Chris Beardsley

Mark Gatiss explores the life and career of Aubrey Beardsley, an artist who wielded outrage as adroitly as his pen. A lifelong fan, Mark shows how Beardsley was more than just a genius of self-promotion who scandalised the art world of the 1890s. He was also a technological innovator, whose uncompromising attitude still feels remarkably modern. The programme follows Beardsley's fevered footsteps from his childhood in Brighton, via notoriety among the decadents of London's fin de siècle, to his early death in France in 1898 at the age of just 25. Mark argues that the key to understanding this elusive artist is his childhood diagnosis of tuberculosis.

The Geordie Approach is an experimental collaboration between Norwegian alto sax/electronics player Petter Frost Fadnes, drummer Ståle Birkeland with Geordie-born Englishman guitarist/ electronics player Chris Sharkey, all proud members of the Leeds Improvised Music Association. All have collaborated with some of the most prominent figures of the fertile music scene in Leeds, UK, including pianist/composer Matthew Bourne and percussionist Paul Hession.