imagine… - Autumn 2008

Alan Yentob embarks on a three-part personal journey to discover how the guitar became the world's favourite musical instrument. Beginning with the rise of the acoustic guitar, the series takes him from an ancient Middle Eastern ancestor of the lute, to the iconic guitars draped round the necks of Bill Hailey and Elvis Presley and beyond. Featuring interviews with Bert Weedon - the man who taught Britain to 'Play in a Day', Pete Townshend, Bill Bailey, flamenco player Paco Pena and classical guitarist John Williams.

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.

Following British-Bangladeshi choreographer Akram Khan as he takes the risk of his life. He has just months to teach Oscar-winning French actress Juliette Binoche to dance. She must also be confident enough to perform with her teacher in front of the National Theatre's discerning audience. Akram, for his part, will attempt to learn to act. Interviewees include Juliette Binoche, Sylvie Guillem, Joseph Fiennes, Antony Gormley, Nitin Sawhney and Anish Kapoor.

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.

Alan Yentob embarks on a quest to find out what makes a great love story in literature, film or song. Among those offering their help in this labour of love are author Jeffrey Eugenides and lyricist Hal David.

Alan Yentob explores the life and work of Jay-Z, following the rapper over a period of six months.

Alan Yentob meets artists who use light as both the source and inspiration for their work, including American James Turrell.

The Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela, which caused a sensation at last year's Proms, is the product of an extraordinary music education system that has been running for more than 30 years. Children as young as two get intensive music lessons designed to steer them away from the dangers of the street. With Scotland now trying its own version of the scheme, Alan Yentob investigates the phenomenon and meets its most successful graduate, 27-year-old conductor Gustavo Dudamel, who next year becomes music director of the LA Philharmonic.

Sculptor and giant of modern art Richard Serra discusses his extraordinary life and work. A creator of enormous, immediately identifiable steel sculptures that both terrify and mesmerise, Serra believes that each viewer creates the sculpture for themselves by being within it. To this end, a Japanese family are reminded of the Temples of Kyoto, a Londoner finds sanctuary in the Serra near Liverpool Street station, and most movingly, a Holocaust survivor sees one piece as a wall separating the living from the dead.

Rock doc Heavy Metal in Baghdad follows the struggles of Iraq's one and only metal band, Acrassicauda, and tells its own story about the horror of daily life in the war-torn city. Following the documentary's limited cinema release Imagine presents an edited down version of that film, then picks up the story as the four band members have fled Iraq and are attempting to re-form their band in the West. Lost in a nightmare of bureaucracy, the four young musicians hold onto their dream, which is simply to play their music.