
Turkey's best-known writer, the Nobel Prize-winning Orhan Pamuk, glories in his city of Istanbul, which in his lifetime has grown from two to fifteen million people. Despite political controversy which nearly forced him into exile, he continues to live in the city which feeds his novels. They evoke the lost world of his own eccentric family, explore Turkey's rich Ottoman past and engage with its teeming troubled present.\n\nPoised between east and west, it is at once modern and traditional, secular and religious. An obsessive, outspoken and engaging man, Pamuk paces through the backstreets of Istanbul, showing Alan Yentob the places which have inspired his work - the Ottoman palace recreated in his best-selling murder mystery My Name Is Red, the burgeoning building sites and high rises which are the surprising setting for his recent books, and his extraordinary Museum of Innocence - a novel and a real museum in one.
Source: BBC 4
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 ...
12-06-2026
BBC 4
Summer 2018: 1. Rose Wylie: This Rose Is Blooming
Very few people would have recognised the name Rose Wylie until this remarkable artist was in her mid 70s. Youthful, playful and unpredictable at the age of 83, this is an artis ...
28-03-2026
BBC 4
2018: Tracey Emin: Where Do You Draw The Line?
2018 has been an extraordinary year for British artist Tracey Emin. With large-scale commissions catapulting her from London's St Pancras station to the streets of downtown Sydn ...
17-03-2026
BBC 4
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 ...
29-12-2025
BBC 4
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
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
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
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 ...
12-06-2026
BBC 4
Summer 2014 - Philip Roth Unleashed Part 2
Alan Yentob talks to author Philip Roth about his exploration of some of the great themes of the American century, including civil rights, McCarthyism and the Vietnam war.
24-05-2018
BBC 4
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
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
Winter 2005: 6. Sweet Home New Orleans
Could New Orleans's days as a great musical powerhouse be coming to an end? As Alan Yentob traces the city's vast musical heritage, he meets musicians who have lived and worked ...
15-11-2020
BBC 4
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