The South Bank Show

The South Bank Show
Series Titles (2006 version)
Format	Arts
Presented by	Melvyn Bragg
Country of origin	United Kingdom
Production
Producer(s)	LWT
Running time	60 minutes
Broadcast
Original channel	ITV
Original run	14 January 1978 – 2010

The South Bank Show is a television arts magazine show, made by London Weekend Television, presented by Melvyn Bragg, broadcast on ITV and seen in over 60 countries worldwide — including Australia, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Sweden and the USA. Its stated aim^{[citation needed]} is to bring both high art and popular culture to a mass audience.

In May 2009 ITV announced that the show is 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]

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.^{[citation needed]}

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 twentieth and twenty-first centuries.^{[citation needed]}

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.

Subjects

This section does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (November 2009)

There have been many subjects of the show, including:

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

Theme music and visuals

The iconic image of the Hand of God giving life to Adam, used since the series' inception.

The theme music is taken from Andrew Lloyd Webber's Variations composed in 1977 for his brother, the cellist Julian Lloyd Webber.^{[citation needed]} 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.

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.^{[citation needed]} 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.^{[citation needed]}

Private Eye tends to parody Melvyn Bragg's name, and Spitting Image would rather accentuate his nasal accent.^{[citation needed]}

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

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.^[3]

References

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