The South Bank Show

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The South Bank Show
South bank show.jpg
Series Titles (2006 version)
Format Arts
Presented by Melvyn Bragg
Country of origin  United Kingdom
No. of series 32
No. of episodes 736
Production
Producer(s) LWT
(now branded ITV Studios)
Running time 60 minutes
Broadcast
Original channel ITV
Picture format 4:3 (1978 - 2001)
16:9 (2001 - 2010)
Original run 14 January 1978 – 2010

The South Bank Show was a television arts magazine show, originally made by London Weekend Television (now part of ITV Studios), presented by Melvyn Bragg, broadcast on ITV1 and seen in over 60 countries worldwide — including Australia, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Sweden and the USA. Its stated aim is to bring both high art and popular culture to a mass audience.

In May 2009, ITV announced that the show was 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]

On Monday 28th December 2009 the final edition of The South Bank Show was broadcast featuring The Royal Shakespeare Company as its subject. Melvyn Bragg announced on this programme, after the final South Bank Show Awards in Jan 2010, there would be a series of ten 'South Bank Show Revisited' programmes transmitted in Spring 2010 featuring updates on previous South Bank Show subjects.

Contents

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.

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.

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. Directors who have made editions of the programme include:

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. 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. 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.

Private Eye tends to parody Melvyn Bragg's name, and Spitting Image would rather accentuate his nasal accent.

Benny Hill once parodied Bragg in a 1978 episode of The Benny Hill Show as Melvyn Dragg. 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

  1. ^ "ITV to axe The South Bank Show when Melvyn Bragg retires next year", The Guardian, 6 May 2009
  2. ^ Chitra Ramaswamy (9th November 2009). "Interview: Melvyn Bragg - Man out of time". The Scotsman. http://living.scotsman.com/books/Interview-Melvyn-Bragg--Man.5640953.jp. Retrieved 2009-11-09. "'It did [shock me] a bit, especially from [ITV chairman] Michael [Grade],' says Bragg before steeling himself. 'I think it's a mistake. But there you go. These things happen. You move on.'" 
  3. ^ "The South Bank Show - Podcasts". itv.com. http://www.itv.com/entertainment/chatandtalent/southbankshow/podcast. Retrieved 2007-09-07. 

External links

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