Catch up TV
2023: French & Saunders: Pointed, Bitchy, Bitter
imagine... profiles the UK’s most successful double act of the last 40 years, Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders, and explores their unique brand of comedy, based on satire, silliness and, above all, friendship.\n\nFrench and Saunders’s relationship started when they were college flatmates, entertaining each other by playing pranks and inventing characters. Behind the scenes at a recording of their successful podcast, Titting About, it’s clear that they’re still sparking off each other to create comedy.\n\nAlan Yentob charts their journey from the game-changing Comic Strip team, which helped launch the new Channel 4 in 1982, to their domination of BBC schedules over the decades and their recent ventures on the stage, the page and in film.\n\nDawn and Jennifer revisit the former site of the Comic Strip Club in Soho, where a group of young comedians revolutionised the comedy scene. Alongside interviews with Comic Strip comedians Alexei Sayle, Adrian Edmondson and Nigel Planer, Dawn and Jennifer tell the story of being the women in a team that would change the face of television. Just five years after Dawn and Jennifer met, they would be part of The Comic Strip Presents… Five Go Mad in Dorset, shown on the launch night of the new Channel 4.\n\nAt the start of French and Saunders’s career, comedy was still firmly a male domain. Interviews with later generations of female comics like Mel Giedroyc and Sue Perkins, who Dawn and Jennifer encouraged when they were a young double act, reveal how empowering their presence on TV was at the time.\n\nDawn and Jennifer are joined by a cast of collaborators, including Dame Joanna Lumley, Ruby Wax, Richard Curtis and Alexei Sayle. These interviewees help to reveal the caustic wit behind their cosy exterior and show the huge impact that French and Saunders had on the generations of comedians that followed.
Source: BBC 4
Most recent episodes of imagine...
Imagine...
2020: 1. Lenny Henry: Young, Gifted And Black
Alan Yentob follows one of our best loved performers as he releases his first autobiography charting his early years in show business. In this revealing and poignant film Sir Le ...
16-12-2025
BBC 4
Imagine...
Summer 2010 - Tom Jones - What Good Am I?
Alan Yentob examines the extraordinary story of one of Britain's most recognisable pop icons, Sir Tom Jones. In a frank and revealing interview, Sir Tom describes his rise to fame.
28-10-2025
BBC 4
Imagine...
Winter 2017/18: 4. Philip Pullman: Angels And Daemons
Romantic, fearless, fantastical; this edition delves into the thrilling world of Philip Pullman and explores the author's own dark materials. \n\nPullman has been named both one ...
21-10-2025
BBC 4
Imagine...
2020: Marina Abramovic: The Ugly Duckling
Marina Abramovic is the reigning queen of performance art. She invites Alan Yentob into her home, opens up her enormous personal archive and travels back to her birthplace, Belg ...
06-10-2025
BBC 4
Imagine...
2018: George Benjamin: What Do You Want To Do When You Grow Up?
He has been crowned with every laurel in contemporary classical music, composed operas which play on the world's most illustrious stages and been knighted for his services to mu ...
31-08-2025
BBC 4
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
Most popular episodes of imagine...
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...
2023/24: Pet Shop Boys: Then And Now
Pet Shop Boys, Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe, are the most successful duo in the history of British pop. They have sold more than 50 million records, produced over forty Top 40 si ...
19-04-2024
BBC 4
Imagine...
Vincent Van Gogh: Painted With Words
Drama-documentary presented by Alan Yentob, with Benedict Cumberbatch in the lead role as Van Gogh. \n\nEvery word spoken by the actors in this film is sourced from the letters ...
15-10-2024
BBC 4
Imagine...
2022: Sonia Boyce: Finding Her Voice
Alan Yentob follows acclaimed artist Sonia Boyce as she prepares to make history as the first black woman to represent Great Britain at the Venice Biennale. Why does that matter ...
18-10-2023
BBC 4
Imagine...
2023: 1. Stephen Frears: Director For Hire
imagine… profiles acclaimed British director Stephen Frears. Despite decades of success across both cinema and television, Frears likes to fly under the radar, subscribin ...
23-03-2023
BBC 4
Imagine...
2022: Miriam Margolyes: Up For Grabs
Miriam Margolyes is one of Britain’s best loved and most provocative actresses. Across her eclectic career, she has played scene-stealing turns in Blackadder, voiced some ...
25-04-2022
BBC 4