Channel 4

Presented by a friend of Picasso in his later years, John Richardson, Picasso: The Full Story is an accessible and comprehensive look at the life of the most important artist of the 20th Century, examining the influences and the secrets behind many of the masterpieces he created. Televised previously on Channel 4 as Picasso: Magic, Sex and Death, the programme is divided into three parts.

Part 3: Death
Death (50 mins) charts the final stage in Picasso’s life from the war years in Paris through to his time in Antibes, his later involvement with the Communist Party, the Peace Movement and the years leading up to his death in 1973 at the age of 91. This is the period the presenter Richardson is most familiar with as it was the time he came to know Picasso, but there is surprisingly little personal reminiscence. The episode nevertheless covers well Picasso’s work and his relationship with the women in his life. These later years are marked with a struggle to remain vigorous and active against the encroaching spectre of death by keeping plenty of younger women around. Francoise Gilot, his lover and 40 years his junior at the time, contributes to this section with comments on the work he created in his later years, on the paintings that show the joy of life and the ceramics in which she is immortalised. His final works, revisiting and reworking the old masters, is also examined, along with his final years with Jacqueline Roque.

Following Louis Bird's journey to piece together the life of his father, Peter Bird, after he disappeared on a voyage at sea in 1996. In 1983, Peter Bird was the first person to row the Pacific Ocean single-handed. Crossing 8,000 treacherous miles in a row-boat, turned Peter into an international legend. On a 1996 voyage, he disappeared, and his empty boat was recovered with a film camera still attached, but he was never found. This programme follows Louis on a personal journey to understand his father, as he and his mother come to terms with feelings of loss and abandonment.

Follows officers as they assume new identities online and are given the task of engaging with people who have demonstrated a sexual interest in children.

Cameras follow Thames Valley Police's investigation into the murder of 64-year-old Hang Yin Leung, who died after being violently assaulted during a burglary at her Milton Keynes home in January 2017. Filmed over 12 months, the programme interweaves the police's enquiries with an intimate portrait of a British-Chinese family coming to terms with the impact of murder, with the story of migrants from Hong Kong who came to the UK in search of a better life for their son unfolding alongside the hunt for the killers.

As Grayson and Philippa Perry prepare to throw open the doors to their studio for a new series of Grayson's Art Club, they share advice and tips about the art for the public to send in for the new run. The couple explain the themes that will be explored in the second series. And they look back on the extraordinary year we've all been through.

The discovery of China's Terracotta Army in 1974 captured the imagination of the world. But that first dig only revealed a fraction of this enormous and extraordinary treasure. Since then, scientists have resumed work on the site, and their research has turned up a series of new discoveries about the warriors and the people who made them over two millennia ago. With exclusive access to pioneering research conducted by UCL and the Terracotta Army Museum, this documentary reveals those new secrets.

Kate Quilton examines how ocean travel was transformed from a simple journey to a luxurious holiday in itself. Once the preserve of the wealthy, in the 1980s and 1990s the cruise industry became one of the most extraordinary boom stories, making luxury affordable to the masses. Then Covid shut the industry down. Joined by experts, Kate explores the boom years, the challenges and disasters that rocked the industry, and also considers the post-pandemic future.

It's February 1953, the first anniversary of Queen Elizabeth's reign. Little does the Queen know she is about to be deployed in a US plot to topple Iran's democratic leader in favour of an all-powerful shah. Planned by MI6 and executed by the CIA, the coup destroyed Iran's democracy and had an impact on relations between Iran and the West. Using declassified secret documents, this documentary reveals the truth of what happened in 1953.

The Cuban Missile Crisis may well have been the single most dangerous moment in the history of mankind. In this documentary the story is told in the words of eyewitnesses from the US, the former USSR and Cuba: the men and women who saw Kennedy, Khrushchev and Castro up close as they gambled with the future of the planet. As one of them says, 'The world almost came to an end in October 1962.'