The Best Episodes of Artsnight

Acclaimed actor Maxine Peake takes over editorial control, 'curating' the opening episode. Celebrating voices marginalised by mainstream culture, Maxine talks to the most controversial band in Britain, Sleaford Mods. She discusses the role of women and television with an all-female panel, including W1A's Jessica Hynes, and she explores the life and legacy of Salford's Shelagh Delaney, the writer who helped inspire Coronation Street and the Smiths.

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Sunday Times journalist Lynn Barber takes over editorial control to 'curate' the second episode. Lynn wants to look at some of the most exciting developments in popular culture in 2015. She chats to Mark Ronson, the most intriguing pop star of the modern age, as well as looking at the boom of ingenious, inventive magazines bought by and made for young people. She sticks up for that supposed 'Mickey Mouse degree' - media studies - while former media studies student Jon Ronson explores the theme of shame in the internet age.

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Writer, director and satirist Armando Ianucci takes the reins of Artsnight for the third episode of the series. Armando looks afresh at high culture - poetry, classical music and fine art - to ask why some people feel excluded from it, and why these arts matter. He talks to acclaimed poet Kate Tempest about her life and work, visits an exhibition of Goya's drawings, meets Apollo Music Projects, who are transforming children's lives with classical music, and invites stand-up comedian Josie Long to reflect on the cultural life of the nation in an age of austerity.

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Chris Dercon, director of Tate Modern, takes the helm of Artsnight for the fourth episode of the series. Chris asks why Berlin is the creative capital of Europe; the city is a magnet for artists and musicians, with an expanding array of galleries, museums and public arts intuitions. He talks to iconoclast Ai Weiwei, who has recently opened a studio in the city despite being unable to leave China. He explores the intriguing world of drone art and the pioneering work of the late Berlin-based artist Harun Farocki. He also commissions a new film about Nick Cave's formative years in West Berlin, when the city was burgeoning with creative talent prior to the fall of the Berlin Wall.

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Andrew Marr champions some great Renaissance dramatists who aren't Shakespeare.

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Model and actress Lily Cole explores whether children inhibit or enhance an artistic life.

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Journalist Lynn Barber takes over editorial control to explore the world of artist Doug Aitken.

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Broadcaster Samira Ahmed takes a look at photography, both historically and in the present day.

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Martha Lane Fox explores how the west's two cultures - science and arts - work together.

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Richard Wilson looks at Samuel Beckett, speaking to Ian McKellen and Hugo Weaving.

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Irvine Welsh goes to Edinburgh to see what effect the Scottish referendum had on the arts.

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Hofesh Shechter explores how embarrassment can be rich territory for artistic exploration.

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Ben Okri explores the transformative effect of the prize on the career of its recipients.

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BBC arts editor Will Gompertz investigates the thriving art market.

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Lynn Barber considers the idea of taking risks in art.

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Spoken word artist George the Poet explores the heritage and future of black culture.

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Josie Rourke looks at the changing idea of the hero in contemporary culture.

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Clara Amfo, one of BBC Radio 1's rising stars, looks at how the fame industry works.

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Artist Edmund de Waal looks at the theme of memory and art.

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Kwasi Kwarteng looks at how the British Empire impacted on art and literature.

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Ana Matronic explores how robots are taking over mainstream culture.

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Chris Dercon talks to world-famous celebrity photographer Juergen Teller.

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David Baddiel travels to New York to investigate Thomas Carlyle's Great Man theory.

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Sir Nicholas Serota, director of the Tate, investigates why contemporary art matters.

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Lionel Shriver asks why economics has become one of the most exciting subjects for writers

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