ZCZ Films / On Demand

In the first episode, Janina sets Shaun the challenge of making a jewelled eagle brooch of the kind worn by Visigoth chieftains in the Dark Ages. Inspired by a live eagle he befriends in an animal sanctuary in Lancashire, Shaun is confident he can do it. But sourcing the materials proves tricky, and making the brooch is more difficult than he expected. Can he finish in time?

In episode two of Handmade in Bolton, Dr Janina Ramirez sets ex-forger, Shaun Greenhalgh, the challenge of making an alabaster carving of the kind mass-produced in Catholic England in the centuries before the Reformation. But the mines in Nottingham that produced English alabaster were closed down long ago. And the destruction unleashed by Henry VIII has left behind precious few examples. So Shaun’s views about how the Nottingham alabasters would originally have looked, shock Janina.

In episode three of Handmade in Bolton, ex-forger, Shaun Greenhalgh, is set the task of making a Renaissance animal plate of the type invented by the great French potter, Bernard Palissy. Palissy’s plates are alive with writhing reptiles, but for Shaun, killing grass snakes in Lancashire is not an option. So how can he source some examples for his moulds? And will it mean journeying back to his dark past as a forger?

In episode four of Handmade in Bolton, Oxford historian, Dr Janina Ramirez sets ex-forger, Shaun Greenhalgh, his hardest task yet. Shaun has to carve an Islamic bottle out of rock crystal in the style of the 10th century Egyptian Fatimids. Rock crystal is notoriously fragile. Sourcing the right quantities of it is almost impossible. The real problems begin, however, when the carving is finished.

Painting at night is difficult and problematic. So why have so many great artists taken on the challenge? Waldemar Januszczak celebrates the nocturnal art of Rembrandt, Van Gogh, Velazquez, Hopper and Magritte as he explores art's edgy relationship with the night and tries to discover why the dark adds so much extra drama and mystery to art.

The film they tried to ban! Waldemar Januszczak’s controversial investigation of new art in China reveals a very different Beijing art world to the one that the Chinese authorities seek to present to the world. Shot secretly, with hidden cameras, in the build up to the Beijing Olympics, this remarkably frank account of new Chinese art reveals a fractured society obsessed with death and decay, and fighting fiercely for the right to public self-expression.
 
When Beijing Swings was aired on Channel 4, questions were asked about it in the House of Commons and the Chinese authorities banned its makers from re-entering China.

An enlightening eight-part series, in which art critic, Waldemar Januszczak, sets out to unlock the hidden meanings contained within some of the world’s most famous paintings. The answers will shock and surprise you.

1. The Tempest, by Giorgione
2. The Anatomy Lesson of Dr Tulp, by Rembrandt
3. Mr and Mrs Andrews, by Gainsborough
4. The Birth of Venus, by Botticelli
5. Boy Bitten by Lizard, by Caravaggio
6. Le Dejeuner Sur L’Herbe, by Manet
7. The Mona Lisa. by Da Vinci
8. The Arnolfini Marriage, by Van Eyck

As Henry VIII’s court painter, Hans Holbein witnessed and recorded the most notorious era in English history. He painted most of the major characters of the age, and created the famous image of the king himself that everyone today still recognises. But who really was Holbein? Where did he come from? And what were the dark and unsettling secrets hidden in his art? Waldemar Januszczak looks at the life and work of an artist who became famous for bringing the Tudor age to life, but who could have been so many other things.

An unusually intimate and thought provoking portrait of Tracey Emin, one of Britain’s most controversial artists.
 
Known for her shockingly honest autobiographical art, Emin has become the self-styled bad girl of contemporary British art. But does her outrageous behaviour and notorious honesty cover up as much as it reveals?  With vivid contributions from fellow British artists, family members, former teachers, leading critics and - most dramatically - from Tracey herself, the film tells the story of Emin’s remarkable rise from the hardships of her early life in Margate, to the huge international success she enjoys today. 
 
This is Tracey as you’ve never seen her before.

All saints in art are inventions, but no saint in art has been invented quite as furiously as Mary Magdalene. For a thousand years, artists have been throwing themselves at the task of describing her and telling her story, from Caravaggio to Cézanne, Rubens to Rembrandt, Titian to van Gogh.

Her identity has evolved from being the close follower of Jesus who was the first witness to his resurrection, to one of a prostitute and sinner who escaped from persecution in the Holy Land by fleeing across the Mediterranean to wind up living in a cave as a hermit in the South of France, enjoying ecstatic experiences with Christ.

It is this role as a repentant prostitute that has pressed the buzzer of art most violently. The loose woman, wild haired and sexy, draped in her iconic scarlet garb, who, as the archetypal penitent, set the moral benchmark for which women were to aspire.

Her identity has been re-imagined by bishops, artists, authors and musicians. Whilst possessing the relics of Mary Magdalene was big business for Medieval monks in France, she has also proved her worth in the West End and Hollywood, playing the role of the lover of Christ in ‘Jesus Christ Superstar’ and in Dan Brown’s ‘The Da Vinci Code’.

Delving into the great art of the last 1000 years, Waldemar will explore the evolution of the identity of this scarlet woman and reveal what this all really says about the artists whom she bewitched.

Waldemar Januszczak hates dogs. They poo outside his door, spread diseases, sniff embarrassingly around his crotch, and bring out the worst in all their owners. Who needs dogs?, asks Januszczak, as he sets off on a disastrous journey through canine history that takes him to Korea to eat dog, and to Derby where the world's largest dog tries to eat him.

These days, nobody takes Rubens seriously. His vast and grandiose canvases, stuffed with wobbly mounds of female flesh, have little appeal for the modern gym-subscriber. And it’s not just the bulging nudity we don’t like. The entire tone of Rubens’s art offends us. Everything in it is too big – the epic dramas full of tragedy, the fantastical celestial scenery, the immense canvases and murals adorning the walls and ceilings of Europe’s grandest Palaces. All of it seems too much for modern sensibilities.
 
But Waldemar Januszczak begs to differ. In Waldemar’s eyes, Rubens has been traduced by modern tastes, and a huge misunderstanding of him has taken place. By looking in detail at Rubens’s fascinating life, by understanding his art in more enlightened ways, Waldemar will set out to correct the extra-large misconceptions that have arisen about Rubens.

What is future of the modern city? In this pioneering piece of architectural investigation, award-winning architect, Will Alsop, examines the possibilities of the Supercity.

The Dark Ages have been misunderstood. History has identified the period following the fall of the Roman Empire with a descent into barbarism – a terrible time when civilisation stopped. Waldemar Januszczak disagrees. In this landmark 4-part series Waldemar argues that the Dark Ages were a time of great artistic achievement, with new ideas and religions provoking new artistic adventures. He embarks on a fascinating trip across Europe, Africa and Asia, visits the world’s most famous collections and discovers hidden artistic gems, all to prove that the Dark Ages were actually an ‘Age of Light'.

In the first episode the viewer will discover how Christianity emerged into the Roman Empire as an artistic force in the third and fourth centuries. But with no description of Jesus in the Bible, how were Christians to represent their God? Waldemar explores how Christian artists drew on images of ancient gods for inspiration, and developed new forms of architecture to contain their art.

The second episode is dedicated to the ‘Barbarians’. They are often blamed for the collapse of the Roman Empire, but in reality they were fascinating civilizations that produced magnificent art. Focusing on the Huns, Vandals and Goths, Waldemar follows each tribe's journey across Europe, and discovers the incredible art they produced along the way.

Along with Christianity the Dark Ages saw the emergence of another vital religion: Islam. This is the focus of Episode Three. After emerging in the near East the religion spread across North Africa and into Europe, and brought its unique artistic style with it. Waldemar examines the early artistic explorations of the first Muslims, the development of the mosque, and their scientific achievements.

In the final episode Waldemar looks towards the North of Europe. The Carolingians saw themselves as successors to Rome, reflected in their art. Elsewhere, the Vikings were constructing long ships with intricate decoration, and marking their territory with powerful rune stones. And on the British Isles, the Irish and Anglo-Saxons were creating unique works of manuscript illumination and remarkable jewellery.

In this landmark four part series the art critic Waldemar Januszczak explores the revolutionary achievements of the Impressionists, through the stories of some of Art’s most famous painters: Monet, Degas and Van Gogh, as well as less-known Impressionists such as Caillebotte, Cassatt and Braquemond.
Although today Impressionism is considered appropriate for chocolate boxes, Januszczak argues that it was actually a remarkably exciting and radical movement in Art.
Travelling from the shores of the West Indies, to the city of Paris and the suburbs of London, Januszczak explores the key locations that inspired the Impressionists, and discovers the ground-breaking scientific advancements that allowed the movement to flourish.

4 x 1 hour

This rare film tells the strange, disquieting and protracted story of the restoration of Leonardo da Vinci’s famous masterpiece, The Last Supper.  Some say the results of the restoration are glorious. Others have called them tragic.

Da Vinci’s famously fragile fresco was always going to be a challenge for its secretive Italian restorers. No one, however, could have foreseen how problematic and strange their task would become. Marked by a series of extraordinary mishaps, mistakes, and miscalculations, the incredible restoration is hilarious to watch but may have resulted in the loss of a masterpiece.

The series will celebrate material that is new to television. Waldemar will include art that is not usually thought of as 'Renaissance art'. This will involve 're-classifying' what is sometimes called Late Gothic, and showing it off as a marvelous and native artistic tradition, particularly in the remarkable field of polychrome sculpture. On top of all the new art to be introduced, Waldemar will also look from fresh and intriguing angles at many of the established Renaissance giants, including Michelangelo in the Vatican, Leonardo in the Louvre, Botticelli in the Uffizi, Van Eyck in Ghent.

This momentous three part series looks back at 30,000 years of human creativity - from the earliest cave paintings to the present day – and asks why certain subjects have exercised such a powerful hold on the human imagination.
 
Programme 1 - ANIMALS
Explores how animals have played a vital role in defining man’s relationship to the natural world and facing fears about our own mortality
 
Programme 2 - GODS
Reveals how religion has inspired some of the world’s greatest art as various artists at various times have tried  to put a face to God.
 
Programme 3 - LOVERS
Traces the development of the nude in art from The Willendorf Venus, past the Renaissance , to the twentieth century.

Waldemar Januszczak visits Japan and investigates the Japanese attitude to technology. With robot monks, talking toilets, and Super Mario.

The definitive three-part life of Van Gogh.
Most people know three things about Vincent Van Gogh: that he painted sunflowers, that he cut off his ear, and that he killed himself. But what was Vincent really like?
Following closely in Van Gogh’s footsteps, from his grim early life in Holland to his tumultuous suicide in Auvers, Waldemar Januszczak draws on the latest research from the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam to provide a fresh, unsentimental portrait of the artist we think we know. The film reveals new depths to Van Gogh’s character and personality, and throws new light on the most infamous events in his life from the disastrous two years he spent in England, to the traumatic ear-cutting in Arles.

If you think you know Vincent well – think again.

“Magnificent” – The Independent
“Fascinating viewing… the reciprocal influence of artist upon place is visible and infectious” – The Observer