New Channel 4 art programmes this autumn

Further to New BBC Art Programmes this autumn here's a list of what we can expect from Channel 4.  My jaw is beginning to drop as the television companies get better and better at realising they do need to fulfil their missions to educate and inform - and programmes about art are a jolly good way of doing that.

Maybe they also noticed how many people visit art museums in the UK - from home and abroad?

The Genius of British Art

Instead of a single presenter across all six episodes, we would go for six presenters, each presenting their own individually authored film. This decision was fundamental in terms of setting the content and style of the series. Instead of aspiring to make a comprehensive history of British art, we would set out to present the viewer with six

Who would we invite to present these films? We decided to avoid the usual suspects: professional art critics. Instead we went for people who we thought had a strong personal stake in the type of art they would explore for us; people who had a passion for art.

From the 1st October to the 5th November, The National Gallery will be hosting 6 live events to promote Channel 4's 'Genius of British Art' Series.  Each of the presenters will be delivering a talk on their topic (The Genius of British Art - Channel 4 lectures bookable via the National Gallery)

The programmes are broadcasting on Sunday night at 7pm and the lectures are on the previous Friday at the National Gallery at 6.30pm.  It looks like they'll also be available on 4OD.
 
There are six programmes:

• Power and Personality  (Broadcast: Sunday 3rd October 7pm. Lecture: Friday 1st October, 6.30pm) Historian Dr David Starkey examines how royal portraiture from Henry VIII to Princess Diana has had an enduring influence on the iconic power of personality. 
• Art for the People  (Broadcast: Sunday 10th October 7pm. Lecture: Friday 8th October, 6.30pm) Cultural commentator Dr Gus Casely-Hayford, whose ancestor arrived as a newly freed slave in 18th-century London, explores William Hogarth’s revolutionary pioneering of art for the people.     
• Flesh (Broadcast: Sunday 17th October 7pm. Lecture: Friday 15th October, 6.30pm) Novelist Howard Jacobson breaks through the frost of Victorian prudery in search of an eroticism all the more potent for its moral ambiguity. 

• Visions of England (Broadcast: Sunday 24th October 7pm. Lecture: Friday 22nd October, 6.30pm) Sir Roy Strong shows how the English invented a landscape art which reveals a sometimes shocking and subversive insight into our deepest fears. From Constable and Turner up to David Hockney and Mark Wahlberg in our own time, landscape artists have reflected visions of England on the cusp of great change.  
• Modern Times  (Broadcast: Sunday 31st October 7pm. Lecture: Friday 29th October, 6.30pm) Janet Street-Porter revisits her own youth to show how from the 1950s onwards, modern art – from the likes of Patrick Heron and Francis Bacon to Tracey Emin, Damien Hirst and Gilbert and George – has been at the forefront of social and cultural changes which define our world today. 

There's also an article by the maker/Executive Producer of the programmes - about making the programmes

I had a good look through the documentaries and this is what crops up Art, Design and Literature (54 programmes)

This indicates that there's an educational series of 28 episodes about Tate Modern and National Gallery for 14-19 year olds "coming soon to 4OD" whic......

takes an informed view of some the most stunning, vital and celebrated pieces of art to have been created throughout the ages. 

Tate Modern focuses its gaze on the work of the twentieth century artists whose work still resonates to this very day while the National Gallery puts the work of the masters and pioneers under the microscope in a style that's designed to entertain as much as it educates and informs.

Plus you can also still watch - on 4OD - Life Class - Today's Nude from last year (which as I recall was responsible for a phenomenal jump in my traffic!)