Bragg Revisits The South Bank

Written by Mike Watkins

Thursday, 11 February 2010 11:43

Melvyn Bragg is to revisit past participants of long running arts and culture series, The South Bank Show with ten new editions retitled The Sound Bank Show Revisited.

ITV say the new show will be a collection of “New interviews with an outstanding array of subjects from past South Bank Shows.”

The new shows will also include clips from previous shows in which the interviewees participated. Bragg, who has hosted every edition of the show since its launch in 1978, will interview Andrew Lloyd Webber, Ian McKellen, Ian McEwan, Stephen Sondheim, Billy Connolly and Judi Dench amongst others for the new series.

Ian McEwan has been profiled several times on The South Bank Show in 1978, 1981, 1984, 2005; his Revisited interview will encompass his latest novel Solar.

Stephen Sondheim will be interviewed in New York for The South Bank Show Revisited, having been the subject of the series in 1980, when working on his musical adaptation of Sweeney Todd and in 1984 when The South Bank Show filmed his master class with students of the Guildhall School Of Performing Arts.

Billy Connolly was first interviewed by Melvyn Bragg in 1979, when he was starting to take his stand-up comedy to the masses and again in 1992, the day after his 25th anniversary stand-up gig back in his hometown of Glasgow. This time, Melvyn Bragg meets him in New York, whilst Billy tours with his show.

Melvyn Bragg‘s first interview with Judi Dench was in 1995; he now speaks to her about her work in film, television and theatre, including once again playing Titania for Sir Peter Hall in A Midsummer Night’s Dream at The Rose, Kingston - a role she first played for him in 1962.

The South Bank Show was launched by London Weekend Television as part of its mission to not only entertain but prove that ITV could also inform and educate. The series was axed last year as ITV re-focused its output.