Life Devoted to Art

Dr Janina Ramirez and Alastair Sooke take us on three entertaining and revealing cultural city breaks.

Andrew Graham-Dixon and Giorgio Locatelli take us on a delightful journey around their beloved Sicily. Sharing a passion for all things Sicilian they make the perfect travel partners. Exploring the island through each other's eyes and hearts, they reveal how the layers of history have created a unique belnd of art and architecture. As well as the pleasures of an intense and vibrant culture, they experience the sadness the island has come through and the strength of the Sicilian people as they rose up and challenged the Mafia. Together they document how the various conquering forces and the rich variety of different heritages have helped to shape both the food and the culture of this beautiful Mediterranean island.

This exclusive video collection is jam-packed with the gritty best from noted New York filmmaker Richard Kern. His sexually-charged work has been alternately dismissed as “violent” and “offensive” by the mainstream press, but embraced by the underground as the perverse standard. Says Kern, “I've tried it all: crime thrills, drug thrills, sex thrills. Nowadays, I get most of my thrills by offending people with my films. I don't even have to be there. I can sit far away and think, “Someone's watching my video right now and thinking, Yeeughh!”

In one form of the Japanese tea ceremony, the host serves traditional kaiseki cuisine, sake and finally tea to the guests. The ritual, established as an art form more than 4 centuries ago, is believed to be the foundation of Japan's omotenashi hospitality. One woman has decided to embark on a unique nationwide pilgrimage to immerse herself in the art. Tsuruko Hanzawa is a rare "catering chef" of tea ceremonies. At 70, she loaded her pots, pans and tools for making tea onto a van and set off in her kimono, serving food using local ingredients and tea to the people she met along the way. Exploring a life devoted to tea, this documentary follows Tsuruko for 2 years as she battles illness to continue her pilgrimage.

From foot soldiers to fighter pilots, step into the shoes of those who fought for one of the largest armies in history. This series highlights ordinary foot soldiers, intelligence officers, mine pickers, gunners, tank men, marines, alpine and airborne raiders and fighter and attack aviation pilots whose role in the Allied victory over the Nazis played a crucial part in the war effort. Using the latest computer graphics and technology, viewers witness the combat equipment design, tactics and strategy of conducting a battle. Rare newsreel shots and the reconstruction of the events allow viewers to feel they are being transported back to the battlegroud, allowing them to see war through a soldier's eyes.

A 3-DVD Collection of More Than 75 Early Films by Alice Guy • Louis Feuillade • Léonce Perret.
The invention of cinema – and its growth into a sophisticated art form – are vividly brought to life in this massive collection of films from the early years of the influential Gaumont Film Company. Each disc is devoted to one of Gaumont’s artistic directors, who oversaw all film production at the studio, and profoundly influenced not only the identity of the studio but also the evolution of the cinema itself.

What does it take to safeguard the world's most famous places? How do you maintain buildings that are thousands of years old? How do you secure a historical structure that contains millions of dollars worth of artefacts? In this new series, we take you on an exclusive, all-access tour behind the scenes of select UNESCO World Heritage sites to illuminate the work that goes into running and maintaining these treasured monuments, buildings, national parks and even entire cities, ensuring that they survive in the best possible conditions for future generations to enjoy.

Three-part series tracing the history of Italian opera presented by Antonio Pappano, world-renowned conductor and music director at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. The series features sumptuous music, stunning Italian locations and some of the biggest names in opera as contributors.

Traces the history of Italian opera presented by Antonio Pappano, conductor and music director at the Royal Opera House.