century.

This Culture Show special is fronted by Kevin McCloud and comes live from the Roundhouse in London for the announcement of the Royal Institute of British Architects' Stirling Prize. Now in its 15th year, the RIBA Stirling Prize is awarded to the best new European building 'built or designed in Britain'. This year's shortlisted buildings are: Bateman's Row, a mixed-use development in East London by architects Theis & Khan; two schools - Christ's College, Guildford, designed by DSDHA, and Clapham Manor School, by DRMM; and three museums - the Ashmolean in Oxford by Rick Mather, Maxxi in Rome by Zaha Hadid, and the Neues Museum in Berlin by David Chipperfield.

For this Culture Show Special on the Man Booker Prize 2010, Tim Samuels visits the Scottish village of Comrie in Perthshire and asks the locals to give him their verdict on this year's Booker shortlist. Tim has been to Comrie on Booker business for the Culture Show twice before, so as he makes his way around the town to hand out the shortlisted books, he meets many of the characters who have taken up his reading challenge in previous years, from the butcher and the vicar to the lord of the manor.

Turner Prize-winning artist Grayson Perry presents from the Frieze Art Fair - now one of the most influential contemporary art fairs. He explores the highlights of the show and some of the specially commissioned artworks based on game shows, mobile phone shops and archaeological digs. The Frieze Art Fair has a huge impact on London itself and all the galleries have new shows opening in the same week; Andrew Graham-Dixon talks to Chinese artist Ai Weiwei about his new installation in Tate Modern's Turbine Hall, and Ben Lewis goes on an art safari around the new up and coming galleries of south and east London to find the art stars of tomorrow.

Alastair Sooke presents this Culture Show special from the 243rd Summer Exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts. The Summer Exhibition is the visual arts world's largest and longest running open-submission show.

In the 50th anniversary year of the inauguration of John F Kennedy as President of the United States, Jonathan Freedland chairs a discussion on our enduring fascination with the man, his short-lived administration and the extraordinary political family from which he came. Historian Professor Tony Badger, veteran newsman John Sergeant, political commentator Anne McElvoy and Sarah Bradford, biographer of Jackie Kennedy, debate the myths and the realities of JFK as well as the controversies surrounding the American mini-series The Kennedys. In an accompanying short film, Joel Surnow, executive producer of The Kennedys, talks about the making the mini-series and the controversy that engulfed it.

A Culture Show special on the BBC Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction 2011. Features interviews with the six shortlisted authors and reports from the ceremony at the Royal Institute of British Architects where the judges revealed the winner of the 20,000 pound prize.

China's antique trade is booming, with records being smashed at auction every week. But why is this market exploding now, and what makes a piece of pottery into a million pound masterpiece? Andrew Graham-Dixon travels to Hong Kong to see how China's super-rich are spending their new-found wealth on purchasing relics from their country's imperial history.

Presented by Kevin McCloud, this Culture Show Special comes from the Royal Institute of British Architects' annual award ceremony, celebrating the best buildings of 2011. Kicking off with a look at the key trends in new architecture, the programme reveals the winners of three RIBA awards: the Stephen Lawrence Prize, for UK projects costing under £1 million; the Lubetkin Prize, for outstanding buildings outside the EU; and finally the UK's most prestigious prize for architecture, the RIBA Stirling Prize. The six buildings on the Stirling shortlist, explored here by Tom Dyckhoff, range from projects by star architects - including a school by last year's Stirling winner, Zaha Hadid; the Olympic Velodrome by Michael Hopkins; and a museum in Germany by David Chipperfield - through to projects by less well-known names, including an imaginative office building in London, an Irish language cultural centre in Derry and the RSC's newly-revamped theatre in Stratford.

Anish Kapoor and Cecil Balmond's Orbit sculpture is the most spectacular artistic creation of 2012 - a gravity-defying, breathtakingly dynamic scribble of crimson steel. Standing twice the height of Nelson's Column, it now towers over the Olympic Park, and has already inspired strong reactions. It is the biggest piece of public sculpture this country has ever seen - a bold statement of artistic ambition and a giant engineering challenge. In this one-off special, The Culture Show goes behind the scenes to follow it from commission to completion, and discovers just how difficult it is to build a tower for the 21st century. Featuring interviews with Boris Johnson and Lakshmi Mittal along with exclusive access to Kapoor and Balmond as they strive to realise their vision in the face of some Olympian challenges.

Ford Madox Ford is one of the forgotten greats of British fiction. With Tom Stoppard's dramatisation of Ford's unusual First World War love story Parade's End showing on BBC Two, Alan Yentob reveals Ford to be one of the most likeable characters in literature - humorous, overweight and with a deeply complicated love life that lit the fire under his greatest novels. A radical and a modernist, Ford was friend and collaborator to the great experimenters, Conrad, Lawrence, Pound and Joyce, and he wrote over 80 books including the masterpiece The Good Soldier.

Lee Child, one of Britain's bestselling authors, explores the phenomenal popularity of his character Jack Reacher - the basis of a new blockbuster movie starring Tom Cruise. In an insightful interview with Andrew Graham-Dixon, he reveals how being made redundant at age 40 pushed him into a life of writing and led him to New York, where he now lives. But despite the American setting of the highly successful Jack Reacher series, it is poignant elements of his childhood in Birmingham that form the basis of his fiction.

Andrew Graham-Dixon travels to Northern Spain to visit some of the world's oldest works of art, hundreds of meters beneath the surface of the earth. In limestone caves he is astonished to find a series of vivid paintings, some of which are over 33,000 years old, which appear to link modern man to our ice age ancestors. Back in London, the British Museum is staging one of its most ambitious exhibitions yet, Ice Age Art: Arrival of the Modern Mind. Andrew gets a behind-the-scenes preview of the extraordinary highlights and discovers that the world's first commissioned artists were producing highly sophisticated work tens of thousands of years before he previously imagined. The programme includes contributions from the British Museum's director, Neil MacGregor, and artist Antony Gormley.

Abraham Lincoln is one of the most iconic figures in American history. Justin Webb, the BBC's former North American editor, explores the enduring myth of the president who helped to shape the American Dream. Featuring interviews with Steven Spielberg, Daniel Day-Lewis and Alastair Campbell, Justin examines the hold Lincoln continues to have and why people still believe America is the Land of the Free.

When a handful of musical immigrants from the Caribbean islands came to Britain in the 1920s and 30s, it was the beginning of both musical and political change. Leslie Thompson, an innovative musician and trumpeter, and Ken 'Snakehips' Johnson, a brilliant dancer and charismatic band leader, pooled their talents to start the first black British swing band. Clemency Burton-Hill reveals the untold story of the black British swing musicians of the 1930s, whose meteoric rise to fame on London's high society dance floors was cut short by unexpected tragedy at the height of the Blitz.

Now in their seventh year and bigger and better than ever, the Kermode Awards are the antidote to the Oscars - the awards to watch for real movie buffs. In a low-fi awards ceremony that has become a Culture Show tradition, film critic Mark Kermode hands out his coveted statuettes to his pick of the best of movie making talent who have been shamefully ignored by the Academy Awards. He talks to some of the film-makers and actors who deserve to be celebrated for their achievements in the last year and welcomes one lucky director into the Kermode Fellowship. Featuring Sam Mendes, A Royal Affair star Mads Mikkelsen and newcomer Alicia Vikander.

Alan Yentob talks to South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone about their comedy stage musical The Book of Mormon. Already a huge hit in the US, this irreverent religious satire is now opening in London's West End. Like the rest of Parker and Stone's work, the show is a master class in subversive comedy. In their eyes nothing is off limits and nobody safe from ridicule. This Culture Show Special reflects on the duos extraordinary career and reveals how music has always played a crucial role in their creative output - from early student films through to South Park and Team America: World Police. Alan visits South Park Studios in LA, encounters some real life Mormon missionaries in San Diego, and catches up with Matt and Trey in London as they oversee final rehearsals for the West End run of The Book of Mormon. Along the way he discovers what inspires this relentlessly provocative partnership and how they ended up making a Broadway musical in the first place.

In celebration of the 150th anniversary of London Underground, Alastair Sooke presents a cultural history of the oldest tube network in the world. He follows the progress of a major new artwork for all 270 stations by the leading contemporary artist Mark Wallinger, and shows that art has played an absolutely central role in the identity of the tube. Through posters by some of the finest artists of the day, the system became the people's gallery. Through architecture, and design, its typeface and its branding, it became the image of modernity.

For years, thousands of paintings owned by the British public have been hidden away and inaccessible - until now. Thanks to the work of the Your Paintings project, over 200,000 works in our national collections have been painstakingly uncovered, photographed and put online - some for the very first time - allowing art experts and amateur-sleuths alike to make connections and discoveries that wouldn't have been possible before. Alastair Sooke teams up with art detective Dr Bendor Grosvenor to unearth some hidden gems and find out what our paintings say about us.

One of the hottest talents in Hollywood today, JJ Abrams talks to Mark Kermode about his latest turn at the helm of the Starship Enterprise, his lifelong love of filmmaking and the passion for mystery that lies at the heart of everything he does. New York born Abrams has conquered both television and film, bringing landmark TV series Lost to the small screen while collaborating with film industry royalty Tom Cruise and Steven Spielberg for box office hits Mission: Impossible III and Super 8. Self-confessed geek and ultimate fan boy, Jeffrey Jacob Abrams is about to take on the daunting task of directing the new Star Wars film. In this programme JJ takes Mark on an exclusive tour of Bad Robot, the top secret Los Angeles hub of his production company and provides a rare glimpse into where the magic happens.

It's 30 years since Manchester four-piece The Smiths changed the face of British pop with their debut single Hand In Glove. In this half-hour Culture Show special, fellow Mancunian and lifelong fan Tim Samuels sets out to find out why The Smiths have such a special place in the hearts of a generation of Brits. The Smiths were only around for five years in the mid-eighties, but to this day the sentiment their music evokes is strong. Samuels pays visits to a variety of dedicated fans including fashion designer Wayne Hemingway, poet Simon Armitage, Labour MP Kerry McCarthy and Oasis songwriter Noel Gallagher to analyse the look, the lyrics, the issues and the riffs that made The Smiths Britain's first, and arguably best ever, indie rock band.

Now in its 245th year, and with 12,000 submissions, the Royal Academy's Summer Exhibition is the largest open art exhibition in the world. In this Culture Show special, art critic Alastair Sooke asks what makes someone an artist and why do they do it? He hears from curators, art dealers, and of course the artists themselves. From Sunday painters to international contemporary artists, from traditional landscapes to giant sculptures made from bottle tops, the Summer Exhibition is the British art scene laid bare.

We all know death is life's only certainty, but as a rule we'd rather pretend it isn't going to happen. One of Britain's most successful photographers, Rankin has been tackling the subject head on for his latest exhibition: Alive: In the Face of Death at Liverpool's Walker Gallery. The Culture Show has had unique behind-the-scenes access as he focuses his lens on people who are living with a terminal illness, or have been forced to confront their mortality through personal or professional experience. By asking the questions we'd all rather avoid, this documentary captures the stories behind Rankin's powerful images, and reveals an intimate and thoughtful side to one of Britain's top photographers.

A look at the UK City of Culture, plus an exclusive interview with Seamus Heaney and Liam O'Flynn ahead of their performance, The Poet and The Piper, in Derry's Millennium Forum.

Why has a kids TV show about an eccentric man with a box that can travel anywhere in time and space become the BBC's longest running TV drama - and one of Britain's biggest brands? On its 50th anniversary, lifelong fan Matthew Sweet argues you ignore Doctor Who at your peril. It may be a piece of children's television, but he believes it's one of the most important cultural artefacts of modern Britain. Put simply, Doctor Who matters.

It's a hundred years since DH Lawrence's revolutionary novel, Sons and Lovers, first hit the bookshops - and to celebrate, the writer Geoff Dyer, accompanied by Lawrence scholar, Catherine Brown, retread the Alpine journey that the love-struck Lawrence made when he eloped from England with the sexually liberated Frieda Weekley, in 1912. It was an extraordinary trip that enabled him to complete his first masterpiece and also marked the moment when he decided to risk everything for his writing.

In 1964 the Mary Poppins film premiered in Hollywood to world acclaim. But one person loathed it. She was PL Travers, the author of the books. This Culture Show special presented by Victoria Coren Mitchell explores the dark and complex life of the writer; her 20-year battle with Walt Disney, the strange adoption of her child (he was one of twins), and how the film version overshadowed her writings but made her rich. With contributions from Emma Thompson, Cameron Mackintosh and PL Travers's granddaughter.

To coincide with the release of 12 Years a Slave, this Culture Show special, presented by Mark Kermode, looks at the history and culture of slavery. The subject of slavery has inspired director Steve McQueen's film, which is based on the true story of Solomon Northup, a free black man who was sold into slavery in the 1840s.

Whenever Hanif Kureishi writes a new film or book, something is broken - a taboo, a confidence or new ground. The Buddha of Suburbia and My Beautiful Laundrette author, who first caused a stink turning his experiences of racism, Thatcherism and sexual transgression into corrosive comedy, has amused, provoked, annoyed and betrayed for over four decades now. It is with some relish, it seems, that the barbed and ruthless writer picks up a pen, and waits as friends, lovers and family take cover, fearing what bitter human frailty might get caught in his satirical gaze.

In 2009, art detective Dr Bendor Grosvenor caused a national scandal by proving that the Scottish National Portrait Gallery's iconic portrait of Bonnie Prince Charlie, the rebel Stuart who almost seized power in 1745, was not in fact him. Keen to make amends, and suspecting that a long-lost portrait of the prince by one of Scotland's greatest artists, Allan Ramsay, might still survive, Bendor decides to retrace Charles's journey in the hope of unravelling one of the greatest mysteries in British art.

alking about art matters a lot, according to Alastair Sooke, who was a judge in last year's ARTiculation - a little-known, but fast-growing speaking competition, in which teenagers compete to talk eloquently and passionately about art. Alastair has been following the journeys of nine competitors as they have battled their way through nine regional heats, against tough competition, to win a coveted place in the final. And he has been finding out why they took part and what art has inspired them, uncovering the moving, funny and often surprising stories behind their choices. He also catches up with them at the finals in Cambridge, where this year's judge, artist and writer Edmund De Waal, will pick the winner of ARTiculation 2014.

The Vikings are famous for their violent raids on Anglo-Saxon monasteries, incredible shipbuilding skills and general brutality. They are less famous, perhaps, for their artistic talents. Yet the precious fragments of art that survive from the Viking Age portray a far more mysterious side to Viking culture. From the so-called 'gripping beast' motif of the Oseberg wood carvings to the abstract animal ornamentation that adorns Viking jewellery, Viking art is defined by beautiful and intricate artistic styles that are distinctly Scandinavian, yet also show the Vikings' interaction with other cultures, culminating in their conversion from paganism to Christianity. To coincide with the first major exhibition on Vikings at the British Museum for over 30 years, Andrew Graham-Dixon invites viewers to explore and admire the splendours of Viking art.

he story of pop art has been culturally canonised as the preserve of a ground-breaking gang of boys, focusing on the likes of Roy Lichtenstein, Andy Warhol, Peter Blake, Richard Hamilton and Tom Wesselman. Just like Andy Warhol's soup cans or Lichtenstein's comics, women were simply commodified objects.

Stonehenge is our most famous prehistoric monument; a powerful symbol of Britain across the globe. But all is not well with the sacred stones. MPs have described the surrounding site as a 'national disgrace' and 'shameful shambles'. Now, after decades of disputes over what should be done, English Heritage has just 12 months to create a setting that this unique monument deserves. But Stonehenge is more than a tourist attraction; it is also a temple. In this hour-long Culture Show special, Alastair Sooke shows that Stonehenge has long been a place of conflict and controversy, and that passions still run high at the monument where druids, archaeologists and scientists all battle for the soul of Stonehenge.

World-renowned photographer Rankin takes on the challenge of interpreting Rembrandt's portraits of old age, adapting the Dutch master's techniques for his camera. Rembrandt's portraits are some of the most arresting images of old age in western art. He captured the vitality and vulnerability of his subjects, highlighting the effects of time in a candid way that still resonates today.

In a major new BBC commission, acclaimed poet Simon Armitage has written seven new poems about World War I that form the centre of his latest television documentary. Armitage visits French beaches, German prison camps, so-called 'thankful' villages and remote corners of the Scottish Highlands as he considers the death of over 700,000 British soldiers in the conflict and tells seven real-life war stories. He learns of those who lived and died through it, those who worked and grieved and cried through it, and even those who tunnelled to freedom beneath its very soil. Each story culminates in a poem inspired by Armitage's research.

As Henry VIII's court painter, Hans Holbein witnessed and recorded the most notorious era in English history. He painted most of the major characters of the age and created the famous image of the king himself that everyone still recognises today. But who really was Holbein? Where did he come from? And what were the dark and unsettling secrets hidden in his art? Waldemar Januszczak looks at the life and work of an artist who became famous for bringing the Tudor age to life, but who could have been so many other things.