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The Best Episodes of imagine…

Every episode of imagine… ranked from best to worst. Let's dive into the Best Episodes of imagine…!

The Best Episodes of imagine…

The biggest names from the world of art, film, music, literature and dance. Alan Yentob gets close up with those shaping today's cultural world.
  1. Background image for Elgar and the Missing Concerto
    9.0/10(8 votes)

    #1 - Elgar and the Missing Concerto

    S7:E1

    Famous for his cello and violin concertos, it's not widely known that Edward Elgar also wrote sketches for a piano concerto. This often hilarious film shows how the embryonic piece - a performance of which follows - came to life.

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    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown
  2. Background image for Iraq in Venice
    8.8/10(6 votes)

    #2 - Iraq in Venice

    S20:E7

    With Iraq having a presence at the Venice Biennale for the first time since Saddam Hussein's rise to power, Imagine follows the chosen artists ahead of the show.

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    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown
  3. Background image for Bette Midler: The Divine Miss M
    8.8/10(10 votes)

    #3 - Bette Midler: The Divine Miss M

    S27:E3

    Alan Yentob joins Bette Midler on a journey through the chorus lines of Broadway and the bathhouses and nightclubs of the 1970s to the very top of the film industry.

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    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown
  4. Background image for Sir Roderick Stewart: Can't Stop Me Now
    8.7/10(7 votes)

    #4 - Sir Roderick Stewart: Can't Stop Me Now

    S30:E4

    Sir Rod Stewart has had a remarkable musical journey. Alan Yentob visits Rod at his homes and examines an entertaining career across five decades.

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    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown
  5. Background image for Scrabble: A Night on the Tiles
    8.5/10(28 votes)

    #5 - Scrabble: A Night on the Tiles

    S16:E6

    Scrabble is experiencing a renaissance. The younger generation have rediscovered the game online - through the copyright busting Scrabulous - and they're having night after night on the tiles. LANA BOTNEY sets out to discover why the word game leaves us spellbound, tracing its surprising history, meeting the American tournament Word Freaks, and paying a visit to the SAS-style training camp that the Nigerian government trains their players at. With triple word score contributions from Moby, Richard Herring, Lynn Barber and Noreena Hertz.

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    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown
  6. Background image for Glasgow: The Grit and the Glamour
    8.5/10(31 votes)

    #6 - Glasgow: The Grit and the Glamour

    S22:E4

    Alan Yentob meets some Turner Prize-winning artists to recount how Glasgow became a city as famed for its contemporary art as it once was for its shipbuilding.

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    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown
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    The 20 WORST Episodes of imagine…

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  8. Background image for Turning the Art World Inside Out
    8.5/10(17 votes)

    #7 - Turning the Art World Inside Out

    S25:E4

    Alan Yentob explores outsider art, examines why the oeuvre is only now being accepted by the art establishment and meets some visionary outside art creators and their enthusiasts.

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    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown
  9. Background image for She Spoke the Unspeakable
    8.5/10(6 votes)

    #8 - She Spoke the Unspeakable

    S32:E1

    The author Nawal El Saadawi was a global legend. imagine... visited her in Cairo and travels with her to the village where she was born.

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    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown
  10. Background image for The Story of the Guitar: Episode 3: This Time it's Personal
    8.4/10(5 votes)

    #9 - The Story of the Guitar: Episode 3: This Time it's Personal

    S14:E4

    In the final programme of the series the guitarists talk about how they find their own sound, and how the guitar has changed their lives. Since its invention, the electric guitar has unleashed a seemingly inexhaustible sonic invention among guitarists. Featuring Muse's Matt Bellamy, who turns out to be following in his father's space age footsteps, Tony Iommi from Black Sabbath, who talks about the invention of heavy metal, David Gilmour from Pink Floyd, Pete Townshend (Perhaps equally famous for smashing guitars), Johnny Marr from the Smiths on 'the mother of all riffs', Slash and The Edge from U2 among many others.

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    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown
  11. Background image for Broadway Musicals: A Jewish Legacy
    8.4/10(6 votes)

    #10 - Broadway Musicals: A Jewish Legacy

    S25:E3

    Alan Yentob looks at the unique role Jews have played in creating the modern American musical, from Porgy and Bess to West Side Story and Cabaret.

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    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown
  12. Background image for The Art That Hitler Hated: The Sins of the Fathers
    8.4/10(7 votes)

    #11 - The Art That Hitler Hated: The Sins of the Fathers

    S27:E2

    Second episode of a two-part special documentary about a secret hoard of art discovered in Germany. The rightful owners begin the uphill struggle of reclaiming their property.

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    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown
  13. Background image for The Story of the Guitar: Episode 2: Out of the Frying Pan
    8.3/10(10 votes)

    #12 - The Story of the Guitar: Episode 2: Out of the Frying Pan

    S14:E2

    Alan Yentob presents a three-part series examining how the guitar became the world's favourite musical instrument. As the guitar turns electric, music is changed for ever. The world's first electric guitar had nothing to do with jazz or blues, but Hawaiian-style music and was known as the 'frying pan'. Yentob continues his investigation from the blues of the Mississippi to the guitar wars of the 1950s, when the Fender Stratocaster and the Gibson Les Paul were battling for supremacy.

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    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown
  14. Background image for Ian Rankin and the Case of the Disappearing Detective
    8.3/10(11 votes)

    #13 - Ian Rankin and the Case of the Disappearing Detective

    S23:E2

    Crime writer Ian Rankin invites imagine... to follow him as he writes his next novel, and as he ponders what to write about after retiring his most famous creation.

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    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown
  15. Background image for Amos Oz: The Conscience of Israel
    8.2/10(11 votes)

    #14 - Amos Oz: The Conscience of Israel

    S7:E2

    Alan Yentob presents a portrait of Israel's most celebrated writer and political commentator, Amos Oz, whose childhood memoir A Tale of Love and Darkness gives an eyewitness account of the birth of Israel. Yentob takes Oz back to the settings of the childhood in Israel and reveals a fascinating portrait of the early years of Israel, the tragic story of Oz's family and his widely respected views on the conflict with Palestine.

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    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown
  16. Background image for Stealing Klimt
    8.1/10(14 votes)

    #15 - Stealing Klimt

    S11:E2

    Alan Yentob tells the story of the struggle by 90-year-old Maria Altmann to recover five Gustav Klimt paintings stolen from her family by the Nazis in 1938 and which have hung in the Austrian National Gallery ever since. It chronicles Maria's early life in glittering fin-de-siecle Vienna, her escape from Nazi terror and her fight to recover the Klimts against all the odds, which takes her to the US Supreme Court and pits her not just against Austria, but also against the Bush administration.

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    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown
  17. Background image for A Trip to Asia: on the Road with the Berlin Philharmonic
    8.1/10(16 votes)

    #16 - A Trip to Asia: on the Road with the Berlin Philharmonic

    S13:E4

    This compelling record of the Berlin Philharmonic during a concert tour of Asia proves as much an inner journey as an outer one, as musicans and their conductor Simon Rattle reflect on subjects such as the orchestra's organisation and traditions; its distinctive sound; life on the road; the demands of performance; and the effects of age on technique. As eloquent as these musings are the performances of Richard Strauss 's Ein Heldenleben and Thomas Ades 's Asyla to rapt audiences in Beijing, Seoul, Tokyo and beyond.

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    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown
  18. Background image for Do or Die: Lang Lang's Story
    8.1/10(10 votes)

    #17 - Do or Die: Lang Lang's Story

    S23:E3

    From child prodigy to global phenomenon, Alan Yentob reveals the extraordinary life of Lang Lang, China's classical music superstar.

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    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown
  19. Background image for Bette Midler: The Showgirl Must Go On
    8.1/10(7 votes)

    #18 - Bette Midler: The Showgirl Must Go On

    S27:E4

    imagine... presents this UK television debut of a tour de force from the Divine Miss M. Bette Midler performs many of her biggest hits including The Rose and Wind Beneath My Wings.

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    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown
  20. Background image for Lenny Henry: Young, Gifted and Black
    8.1/10(13 votes)

    #19 - Lenny Henry: Young, Gifted and Black

    S37:E1

    Alan Yentob meets Lenny Henry as he publishes a first volume of autobiography, charting his early years in show business.

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    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown
  21. Background image for From Pencils to Pixels
    8.0/10(5 votes)

    #20 - From Pencils to Pixels

    S2:E5

    The success of computer-created films such as Finding Nemo and Shrek has led to another “Golden Age” of animation. But does it spell the end for pencil-drawn animation? Toy Story’s John Lasseter and Wallace and Gromit creator Nick Park are among those voicing their opinions.

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    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown
  22. Background image for Dame Shirley Bassey: The Girl From Tiger Bay
    8.0/10(1 votes)

    #21 - Dame Shirley Bassey: The Girl From Tiger Bay

    S16:E2

    Alan Yentob gains an insight into the creative world of Dame Shirley Bassey in a programme first shown in 2009. After a triumphant Glastonbury appearance and a major illness at the age of 72, Dame Shirley tentatively re-enters the ring to confront her life in song. Some of the best contemporary songwriters, including Gary Barlow, the Pet Shop Boys, Manic Street Preachers, Rufus Wainwright, Richard Hawley and KT Tunstall, along with James Bond composer John Barry and lyricist Don Black, have interpreted her life through song for an album produced by David Arnold. The songs frame and explore the myth of Shirley Bassey, the girl from Tiger Bay, and the voice and the desire are not found wanting. A backstory profiling Shirley, complete with archive of her greatest performances, tells the story of what makes her the living legend that she is today.

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    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown
  23. Background image for Hitler, the Tiger and Me
    8.0/10(5 votes)

    #22 - Hitler, the Tiger and Me

    S25:E5

    Documentary telling the story of Judith Kerr, creator of well-loved children's books including Mog and The Tiger Who Came to Tea. Now 90, she revisits her childhood home of Berlin.

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    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown
  24. Background image for Richard Flanagan: Life After Death
    8.0/10(6 votes)

    #23 - Richard Flanagan: Life After Death

    S28:E5

    2014 Man Booker Prize winner Richard Flanagan journeys with Alan Yentob through his native Tasmania, visiting the places that have inspired his novels.

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    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown
  25. Background image for Shylock's Ghost
    8.0/10(6 votes)

    #24 - Shylock's Ghost

    S29:E1

    Alan Yentob travels to the ghetto in Venice with award-winning novelist Howard Jacobson as he embarks on a retelling of Shakespeare's most performed play, The Merchant of Venice.

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    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown
  26. Background image for DANGER! Cornelia Parker
    8.0/10(10 votes)

    #25 - DANGER! Cornelia Parker

    S30:E2

    Alan Yentob follows sculptor Cornelia Parker's creative process in a film that sees her delve deep into America's history, cinema and art, as well as her own personal past.

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    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

Best Episodes Summary

"Elgar and the Missing Concerto" is the best rated episode of "imagine…". It scored 9/10 based on 8 votes. Directed by Unknown and written by Unknown, it aired on 11/23/2005. This episode scored 0.2 points higher than the second highest rated, "Iraq in Venice".