Arts

Lockdown left its mark on TV coverage of the arts: Sky Arts went free-to-air, while Channel 4 scored a zeitgeist hit with Grayson’s Art Club and the BBC gave us its Culture in Quarantine initiative.

Highlights include Mark Gatiss’ quest to uncover the overlooked talent of artist John Minton, a behind-the-scenes look at this year's Grayson Perry co-ordinated RA summer exhibition and a new documentary about the tragic life of Sylvia Plath featuring exclusive testimony from her daughter, Frieda.

The summer line-up includes:

The RIFA awards recognise the best short films, of up to 30 minutes in length, which will be judged by a panel of experts from academia and the film industry. The the winners will receive a trophy and £2,000 in prize money for future filmmaking projects.  

This year's panel includes Richard Davidson-Houston, Head of All 4, Channel 4 Television and Matthew Reisz from Times Higher Education.

Auction

Monday: Sky Arts, 7pm

Take a peek inside some of the great art sale houses in the world in this new documentary series. From masterpieces of art to personal letters and artefacts, there’s sure to be a lot of money changing hands and this is a first class view of a world most mere mortals can only dream of. This season sees a rare Picasso go under the hammer.

The film follows Oscar-winning director Danny Boyle (Slumdog Millionaire) as he travels to Bethlehem for an unconventional nativity performance, in a place which Banksy deems "the least Christmassy place on earth".

The "Alternativity" takes place in a carpark near Manger Square, Bethlehem, which is widely believed to be the birthplace of Jesus Christ. 

Having never travelled to the Middle East before, and with extreme instructions from the mysterious artist whom he has never met, Boyle travels to Bethlehem to put on a festive show from scratch.

BBC Two's Channel Editor Patrick Holland expressed his vision for BBC Two, which will focus on themes of reasserting the role of authorship, engaging with and becoming more relevant to the audience, and embracing all the specialisms on the channel from science, history and arts to current affairs, history, documentaries.

The new titles include a series of new documentary titles including an exploration of families living on the poverty line, a behind the headlines look at the sequence of events that caused Brexit, and the story of the horrific murder of Jo Cox MP.

Culture UK aims to inspire new audiences and enhance the UK’s position as a global creative force.

The BBC has partnered with Arts Council England, the Arts Council of Northern Ireland, the Arts Council of Wales and Creative Scotland to launch the scheme which aims to develop UK-wide cultural festivals, increase the platforms for emerging talent and develop content that can be shown on the BBC.