Episodes

Alan Yentob meets the 88-year-old winner of the 2007 Nobel Prize for Literature, with whom he explores the influence of her African upbringing, her extraordinarily varied life, and her lifelong struggle with her mother, with whom she seeks to come to terms in her latest book.

Alan Yentob meets some of the people with strange musical disorders and powers who feature in Dr Oliver Sack 's book Musicophilia, which explores the extraordinary relationship between music and the brain. Among them are Tony Circoria , who developed an instant passion for playing the piano after he was struck by lightning, and Matt Giordano , who alleviates his Tourette syndrome by drumming.

Alan Yentob explores the rapid rise of one of modern music's most mercurial talents, Rufus Wainwright. Wainwright talks candidly about his background, his family of musical luminaries - father Loudon Wainwright III, mother Kate McGarrigle and sister Martha Wainwright - his troubled personal history with drugs and the tensions that have informed his music. The film also follows his journey into the classical world as he creates his very first opera, Prima Donna.

This compelling record of the Berlin Philharmonic during a concert tour of Asia proves as much an inner journey as an outer one, as musicans and their conductor Simon Rattle reflect on subjects such as the orchestra's organisation and traditions; its distinctive sound; life on the road; the demands of performance; and the effects of age on technique. As eloquent as these musings are the performances of Richard Strauss 's Ein Heldenleben and Thomas Ades 's Asyla to rapt audiences in Beijing, Seoul, Tokyo and beyond.

Alan Yentob takes a jazz-fuelled tour of Japan to discover more about the often surreal work of reclusive bestselling novelist Haruki Murakami. En route, he meets some of the writer's fans and critics, and even a talking cat.

Alan Yentob interviews German film director Werner Herzog, the uncompromising, often visionary director of more than 40 documentary and feature films including Rescue Dawn, Grizzly Man, Fitzcarraldo and Aguirre, Wrath of God. Herzog's back catalogue is littered with tales of casts, crews and studios tested to the extremes by his determination to capture the “real truth” on film.

Alan Yentob looks at the work of Anthony Minghella, the celebrated Oscar-winning director of The English Patient and The Talented Mr Ripley, who died suddenly in March. Minghella was a much-loved figure whose talents also embraced the worlds of opera, theatre and television. Those who worked with him and knew him best join the show to pay tribute. They include Jude Law, Nicole Kidman, Alan Rickman and Ralph Fiennes.

As part of an evening of programmes celebrating the life and work of the playwright and diarist, Simon Gray, who died in 2008. This updated Imagine is a rare insight into one of Britain's foremost playwrights, author of many West End hits, but best known for his work with Harold Pinter, and as the writer of the notorious Cell Mates. This intimate film gives a darkly entertaining account of his childhood experiences and very personal views on addictions to smoking, alcohol and the traumas of modern day life for a writer.