Winter 2006

01 Sweet Home New Orleans Episode 117th January 2006 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 there all their lives and are determined to return despite the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina. With contributions from Paul McCartney, Dr John, Jools Holland and Elvis Costello. 02 Warhol: Denied Episode 224th January 2006 The joy of some collectors at owning what they believed to be genuine Andy Warhol works has been ruined by the artist's authentication board's declaring them fake. They speak of their disillusionment here as Alan Yentob visits New York to investigate acquiring art by the “Pope of Pop”, while Warhol collaborators reveal his unusual working methods. 03 A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Studio Episode 331st January 2006 Critics say the British sitcom is dead by virtue of its middle-aged, middle-class “appeal”. Why then are our finest comic writers and performers making prize-winning shows? As he talks to Ricky Gervais, Stephen Merchant, Armando Iannucci, Graham Linehan and Chris Langham - and makes a surprise entrance on My Family - Alan Yentob finds the genre in rude health. 04 Sitting Comfortably Episode 47th February 2006 Self-confessed chair addict Alan Yentob encounters a vast range of his objects of desire in this whimsical journey through the changing styles of the modern chair - a furniture item intimately and inextricably intertwined with the physicality of our everyday lives, whose look has been transformed over the centuries by designers such as Le Corbusier and Terence Conran , from hand-crafted descendants of royal thrones to wipe-clean plastic garden chairs.