Catch up TV
2019: 2. Jo Brand: No Holds Barred
She is boldly outspoken, fearlessly funny and unfailingly kind - Jo Brand has become one of Britain's best-loved comedians. Brand burst onto the nation's largely male stand-up comedy scene in the 1980s - dressed in baggy black outfits and Dr Martens boots, and calling herself the Sea Monster. In doing so, she revolutionised what women could be - and say - on stage. Jo went on to achieve national treasure status as a regular host on Have I Got News for You and Extra Slice.\n\nFrom her working-class roots in south London, through her teenage tearaway years in Hastings - when her parents became so frustrated with her behaviour that they threw her out, aged 16 - to the decade that she spent as a psychiatric nurse, Jo's journey into comedy has not been an easy one.\n\nimagine... goes behind the scenes with Jo as she presents HIGNFY and The News Quiz on Radio 4, and accompanies her on the book tour circuit as she promotes her latest book Born Lippy: How to Do Female, which takes on everything from surviving family life to issues surrounding the female body and how to deal with heckling.\n\nBrand has been a trailblazer for women on screen. Not only has she broken through into the tough world of stand-up comedy, changing it forever in the process, but she has demonstrated enormous diversity, including acting, writing and performing, factual, drama and comedy, shattering stereotypes of what women on television should look, be and sound like.\n\n\nContributors include Peter Capaldi, Alan Davies, Victoria Coren Mitchell, Mark Thomas, Mary Beard, Morwenna Banks and Ian Hislop.
Source: BBC 4
Most recent episodes of imagine...
Imagine...
2020: This House Is Full Of Music
In its first remote-access film, imagine... offers a unique and intimate portrait of an exceptionally gifted musical family in lockdown – the Kanneh-Masons. In 2016, celli ...
22-06-2025
BBC 4
Imagine...
David Bowie: Cracked Actor
To mark David Bowie's comeback album and a new exhibition at the V&A, Alan Yentob looks back at his legendary 1975 documentary, Cracked Actor. The film follows Bowie during the ...
08-06-2025
BBC 4
Imagine...
Winter 2017/18: 2. Mel Brooks: Unwrapped
At the age of 91, Mel Brooks is unstoppable, with his musical Young Frankenstein opening to great critical acclaim in London in late 2017. Alan Yentob visits Mel at home in Holl ...
08-06-2025
BBC 4
Imagine...
2021: Tom Stoppard: A Charmed Life
Tom Stoppard is perhaps the world’s leading, funniest and cleverest playwright. Ever since he hit the ground running in the 1960s with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dea ...
08-06-2025
BBC 4
Imagine...
2021: Bernardine Evaristo: Never Give Up
Alan Yentob explores the remarkable life and work of the trailblazing Anglo-Nigerian author Bernardine Evaristo, whose Booker Prize-winning novel Girl, Woman, Other has become a ...
03-06-2025
BBC 4
Imagine...
Summer 2003: 2. Barbara Hepworth: Shapes Out Of Feelings
A profile of Barbara Hepworth, the world's first internationally celebrated woman sculptor. Born in Yorkshire in 1903, she had to fight to establish herself in a world dominated ...
20-05-2025
BBC 4
Imagine...
Winter 2017/18: 6. Andrew Lloyd Webber: Memories
Andrew Lloyd Webber has reigned over musical theatre for nearly five decades and delighted millions worldwide with hit shows like Jesus Christ Superstar, Evita, Cats, The Phanto ...
18-05-2025
BBC 4
Imagine...
Summer 2009: 2. David Hockney - A Bigger Picture
Filmed over three years with unprecedented access, this documentary captures the return from California of England's favourite living artist.\n\nAs Hockney approaches the age of ...
06-05-2025
BBC 4
Most popular episodes of imagine...
Imagine...
2020: Kate Prince: Every Move She Makes
Kate Prince is a remarkable British dance pioneer whose renowned ZooNation dance company has transformed the profile of hip-hop and street dance. imagine… follows her as ...
04-06-2023
BBC 4
Imagine...
Summer 2013 - Rod Stewart: Can't Stop Me Now
Rod Stewart has had a remarkable musical journey. Alan Yentob visits Rod at his homes and examines an entertaining career across five decades.
08-08-2014
BBC 4
Imagine...
2021: We'll Be Back?
Alan Yentob explores the huge ongoing impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the UK's pioneering and world-renowned performing arts industry. \n\nDrawing on footage captured through ...
24-02-2021
BBC 4
Imagine...
Autumn 2008: Richard Serra: Man Of Steel
Sculptor and giant of modern art Richard Serra discusses his extraordinary life and work. \n\nA creator of enormous, immediately identifiable steel sculptures that both terrify ...
14-04-2024
BBC 4
Imagine...
Spring 2007: 1. Gilbert And George: No Surrender
Arts series presented by Alan Yentob. Over the last 40 years, British artists Gilbert and George have fascinated, outraged, delighted and confounded the art establishment. Since ...
10-06-2024
BBC 4
