imagine...
imagine... is a TV show on BBC1. Alan Yentob's acclaimed series delving into the heart of the cultural world - featuring candid conversations with the biggest names from art, film, music, literature and dance. The program has been available since 2024. A total of 19 episodes have been broadcast, most recently in August 2025.
Last episode
imagine...
The programme tracks the creation of celebrated composer Sir George Benjamin's opera Lessons in Love and Violence, which premiered at the Royal Opera House in 2018.
Catching up on imagine...?
Don't want to miss an episode anymore? Set up a free alarm and receive an email when new episodes are available. Handy!
Alan Yentob joins Anselm Kiefer at his studios in France and Germany as he prepares for a retrospective at the Royal Academy.
July 2025
2014 Man Booker Prize-winner Richard Flanagan journeys with Alan Yentob through his native Tasmania, visiting the places that have inspired his novels.
June 2025
Remote cameras capture a lockdown concert performed by the Kanneh-Mason family from their home in Nottingham, with interviews with the seven musically gifted siblings.
Playwright Tom Stoppard tells Alan Yentob the extraordinary story of his life and his latest play, Leopoldstadt, in which he faces up to the pain and loss in his past.
Alan Yentob meets Diana Athill, who became a celebrity in her 90s thanks to her frank and entertaining memoirs which chart a life less ordinary.
To mark David Bowie's comeback album and a new exhibition, Alan Yentob looks back at his 1975 documentary, Cracked Actor. The film follows Bowie during the 1974 Diamond Dogs tour.
With the aid of the BBC archive, Alan Yentob and Mel Brooks embark on an unpredictable journey through the city of stars, meeting the legendary Carl Reiner along the way.
Alan Yentob explores the remarkable life and work of the trailblazing Anglo-Nigerian writer Bernardine Evaristo, author of the Booker Prize-winning novel Girl, Woman, Other.
May 2025
A profile of Barbara Hepworth, the world's first internationally celebrated woman sculptor.
Alan Yentob talks to Andrew Lloyd Webber about his autobiography, bohemian childhood and the memories he has chosen to reveal.
Alan Yentob talks to acclaimed and curiously divided Irish writer Colm Toibin. Loud and affable in person, Toibin writes sombre stories of grief and quiet heartbreak.
Documentary capturing the return from California of England's favourite living artist. As Hockney approaches the age of 70, he re-invents his painting from scratch.
April 2025
An emotive and vivid portrayal of a man and actor who was by turns tremendously talented, tenacious and tormented. Featuring Marlon Brando's own audio tapes and home movie footage.
Alan Yentob gains an insight into the creative world of Dame Shirley Bassey, and takes a look back over her life and career, complete with archive of her greatest performances.
March 2025
imagine... profiles one of the great satirists of our age, Armando Iannucci, delving into classics such as The Day Today and The Thick of It and his new stage adaptation of Dr Strangelove.
A revealing profile of the Nobel Prize-winning novelist Kazuo Ishiguro, author of The Remains of the Day and Never Let Me Go, as he publishes his much-anticipated new book, Klara and the Sun.
January 2025
Sir Rod Stewart has had a remarkable musical journey. Alan Yentob visits Rod at his homes and examines an entertaining career across five decades.
October 2024
Award-winning drama-documentary, presented by Alan Yentob, with Benedict Cumberbatch in the lead role as Van Gogh, using dialogue sourced from the artist's letters to his brother.